Smart City

Smart City | Smart Cities

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. According to the United Nations (UN), the transition from rural to primary urban population will continue over the next few decades, which will put more pressure on urban infrastructure and resources. Meeting the demand for city life to maintain and improve the quality of living conditions of its citizens, many cities now want to develop and implement solutions that focus on technology, community participation and transparency. These cities are increasingly identified with the Smart City label.

Since the concept of smart city is still developing, there are many different definitions in literature and practice. In general, smart city shows that urban actors use information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve the quality of life in urban areas, as promised. ICT is an important opportunity for cities to address these challenges in a ‘smart’ way.
“The term of smart city has endless meaning. The key objectives are to be secure (including cyber security), environmentally conscious (green/clean tech), connected (IoT, 5G), efficient (AI), sustainable (long-term planning) and informed (Big Data/AI). Against these objectives, connectivity is the foundation on which smart city solutions are built”.

A smart city is well known and defined as the city which uses information and communications technologies to improve the quality of life, the local economy, transport and traffic management, the environment, along with the interfaces between governments and its citizens. As defined in the literature, a smart city makes it possible to improve society’s standard of living based on traffic congestion, health care delivery, climate change impacts and digital access to public services.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures, have created new set of opportunities for the cities. ICT provides people with the information they need to make decisions, but does not feature a decision support system. The Smart City concept, on the other hand, provides free decision support to people in many city services. Digital platforms where services are offered without any human interruption for example, improve the quality of life with some capabilities. Here are some of those:

• routing with assistant services,
• unmanned AI based decision support systems,
• virtual tours with augmented reality

face recognition supported security systems and many new services.

It is not possible to meet an infinite demand with the scarce resources of the city. In particular, it should be possible to create a program for the lives of congestion and the lives of the demands of urban people.

Intelligent management of natural resources and sustainable economic growth can be achieved through an intelligent management model through investments in modern communication infrastructure. A smart city should not only be an ICT-based city, but also an environmentally sustainable, socially progressive and economically beneficial city.

The smart city concept offers cities many opportunities. Being a smart city is not a goal, but a way of achieving an objective. Smart Cities: Barcelona, Chicago, and Hamburg have benefits at the level of: reduction of crime; improved services; better integrated infrastructure with real-time connections; access to data through sensors. For cities that adopt the Smart City strategy, city services are becoming more efficient and cities are becoming more attractive to investors, residents, visitors and the business community. The Smart City program aims to provide a wide range of advantages; Working together, cities can access investments, accelerate learning and identify local innovations. The benefits of the smart city concept to stakeholders are given in Table 1:

Urban population with high population density; It increases the pressures for the exchange of resources on energy, transport, water, buildings and public spaces, so there should be “smart” and highly efficient sustainable solutions. Cities within the context of smart city are interested in the headings shown in Figure 1:

In the researchers conducted since 2016, 94 indicators have been analysed in the last three years and many indicators which are in the development stage of the smart city concept have been obtained. When the studies were analysed with various dimensions, it was found that the proposed publications increased on maturity models.

The smart city concept is supported by the rapid technological advancement driven by cloud-based services and more powerful mobile devices, sensors, big data and analytics. In this emerging technological environment, intelligent networks will be critical to the basic functioning of cities and to overcome existing and emerging challenges

Mobile-based applications from smart cities allow you to take advantage of digital technologies for one or more of the following opportunities:

• the ability to invest effectively in planning to measure existing conditions in the city, optimize the use of infrastructure and other physical assets, connect fragmented city infrastructures, and
• increase the sensitivity of new infrastructure and infrastructure services,
  improving digital access and quality to public services, strengthening citizen participation and feedback for transparency and innovation in services,
• monitor the environmental impacts of all economic activities by optimizing the use of limited resources such as energy, water, infrastructure and increasing the flexibility & sustainability of cities,
• possibility of positive economic growth contribution by increasing the competitive advantage of cities,
• to create collaborative innovation platforms with open data access to stakeholders across the city.

The latest projections by the influential London-based Future Cities Catapult Centre show that The latest projections by the influential London-based Future Cities Catapult Centre show that the smart cities market is expected to grow by 20% per year from over $300 billion in 2015 to over $750 billion in 2020. Currently, the largest market is Europe, which represents almost $130 billion.

Smart city indexes and international standards

Many international studies have evaluated the performance of cities as an index to measure the digital transformation services performed throughout any city.

• 2019 Smart Cities Index (Easypark, 2019).
• 2018/19 Smart City Government Rankings (ESI, 2019).
• 2018 ICI Innovation Cities Index (IC, 2018).
• 2019 The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) (EU, 2019).
• 2018 Sustainable Cities Index (ARCADIS, 2018).
• 2018 Global Power City Index (MMF, 2018).
• 2019 Safe Cities Index (The Economist, 2019).
• 2018 Global Cities Index (WSP, 2018).
• 2019 City Momentum Index (JLL, 2019).

