Publications

The concept of Smart Sustainable Cities (SSC) has changed over time leading to alterations in its definition and to an increase in the fuzziness and complexity of the notion of smartness. The latter is a concept regarded differently by Academics, professionals, private sector, governments and other stakeholders. Currently, different SSC initiatives are taking place around the globe to achieve smartness. They focus, in varied degrees, on social development, prosperity, technology infrastructure, quality of life and others. Accordingly, smartness as a notion is not standardized which makes it possible for cities to claim smartness without following a standardized approach or a clear methodology. This research argues that smartness of cities should be captured through a holistic model. The latter takes into consideration integral sustainability among the different systems of the city noting that citizens lie at its core. This research, which builds on a series of related researches undertaken by the same authors, contributes to practice and knowledge and helps researchers and practitioners in the process of assessing smartness of cities. It summarizes a literature review of the existing approaches currently used to assess the performance of SSCs and the results of a thorough comparative analysis indicating that none of them captures holistically the identified elements of smartness. Moreover, it sheds light on the importance of capturing the fulfillment of citizens' needs and their ability to decide on the smart solutions satisfying those needs.