Resilience of Smart Cities to the Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Context of Sustainable Development

Abstract

The development of digital technologies is one of the factors influencing the cities’ readiness for the COVID-19 breakout. The purpose of this article is to assess cities’ resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic depending on the “smart” level criteria. The article uses the following research methods: (1) bibliometric analysis to identify the main directions of scientific research regarding “COVID-19” and “smart city” in Scopus publications for 2019–2022; (2) k-means clustering method to identify common patterns among smart cities regarding their readiness and responsiveness to COVID-19; (3) correlation analysis to identify the relationships between smart city performance indicators and COVID-19 severity in these cities. The Smart City Index 2021 was a key criterion for classifying a city as smart for this study. The correlation analysis included two stages: (1) correlation analysis of the Smart City Rank and indicators of COVID-19 readiness and responsiveness; (2) correlation analysis of the Smart City Rank and its health care components and COVID-19 severity indicators. According to the study results, smart cities demonstrated higher COVID-19 readiness and lower COVID-19 fatality rates. However, they lag behind in terms of resilience and sustainability of their health care systems.

The Effect of Publicly Available COVID-19 Information on the Functioning of Society, Businesses, Government and Local Institutions: A Case Study from Poland

“…Although the study in the area of Rybnik and its surroundings did not consider the exact hours of water consumption for this manuscript, these observations can be confirmed. Studies conducted in Poland [56,57], South Korea [58] and other pandemic-affected countries [59], among others, indicate that public information on the number of illnesses, quarantines and deaths due to COVID-19 has an impact on reducing activity, especially of service companies, which confirms the results of studies from Rybnik and the surrounding areas. In contrast, a study from the UK [34] shows an increase in water consumption by businesses during the pandemic, while water consumption by households remains at similar levels.…”

Sustainable Resilience in Healthcare Delivery: A Comparative Study on Safety Awareness in Hospital-Based and Pre-Hospital EMS in Times of Crisis

“…Our findings, in spite of methodological constraints such as the sample size and the geographically limited scope, offer potential strategies for improving safety culture. Specifically, these include enhancing resilience in healthcare systems, similar to the resilience measures suggested in Kuzior et al's study on smart cities in the context of sustainable development [16].…”

Do Smart Cities Represent the Key to Urban Resilience? Rethinking Urban Resilience

“…The prioritization of investment areas depends on the level of development and local characteristics. According to the extant literature, there are some studies regarding a bibliometric analysis on urban planning, sustainability, resilience, and smart cities [ 74 ]; resilience and previous results of emerging research trends [ 7 ]; smart cities [ 75 ]; resilient cities [ 76 ]; and resilience of smart cities [ 77 , 78 ]. However, from our knowledge, this study is the first attempt at analyzing the association between smart cities and resilience through a bibliometric analysis.…”