Fundamental power of the city – A proposition of a new paradigm and index for city development

Abstract

Managing a dynamic and complex urban system according to the single concept of city development is insufficient. The study's aim is to present the main concepts of cities development, formulate a new hybrid concept of city, and propose a related index to support strategy implementation and monitoring. The research methods include literature scoping, literature content analysis, and linear ordering as a multivariate method of analysis. The research conclusion identifies a new hybrid concept of a “resilient smart sustainable city” and explains a distinction between weak and strong perception of the concept. The practical part of the research develops synthetic measure “Fundamental Power of the City Index” which allows to select variables representing individual cities' priorities and apply them in every city analysis, development strategy building, and monitoring. The Index is tested for 18 voivodship cities in Poland for the period 2014–2020. The results of this study can support city stakeholders in their efforts in developing “resilient smart sustainable city”.