A hybrid approach for building models and simulations for smart cities: Expert knowledge and low dimensionality

In face of high urbanization and increasing mobility, models and simulations are used to find answers for urban planning problems. However, simulations face criticism for over-simplifying complex reality, having models disconnected from the context of their use or excluding policy-makers from the building of models. Smart city approaches did not overcome that reality even if they relied more and more on microscopic models, together with data available through technology. This article describes a hybrid approach combining the expert knowledge on the city and its limits in terms of data, with models having the right dimensionality to provide policy-makers and urban managers with the necessary information for understanding and managing the city. This approach has been applied in Venice, but it describes in more general terms a way of bridging the world of theoretically sound models with their potential use.