Many definitions of urban informatics have been published and can be found online. The descriptions provided by Townsend in his foreword and by Foth in his preface to the Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics emphasize two key aspects: (1) the new possibilities (including real-time data) for both citizens and city administrations afforded by ubiquitous computing, and (2) the convergence of physical and digital aspects of the city.
In this definition, urban informatics is a trans-disciplinary field of research and practice that draws on three broad domains: people, place and technology.
Although closely related, Foth differentiates urban informatics from the field of urban computing by suggesting that the former focusses more on the social and human implications of technology in cities (similar to the community and social emphases of how community informatics and social informatics are defined), and the latter focusses more on technology and computing. Urban informatics emphasises the relationship between urbanity, as expressed through the many dimensions of urban life, and technology.
Later, with the increasing popularity of commercial opportunities under the label of smart city and big data, subsequent definitions became narrow and limited in defining urban informatics mainly as big data analytics for efficiency and productivity gains in city contexts – unless the arts and social sciences are added to the interdisciplinary mix. This specialisation within urban informatics is sometimes referred to as 'data-driven, networked urbanism' or urban science.
One of the first occurrences of the term can be found in Mark E. Hepworth's 1987 article "The Information City", which mentions the term "urban informatics" on page 261. However, Hepworth's overall discussion is more concerned with the broader notion of "informatics planning". Considering the article pre-dates the advent of ubiquitous computing and urban computing, it does contain some visionary thoughts about major changes on the horizon brought about by information and communications technology and the impact on cities.
One of the first texts that systematically examined the impact of information technologies on the spatial and social evolution of cities is Telecommunications and the City: Electronic Spaces, Urban Places, by Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin. The relationship between cities and the internet was further expanded upon in a volume edited by Stephen Graham entitled Cybercities Reader and by various authors in the 2006 book Networked Neighbourhoods: The Connected Community in Context edited by Patrick Purcell. Additionally, contributions from architecture, design and planning scholars are contained in the 2007 journal special issue on "Space, Sociality, and Pervasive Computing" published in the journal Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 34(3), guest edited by the late Bharat Dave, as well as in the 2008 book Augmented Urban Spaces: Articulating the Physical and Electronic City, edited by Alessandro Aurigi and Fiorella De Cindio, based on contributions to the Digital Cities 4 workshop held in conjunction with the Communities and Technologies (C&T) conference 2005 in Milan, Italy.
The Digital Cities Workshop Series started in 1999 and is the longest running academic workshop series that has focused on, and profoundly influenced, the field of urban informatics. The first two workshops in 1999 and 2001 were both held in Kyoto, Japan, with subsequent workshops since 2003 held in conjunction with the biennial International Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T).
Each Digital Cities workshop proceedings have become the basis for key anthologies listed below, which in turn have also been formative to a diverse set of emerging fields, including urban informatics, urban computing, smart cities, pervasive computing, internet of things, media architecture, urban interaction design, and urban science.
The diverse range of people, groups and organisations involved in urban informatics is reflective of the diversity of methods being used in its pursuit and practice. As a result, urban informatics borrows from a wide range of methodologies across the social sciences, humanities, arts, design, architecture, planning (including geographic information systems), and technology (in particular computer science, pervasive computing, and ubiquitous computing), and applies those to the urban domain. Examples include:
Foth, Marcus; Choi, Jaz Hee-jeong; Satchell, Christine (2011). Urban Informatics. Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Hangzhou, China. pp. 1–8. doi:10.1145/1958824.1958826. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Shi, Wenzhong; Goodchild, Michael; Batty, Michael; Kwan, Mei-Po; Zhang, Anshu (2021). Urban Informatics. Singapore: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-15-8983-6. ISBN 978-981-15-8982-9. 978-981-15-8982-9
