Abstract
The smart city notion provides an integrated and systematic answer to challenges facing cities today. Smart city policy makers and technology vendors are increasingly stating their interest in human-centered smart cities. On the other hand, in many studies smart city policies bring forward a one-size-fits-all type of recommendation for all areas in question instead of location-specific ones. Based on the above considerations, this paper illustrates that smart citizen characteristics, alongside local urban challenges, are paving the way towards more effective efforts in smart city policy decision making. Our main presumption is that the development level of human-centered indicators of smart cities varies locally. The scientific objective of this paper is to find a simple, understandable link between human smart characteristics and local determinants in Limassol city, Cyprus. The data set consists of seven indicators defined as human smart characteristics and seven which determine local urban challenges consisting of demographic dynamics and built infrastructure attributes based on housing. Correlations of the 14 above indicators are examined in entirety and separately, as the study area was divided into three spatial sub-groups (high, moderate, and low coverage areas) depending on dispersed urbanization, as the main challenge of the study area. The data were obtained mainly from the most recent population census in 2011 and categorized in sub-groups by triggering CLC 2012. Analyzing the statistics using principal component analysis (PCA), we identify significant relationships between human smart city characteristics, demographic dynamics and built infrastructure attributes which can be used in local policy decision making. Spatial variations based on the dispersed urbanization are also observed regarding the above-mentioned relationships.
Highlights
The Smart City stands at the confluence of the spatial and technological subsystems as an answer to urban challenges in an increasingly urbanized world [1,2,3,4]
Two reviews were made in order to answer the research questions
14 variables were deemed necessary for processing which consist of three categories: human smart characteristics (7), demographic dynamics (3), and built infrastructure attributes (4)
Summary
The Smart City stands at the confluence of the spatial and technological subsystems as an answer to urban challenges in an increasingly urbanized world [1,2,3,4]. An EU report [5] estimates that around 70% of Europe’s population lives in cities, with the significant percentage of this urban population living in small and medium-sized cities. The smart city concept is rapidly gaining momentum and worldwide attention as a promising response to the challenge of urban sustainability in both large and medium-sized cities [6,7]. The smart city concept is complex, multidimensional and multidisciplinary; one common definition might not be applicable. Our preferred definition for the smart city concept is, the “[S]mart city is an effective integration of physical, digital and human systems in the built environment to deliver a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future for its citizens” [9]. Being “smart” is not an end state, but rather can be an enabling condition that may lead to other desirable social, economic, or environmental outcomes [10]
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