Identifying challenges and priorities for developing smart city initiatives and applications

Abstract

The ubiquity of the technology and the availability of (open) data automatically collected in urban environments generate new opportunities, not only in tracking and managing public information services and resources, but also in the way we describe, implement and use these services. Although recent studies have proven that different smart city applications could improve some quality-of-life indicators by as much as 10-30 percent, at the same time it is reported that even the world cities that implement cutting-edge smart technologies are still at the beginning of their journey in a number of aspects. In an effort to identify and explore the challenges, the potential and the priorities for the implementation of smart city applications in a national/local context, a workshop followed by a research survey was conducted. To that end, a suitable research framework related to implementation of over 50 up-to-date smart city applications was adapted, extended and operationalized. The results of the study expose the strategic factors as the most challenging ones in the long-run in the national context of Croatia. In terms of local priorities for introducing smart city applications, the experts agreed on the most important and the least important smart city applications as well as on the potential to introduce these applications within 5 years. For the selection and prioritization of smart city applications in the given context, a proof-of-concept of a decision support tool intended for city managers is then proposed based on simulation modelling.

End-User Approach to Evaluating Costs and Benefits of Smart City Applications

“…Specifically, suppose the list of future smart city services is prioritised and based on the needs of the users, e.g. as in (Ćukušić, Jadrić and Mijač, 2019). In that case, an optimal set of services could be devised to minimise the costs for users of an integrated smart city application.…”

“…Several studies from the perspective of end-users in the smart city domain have been published by the authors of this paper that are of relevance to this one and that this study builds upon. First, a subset of four priority smart city applications was selected based on user ratings of over 50 smart city applications published in (Ćukušić, Jadrić and Mijač, 2019). Specifically, associated costs and benefits of Smart parking, Water quality, Air quality and Public time tracking, reviewed in this paper, are amongst the top-rated applications having the highest priority in a local context.…”

“…In preparation for a dedicated smart city workshop, a half-page description for each of the four selected smart city applications was prepared. All four applications were earlier identified as smart city priorities for the City of Split (Ćukušić, Jadrić and Mijač, 2019), where the study took place. Participants were then asked to generate a list of costs and benefits for the allocated application in a team exercise.…”

FUZZY ASSESSMENT MODEL FOR SECTORS PRIORITIES TOWARDS TRANSFORMING NEW CITIES INTO SMART CITIES "A Case Study of the New Minya City"

“…However, global cities that implemented the latest smart technologies are still at the beginning of their journey. Also, the possibilities and priorities need to be determined regarding the implementation of smart city applications (Čukušić, Jadrić, & Mijač, 2019). Numerous previous studies have used the fuzzy logic in setting the priorities.…”

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“…Croatian cities are undergoing a certain transformation in terms of the smart economy, which is supported by the construction of roads, schools, sports halls and development agencies. The number of ICT enterprises is constantly increasing, startups are being created, innovation is on the rise, the European Union [EU] provides substantial funding for the development of smart and sustainable cities, and the availability and transparency of data on urban websites is at an enviable level (Ćukušić, Jadrić and Mijač, 2019).…”