Data-Driven Approach in Knowledge-Based Smart City Management

Abstract

The concept of smart city management is based on the implementation and use of advanced technologies, such as wireless sensors, intelligent vehicles, mobile networks, and data storage technologies. It involves integrating various information and communication technology solutions to efficiently manage a city's resources. Cities are investing in data-driven smart technologies to enhance performance and efficiency, thereby generating a large amount of data. Finding innovative ways to use this data helps improve city management and urban development. A data-driven city utilizes datafication to optimize its operations, functions, services, strategies, and policies. Datafication involves transforming various aspects of urban life into computerized data and extracting value from this information. This transformation is dependent on controlling the storage, management, processing, and analysis of the data, as well as utilizing the extracted knowledge to develop useful smart city solutions. Access to real-time data and information enables the provision of effective services that improve productivity, leading to environmental, social, and economic benefits. Both current and future smart cities have the potential to generate vast amounts of real-time data due to complex physical infrastructure and data-driven applications supported by social networks. This paper investigates how the emerging data-driven smart city is practiced and justified in terms of its innovative applied solutions. The aim of the paper is to explore the general conditions for implementing advanced data-driven technologies for smart city management, using knowledge from literature analysis and case studies. To understand this new urban phenomenon, a descriptive case study is used as a qualitative research methodology to examine and compare the possibilities of implementing data-driven approaches in knowledge-based smart city management. Seventeen case studies that use data-driven applications in real-world settings were identified from secondary sources and evaluated based on smart city indicators and related data-driven applications. Smart Cities were selected based on their rankings in the Digital Cities Index 2022, the Smart City Index 2022, and the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2022.