Contributions of Smart City Projects to Resilience: Lessons Learned from Case Studies

Smart cities are often characterized by using ICT-enabled solutions in various socio-economic, institutional, and environmental fields to enhance quality of life, sustainability, and resilience and to preserve the competitive potential of cities in an increasingly interconnected network of cities. While the concept of “smart city” has been around for a while, recently there is a growing interest in using smart city solutions and technologies for enhancing resilience worldwide. It is vital to recognize the effect of smart cities on improving urban resilience, especially with regard to climate adaptation and mitigation. As a preliminary step toward this goal, we have created a database of smart city projects and initiatives with actual and/or potential contributions to resilience. Our database of approximately 300 case studies tries to investigate the resilience steps and smart solutions taken by smart cities around the world under categorized indicator sets. Results show that most of the smart city projects are mainly aimed at the reduction of CO₂ emission. Regarding the resilience stage, we considered four stages, namely, planning, absorption, recovery, and adaptation. It was found that the projects are related to different stages, particularly, adaptation and absorption. In terms of sectoral focus, energy sector has received the most attention by the smart city planners and policymakers. Concerning smart city dimensions, “living” has received the utmost attention, followed by “mobility” and “data” that have also received considerable attention. Much of the projects are owned by the government and are participatory in terms of governance. It is important to note that most of the projects have paid attention to multiple smart city “dimensions” and can contribute to different “resilience characteristics.” This evidence-based quantitative analysis of global smart city projects could be used to highlight the success factors, trends, and gaps. The results can be used to develop more effective future pathways that could contribute to achieving sustainable development goals.