The digital skin of cities: urban theory and research in the age of the sensored and metered city, ubiquitous computing and big data

A ‘digital skin’ of the city is coming into being. This skin consists of a sensored and metered urban environment. The urban world is becoming a platform for generating data on the workings of human society, human interactions with the physical environment and manifold economic, political and social processes. The advent of the digital skin opens up many questions for urban theory and research, and many new issues for public and urban policy, which are explored in this article.