According to the seventh issue of IESE Cities in Motion 2020, the world’s 10 smart cities have been ranked. According to this ranking, London is determined as the world’s leading smart city. The order of the cities are the following; 2. New York, 3. Paris, 4. Tokyo, 5. Reykjavik, 6. Copenhagen, 7. Berlin, 8. Amsterdam, 9. Singapore and 10. Hong Kong.

Studies on smart urbanism have been defined as international standards by the studies carried out by International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This international standard established by ISO is known as ISO 37120.

This International Standard defines and sets out definitions and methodologies for a range of indicators for Smart Cities. Accelerating improvements in city services and quality of life forms the basis of the definition of sustainable Smart City. ISO 37120 Sustainable Development of Communities: Implemented to provide a complete set of checklists to be measured together with City Services and Quality of Life.

The first ISO Standard on the Global City Indicator, ISO 37120, was published in 2014. The ISO 37120-100 indicator identifies 17 themes. 17 themes identified; Stop in Economy, Education, Energy, Environment, Finance, Fire and Emergency, Response, Governance, Health, Recreation, Security, Shelter, Solid Waste, Telecommunications, Transportation, Urban Planning, Wastewater, Water and Sanitation.

ISO 37120 specifies definitions and methodologies for a number of control lists for smart cities. In order to measure progress towards a smart city and monitor changes in city services and quality of life, ISO 37120 has been published together with ISO 37120 to provide a range of indexes.

Indicators detailed in ISO 37120 have quickly become an international reference point for sustainable cities. ISO / TC 268 / WG2 experts identified the need for additional indicators for intelligent quotations. This document (ISO: 37122) complements ISO 37120 and includes illustrations of methodologies for measuring, evaluating and defining the social, economic and environmental sustainability outcomes of cities.

ISO: 37122 helps to identify indicators and implement smart city policies, programs and projects to implement city management systems.

• Respond to challenges such as climate change, rapid population growth and political and economic instability,
• Implement collaborative leadership methods, work between disciplines and city systems,
• Using data information and modern technologies to provide better service and quality of life to residents of the city (residents, businesses, visitors),
• Provide a better living environment where smart policies, practices and technology are made available to citizens,
• Achieving sustainability and environmental goals in a more innovative way,
• Determining the necessity and benefits of smart infrastructure,
• facilitate innovation and growth,
• To create a dynamic and innovative economy ready for the challenges of the future.

Benchmarking is based on ISO 37106, the “smart city framework gathered around four applications supporting each smart city:

• Leadership and governance
• Stakeholder engagement and citizen-focused
• Integrated ICT infrastructure
• Data Usage

Ultimately, ISO 37122 was associated with nineteen thematic areas, and after that, questions were asked that corresponded to 75 indicators based on ISO 37122. ISO 37122 General Indicators Survey is defined as; Smart Economy (Economy, Finance), Smart People (Education), Smart Governance, Smart Mobility (Telecommunication, Transportation), Smart Environment (Energy, Environment and Climate Change), Smart Life (Culture).

Indexes use indicators as support in different decision-making processes. There are several international city indicator standards related to smart sustainable city assessment and reporting. The scientific literature on standardized frameworks of city indicators is surprisingly small. Relevant international standardization studies are carried out by three institutions, i.e. ISO, ITU and the European Coalition ((The European Committee for Standardization (CEN), The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and European Telecommunications Standards (ETS)).).

Seven indicator standards that are internationally valid and published recently are compared. With regard to the international standard indicators, ten sectoral areas of application (energy, transportation, information and communication technologies, economy, etc.) of the 413 indicators defined were assessed. Table 2 shows a summary assessment of the standard indicators by main categories.

Indicators as part of the international standards and common indexes employed can be a good source of information in order to identify the key performance indicators for digital transformation of the cities. In this thesis, this expected capability will be supported by a framework and associated reference model.

Smart city transformation has been prepared as a national plan by various countries as a strategic plan. India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Turkey have published a strategic plan. In these countries, to providing support to the cities for smart city transformations, economic benefits, resource management and efficiency is envisaged. Summary of National and City Action plans is given below Table 3.

The digital transformation of cities is generally understood as the use of communication and technological infrastructures for the benefit of society. In the meantime, since the needs and requirements of each city are different, digital transformation plans (appropriate) should be produced and implemented. Similarly, examples of plans and initiatives can be found in the literature. In the case of the city of Stockholm, for example, an environmental digitization project was developed for municipalities. A study conducted in Copenhagen on the use of digitization for sustainability in urban transport. Franco (2020) has ensured the digitalisation and planning of smart cities in Italian cities.

The transformation plan in which the digital approach to integrated urban studies and Big Data opportunities is assessed in an evaluation report covering five cities in the UK, namely Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Milton Keynes and Peterborough. These studies clearly states that each city needs a digital transformation plan tailored to its qualifications due to different needs and expectations.