Foth, Marcus; Choi, Jaz Hee-jeong; Satchell, Christine (2011). Urban Informatics. Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Hangzhou, China. pp. 1–8. doi:10.1145/1958824.1958826. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Shi, Wenzhong; Goodchild, Michael; Batty, Michael; Kwan, Mei-Po; Zhang, Anshu (2021). Urban Informatics. Singapore: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-15-8983-6. ISBN 978-981-15-8982-9. 978-981-15-8982-9
Foth, Marcus (2009). Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics: The Practice and Promise of the Real-Time City. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. ISBN 978-1-60566-152-0. 978-1-60566-152-0
Foth, Marcus; Choi, Jaz Hee-jeong; Satchell, Christine (2011). Urban Informatics. Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Hangzhou, China. pp. 1–8. doi:10.1145/1958824.1958826. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Kitchin, Rob; Dodge, Martin (2011). Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262042482. 9780262042482
Robinson, Ricky; Rittenbruch, Markus; Foth, Marcus; Filonik, Daniel; Viller, Stephen (April 2012). "Street Computing: Towards an Integrated Open Data Application Programming Interface (API) for Cities" (PDF). Journal of Urban Technology. 19 (2): 1–23. doi:10.1080/10630732.2012.698064. S2CID 61012545. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/64902/1/Street_computing_editorial_v8mf.pdf
Foth, Marcus (2009). Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics: The Practice and Promise of the Real-Time City. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. ISBN 978-1-60566-152-0. 978-1-60566-152-0
Thrift, Nigel (2014). "The Promise of Urban Informatics: Some Speculations". Environment and Planning A. 46 (6): 1263–1266. Bibcode:2014EnPlA..46.1263T. doi:10.1068/a472c. https://doi.org/10.1068%2Fa472c
Kitchin, Rob (2015). "Data-Driven, Networked Urbanism". doi:10.2139/ssrn.2641802. S2CID 106611415. SSRN 2641802. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Batty, Michael (2013). The New Science of Cities. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262019521. 9780262019521
Shi, Wenzhong; Goodchild, Michael; Batty, Michael; Kwan, Mei-Po; Zhang, Anshu (2021). Urban Informatics. Singapore: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-15-8983-6. ISBN 978-981-15-8982-9. 978-981-15-8982-9
Shi, Wenzhong; Goodchild, Michael; Batty, Michael; Kwan, Mei-Po; Zhang, Anshu (2021). Urban Informatics. Singapore: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-15-8983-6. ISBN 978-981-15-8982-9. 978-981-15-8982-9
Hepworth, Mark E. (August 1987). "The Information City". Cities. 4 (3): 253–262. doi:10.1016/0264-2751(87)90033-3. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Foth, Marcus; Choi, Jaz Hee-jeong; Satchell, Christine (2011). Urban Informatics. Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Hangzhou, China. pp. 1–8. doi:10.1145/1958824.1958826. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Mitchell, William J. (1995). City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-13309-8. 978-0-262-13309-8
Cairncross, Frances (1997). The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution will Change our Lives. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 978-0-87584-806-8. 978-0-87584-806-8
Gurstein, Michael (2000). Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing. ISBN 978-1-878289-69-8. 978-1-878289-69-8
Schuler, Douglas (1996). Community Networks: New Community Networks: Wired for Change. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-59553-6. 978-0-201-59553-6
Graham, Stephen; Marvin, Simon (1995). Telecommunications and the City: Electronic Spaces, Urban Places. London: Routledge.
Graham, Stephen (2004). The Cybercities Reader. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-27956-7. 978-0-415-27956-7
Purcell, Patrick (2006). Networked Neighbourhoods: The Connected Community in Context. London: Springer. ISBN 978-1-84628-267-6. 978-1-84628-267-6
Dave, Bharat (2007). "Space, Sociality, and Pervasive Computing". Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design. 34 (3): 381–382. Bibcode:2007EnPlB..34..381D. doi:10.1068/b3403ed. https://doi.org/10.1068%2Fb3403ed
Aurigi, Alessandro; De Cindio, Fiorella (2008). Augmented Urban Spaces: Articulating the Physical and Electronic City. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-7149-7. 978-0-7546-7149-7
Ellison, Nick; Burrows, Roger; Parker, Simon (December 2007). "Urban Informatics: Software, Cities and the New Cartographies of Knowing Capitalism". Information, Communication & Society. 10 (6): 785–788. doi:10.1080/13691180701750975. S2CID 214651892. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Burrows, Roger; Beer, David (2013). "Rethinking Space: Urban Informatics and the Sociological Imagination". In Orton-Johnson, Kate; Prior, Nick (eds.). Digital Sociology: Critical Perspectives. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 61–78. doi:10.1057/9781137297792_5. ISBN 978-0-230-22283-0. 978-0-230-22283-0
