Hierarchy table of indicators and measures for the current status assessment of urban roads in smart cities

Abstract

• A hierarchy table of indicators and measures for service areas is required for a smart city. • Keyword network analysis is used to develop a hierarchy table for urban roads in a smart city. • City officials can utilize the developed hierarchy table to understand the basic need for their road facilities to innovate towards a smart city. • The procedures presented to develop our hierarchy table can be utilized to develop other smart city service areas. Urban roads integrated with modern, innovative technologies (called advanced systems) serve as one of the primary service areas to support the function of a smart city. The extensive experience with the benefits that these advanced urban roads provide informs decision-makers toward efficient investments in advanced systems for urban roads. However, there is no tool designed to evaluate the developmental status of urban roads in a smart city. Therefore, this study has developed a hierarchy table of indicators and measures specific to assessing the current status of urban road innovation for smart cities. A keyword network analysis was used to develop the hierarchy table. The procedures take three phases: data preparation, data analysis, and hierarchy table development. As a result, the hierarchy table includes 53 measures in 14 indicators connected to the five smart city components (e.g., environment, mobility, governance, economy, and living). The hierarchy table can be used for city officials to assess the current status of urban roads in the transition of a smart city, which leads to an explicit investment decision on urban road innovation. The procedures presented in this study can be adapted to develop indicators and measures for other service areas necessary for a smart city.