People’s Aspirations from Smart City Technologies: What Solutions They Have to Offer for the Crucial Challenges City of Jeddah Is Facing

Abstract

Saudi Arabian urban society is faced with critical challenges such as environmental degradation, unsustainable resource consumption, inadequate public transportation, lack of walkable and bike friendly urban neighbourhoods that are hampering general conditions of liveability and wellbeing. In response to these challenges, legislators planned 6 economic cities that are metonym of smart cities, intended to economic diversification and transformation towards a knowledge based economy with the private sector partnership (PPP) and foreign direct investment (FDI). These "smart" or "economic" cities are anticipated to fascinate people to live and work in. This exploratory study was intended to understand people's aspirations on smart city technologies that can solve urban challenges in Saudi Arabia. A total of 351 samples from the online survey, were analysed. We conclude that people in Saudi Arabia are optimistic about smart city benefits; they are also excitedly willing to contribute in smart city planning and management. We also suggest policymakers to adopt a collaborative planning mechanism based on people's wisdom to tackle more wicked urban problems and added benefits of ICT (Information & communication technologies) and geospatial technologies.

Smart City Vision and Balikesir Smart City Initiatives

“…Akıllı kentler genel olarak; tüm sakinleri için daha iyi yaşam kalitesini sağlamaya odaklanan, bu noktada farklı teknolojileri kullanan, işbirliğiyle oluşturulmuş dayanıklı ve kapsayıcı kentler (Toli & Murtagh, 2020, s. 3); çeşitli sosyo-ekonomik ölçeklerde zenginlik, verimlilik ve rekabet gücü elde etmeyi amaçlayan bilgi teknolojilerinden yararlanmak için etkin ve stratejik çabalar gösterilen yerleşimler (Aljoufie & Tiwari, 2017) olarak tanımlanmaktadır.…”