Greenfield, Adam (2006). Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. San Francisco, US: New Riders. ISBN 978-0321384010. 978-0321384010
Shklovski, Irina; Chang, M. F. (September 2006). "Urban Computing: Navigating Space and Context". Computer. 39 (9): 36–37. doi:10.1109/MC.2006.308. S2CID 38345112. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Kindberg, Tim; Chalmers, Matthew; Paulos, Eric (July 2007). "Urban Computing". IEEE Pervasive Computing. 6 (3): 18–20. doi:10.1109/MPRV.2007.57. S2CID 10161542. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Ishida, Toru; Isbister, Katherine (2000). Digital Cities Technologies, Experiences, and Future Perspectives. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 1765. Berlin: Springer. doi:10.1007/3-540-46422-0. ISBN 978-3-540-67265-4. S2CID 28232736. 978-3-540-67265-4
Foth, Marcus; Brynskov, Martin; Ojala, Timo (2015). Citizen's Right to the Digital City: Urban Interfaces, Activism, and Placemaking. Singapore: Springer. ISBN 9789812879172. 9789812879172
Ishida, Toru; Isbister, Katherine (2000). Digital Cities Technologies, Experiences, and Future Perspectives. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 1765. Berlin: Springer. doi:10.1007/3-540-46422-0. ISBN 978-3-540-67265-4. S2CID 28232736. 978-3-540-67265-4
Tanabe, Makoto; van den Besselaar, Peter; Ishida, Toru (2002). Digital Cities II: Computational and Sociological Approaches Second Kyoto Workshop on Digital Cities Kyoto, Japan, October 18–20, 2001 Revised Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 2362. New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/3-540-45636-8. ISBN 978-3-540-43963-9. S2CID 40777874. 978-3-540-43963-9
van den Besselaar, Peter; Koizumi, Satoshi (2005). Digital Cities III. Information Technologies for Social Capital: Cross-cultural Perspectives: Third International Digital Cities Workshop, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, September 18-19, 2003, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 3081. Berlin: Springer. doi:10.1007/b107136. ISBN 978-3-540-25971-8. 978-3-540-25971-8
Aurigi, Alessandro; De Cindio, Fiorella (2008). Augmented Urban Spaces: Articulating the Physical and Electronic City. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-7149-7. 978-0-7546-7149-7
Foth, Marcus (2009). Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics: The Practice and Promise of the Real-Time City. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. ISBN 978-1-60566-152-0. 978-1-60566-152-0
Foth, Marcus; Forlano, Laura; Satchell, Christine; Gibbs, Martin (2011). From Social Butterfly to Engaged Citizen: Urban Informatics, Social Media, Ubiquitous Computing, and Mobile Technology to Support Citizen Engagement. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01651-3. 978-0-262-01651-3
Foth, Marcus; Brynskov, Martin; Ojala, Timo (2015). Citizen's Right to the Digital City: Urban Interfaces, Activism, and Placemaking. Singapore: Springer. ISBN 9789812879172. 9789812879172
Foth, Marcus; Brynskov, Martin; Ojala, Timo (2015). Citizen's Right to the Digital City: Urban Interfaces, Activism, and Placemaking. Singapore: Springer. ISBN 9789812879172. 9789812879172
de Lange, Michiel, and Martijn de Waal, eds. 2019. The Hackable City: Digital Media and Collaborative City-making in the Network Society. London: Springer. ISBN 978-981-13-2694-3. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2694-3 /wiki/ISBN_(identifier)
Hearn, Greg; Tacchi, Jo; Foth, Marcus; Lennie, June (2009). Action Research and New Media: Concepts, Methods, and Cases. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. ISBN 978-1-57273-866-9. 978-1-57273-866-9
Foth, Marcus; Brynskov, Martin (2016). "Participatory Action Research for Civic Engagement". In Gordon, Eric; Mihailidis, Paul (eds.). Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 563–580. ISBN 978-0-262-03427-2. 978-0-262-03427-2
Ito, K.; Biljecki, F. (2021). "Assessing bikeability with street view imagery and computer vision". Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. 132: 103371. arXiv:2105.08499. Bibcode:2021TRPC..13203371I. doi:10.1016/j.trc.2021.103371. S2CID 234763005. /wiki/ArXiv_(identifier)
Batty, Michael (2013). The New Science of Cities. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262019521. 9780262019521
Satchell, Christine (1 November 2008). "Cultural Theory and Design: Identifying Trends by Looking at the Action in the Periphery". ACM Interactions. 15 (6): 23. doi:10.1145/1409040.1409046. S2CID 18080706. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Foth, Marcus (2009). Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics: The Practice and Promise of the Real-Time City. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. ISBN 978-1-60566-152-0. 978-1-60566-152-0