The literature shows that using an acceptable reference model is a strategic decision to determine the style of management of the transportation system relative to the current state of the city in question. Integrated technology-based services seem to be inevitable. It is also clear that the experience of different kinds of expertise and competent experts in intelligent transport must be combined. They must align their expertise on the set of success factors outlined by El Mokaddem et al. (2019). But you can’t always bring all the experts together. It would therefore be very helpful to develop a framework for assessing transportation components against smart city indicators.

Subsystems of the smart city

The assessment of subsystems, an alternative classification approach that can be used to understand the smart city concept, is widely accepted. The concept of smart city commonly consists of 6 sub-categories. These subcategories are smart people, smart environment, smart economy, smart living, smart government and smart mobility.

The Smart City effectively integrates physical, digital and human systems to ensure a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future for ecosystem assets. The Smart City Framework, named PAS 181, developed by the British Standard Institution (BSI), consists of “Energy, Waste, Water, Communication, Security and Emergency, Education and Training, Transport, Health, Social Services, Housing, Environment, Finance and Economy” components.

Similarly, The Smart City Index Master Indicators (SCIMI), as a well-known assessment index are used to define the basic subsystems of a smart city as well. The SCIMI framework measures ‘smart government’, ‘smart economy’, ‘smart people’, ‘smart living’, ‘smart environment’ and ‘smart mobility’ dimensions. In addition, it focuses on measurable digital transformation indicators for assessment instead of the European Smart Cities Ranking Model (ESCR).

The SCIMI provides so called “The Smart Cities Wheel” consists of 6 subheadings and their working area and indicators. Figure 5 shows the Smart City Wheel.

Smart City Wheel use related indicators to measure the digital transformation of cities. Before using this approach, must define subsystems of smart cities and its sub goals clearly. Sub goals are related to advance smart component’s ability and its smartness level. To select indicators from indices of smart cities could use expert opinions.

The subsystems of a smart city are briefly explained below.

• Smart government
• Smart people
• Smart economy
• Smart environment
• Smart living
• Smart mobility

Smart city framework assessment methodologies

Four different development methods were used in the selection of smart city evaluation indicators. First, developers often choose grey and peer-reviewed literature to choose smart city sizes, and their indicators are weighted and composite indexes. The second is rational expert opinions, using a combination of interrogative surveys, consultation workshops, the Delphi method and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Thirdly, it relies on the eco-design approach to involve various stakeholder groups. Fourth and finally, the best practices of smart city assessment are evaluated. Figure 6. It shows “Major methods for the development of assessment indicators”.

A frequently used material to design framework is indexes. The composite index values are necessary to classify the performance of cities, making them specifically attractive to system developers. To calculate a composite index, the schemes commonly rely on one or a combination of the following techniques: the (weighted) linear aggregation, the (weighted) arithmetic mean, the (weighted) geometric mean, and the (weighted) geometric aggregation of the variable scores.

The methodology primarily used in the literature is index-based comparative studies. Different evaluation methods were used to make the baseline comparisons. Over the past few years, knowledge-based systems and expert opinion have been preferred in the literature. The framework and assessment methodologies for smart cities used in the literature are presented in Table 4. Considering that the architectural structure of the studies, which are determined as maturity models in the literature, is similar to the comparative index-based studies in 2017 and later, there is no clear distinction in the literature review.

Table 4 The framework and assessment methodologies for smart cities:

In addition, although it is not widely used in the literature, in the study of Dadhania and Sneth (2017), which evaluates the developments in India carried out within the scope of the smart city; within the scope of 100 smart city projects, cities were evaluated with a multiple regression model based on independent variables. The City’s performance indicators are defined as the dependent variable, population and economic parameters as the independent variable, and the infrastructure profile as the parameter control variable.

The relationship between city performance and demographic and economic profile parameters was investigated using multiple hypothesis tests. As a result, “Population”, “Population Growth Size”, “Working Age Group” were found as variables that positively affect smart city maturity. Various factors such as “Work participation in %”, “Self-employment in %” and “No of sanctioned Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s)” were found to have negative effects.

Given the variety of assessment methodologies and indices used that strategic goals should be identified to enhance the competitiveness of cities in smart city studies. After the literature review, it can certainly be said that there is a need for a smart city reference model to identify the city’s objectives and strategic assessment for policymakers.

Meanwhile, a framework architecture for digital transformation would not be complete enough without a well-operating decision support with respect to smartness indicators and city capabilities. Besides there is a need for holistic evaluation of transformation of management components in certain aspects with an integrated architecture or infrastructure. It is understandable that quantifying some qualitative data can produce consistent and useful benefits, but in most cases varying types of qualitative data are difficult to number satisfactorily. An assessment model that will use indicators based on expert opinions and containing quantitative values must therefore be preferable in order to guide cities in digital transformation.