Risk Analysis with the Dempster–Shafer Theory for Smart City Planning: The Case of Qatar

Abstract

Smart cities support the enhancement of the quality of life of their residents, for which the use of a robust integrated platform of information and communication technology is required. However, not all cities have similar technology infrastructure and a similar understanding of the quality of life. Therefore, holistic planning, resource support, security, continuous updates, and dynamic operational enhancements should be considered while planning smart cities. However, a smart city could be vulnerable to security threats and a loss of personal or classified information due to the complexity of technology integration. Therefore, understanding and assessing different risks and embedding risk management mechanisms would be required to minimize vulnerability exposure in smart cities. This paper proposes a risk assessment method using the Dempster–Shafer theory for smart city planning. The Dempster–Shafer theory is used here to analyze the risks perceptions of experts. The principal component analysis method is used to analyze the data obtained from risk assessment. The application of this method is determined through a smart city test case in Qatar.

SCKPISec: A KPI-Guided Model-Based Approach to Realize Security by Design for Smart City Systems

“…In recent years, the security analysis of smart city systems has become a thriving subject of research. At present, many research studies [3,5,6,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37] have devoted to analyzing the security of smart cities. Among them, some studies [5,6,31] identify potential threats and system vulnerabilities through security risk assessment on smart city systems.…”

“…Because expert-based risk assessment methods and active human participation cannot meet the requirements of the large-scale and complex digital environment of the smart city [3], some studies [3,[35][36][37] apply new techniques, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to automatically assess security risks. Kalinin et al propose a network security risk management approach for smart cities [3].…”

“…However, these methods [29,30] do not focus on the modeling and verification of smart cities, and do not support the detection of potential mission failures of smart city systems under security threats. In the area of security analysis on smart cities, although numerous research efforts [3,5,6,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37] have been made, most existing techniques focus on security risk analysis and risk assessment of smart cities, rather than providing security design modeling approach to ensure security by design of smart city systems.…”

“…First, SCKPISec provides UML profile for system modeling, which allows engineers from different domains to understand the models easily. Second, unlike existing security analysis approaches [3,5,6,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37] for smart cities, SCKPISec applies MDE techniques and follows the principle of "Security by Design". It can identify potential mission failures of smart city systems under threats in the early design stage.…”

Advances in Sustainable Smart Cities and Territories

“…Therefore, to minimize the vulnerability of smart cities, risks need to be identified and assessed, and risk management mechanisms must be put in place. A risk assessment approach to smart city planning, using Dempster-Shafer theory, is proposed in [9], as part of a smart city use case carried out in Qatar. In it, Dempster-Shafer theory was used to analyze the experts' perception of potential risks.…”