Shepard, Mark (2011). Sentient City: Ubiquitous Computing, Architecture, and the Future of Urban Space. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-51586-3. 978-0-262-51586-3
Foth, Marcus; Forlano, Laura; Satchell, Christine; Gibbs, Martin (2011). From Social Butterfly to Engaged Citizen: Urban Informatics, Social Media, Ubiquitous Computing, and Mobile Technology to Support Citizen Engagement. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01651-3. 978-0-262-01651-3
Kitchin, Rob; Dodge, Martin (2011). Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262042482. 9780262042482
Gordon, Eric; Silva, Adriana de Souza e (2011). Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-8060-3. 978-1-4051-8060-3
Hearn, Greg; Foth, Marcus; Stevenson, Tony (May 2011). "Community Engagement for Sustainable Urban Futures". Futures. 43 (4): 357–360. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.659.3467. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2011.01.002. /wiki/CiteSeerX_(identifier)
Robinson, Ricky; Rittenbruch, Markus; Foth, Marcus; Filonik, Daniel; Viller, Stephen (April 2012). "Street Computing: Towards an Integrated Open Data Application Programming Interface (API) for Cities" (PDF). Journal of Urban Technology. 19 (2): 1–23. doi:10.1080/10630732.2012.698064. S2CID 61012545. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/64902/1/Street_computing_editorial_v8mf.pdf
Townsend, Anthony M. (2013). Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-393-08287-6. 978-0-393-08287-6
McCullough, Malcolm (2013). Ambient Commons: Attention in the Age of Embodied Information. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01880-7. 978-0-262-01880-7
Greenfield, Adam (2013). Against the Smart City. New York, NY: Do Projects. ISBN 978-0-9824383-1-2. 978-0-9824383-1-2
Foth, Marcus; Rittenbruch, Markus; Robinson, Ricky; Viller, Stephen (2013). Street Computing: Urban Informatics and City Interfaces. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-84336-2. 978-0-415-84336-2
de Waal, Martijn (2014). The City as Interface: How New Media Are Changing the City. Rotterdam, NL: NAi010 Publisher. ISBN 9789462080508. 9789462080508
Unsworth, Kristene; Forte, Andrea; Dilworth, Richardson (22 December 2014). "Urban Informatics: The Role of Citizen Participation in Policy Making". Journal of Urban Technology. 21 (4): 1–5. doi:10.1080/10630732.2014.971527. S2CID 110769964. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Houghton, Kirralie; Choi, Jaz Hee-jeong; Lugmayr, Artur (2 October 2015). "Urban Acupuncture" (PDF). Journal of Urban Technology. 22 (3): 1–2. doi:10.1080/10630732.2015.1087684. S2CID 78666569. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/92335/1/special%20edition%20urban%20acupuncture%20editorial.pdf
Kukka, Hannu; Foth, Marcus; Dey, Anind K. (September 2015). "Transdisciplinary Approaches to Urban Computing" (PDF). International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 81: 1–3. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2015.05.003. S2CID 44920638. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/82739/1/guest%20editors%20introduction%20%28APA%206%29.pdf
Foth, Marcus; Brynskov, Martin; Ojala, Timo (2015). Citizen's Right to the Digital City: Urban Interfaces, Activism, and Placemaking. Singapore: Springer. ISBN 9789812879172. 9789812879172
Willis, Katharine S. (2015). Netspaces: Space and Place in a Networked World. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781472438621. 9781472438621
Salim, Salim; Haque, Usman (2015). "Urban computing in the wild: A survey on large scale participation and citizen engagement with ubiquitous computing, cyber physical Systems, and internet of Things". International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 81 (81(Transdisciplinary Approaches to Urban Computing)): 31–48. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2015.03.003. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Katz, Vikki S.; Hampton, Keith N. (January 2016). "Communication in City and Community: From the Chicago School to Digital Technology". American Behavioral Scientist. 60 (1): 3–7. doi:10.1177/0002764215601708. S2CID 148661247. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Ratti, Carlo; Claudel, Matthew (2016). The City of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers, and the Future of Urban Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-20480-3. 978-0-300-20480-3
Thakuriah, Piyushimita; Tilahun, Nebiyou; Zellner, Moira (2017). Seeing Cities Through Big Data: Research, Methods and Applications in Urban Informatics. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-40900-9. 978-3-319-40900-9
Shi, Wenzhong; Goodchild, Michael; Batty, Michael; Kwan, Mei-Po; Zhang, Anshu (2021). Urban Informatics. Singapore: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-15-8983-6. ISBN 978-981-15-8982-9. 978-981-15-8982-9