The structural model of indicators for evaluating the quality of urban smart living

Abstract

• Evaluating quality of urban smart living. • The structural model to rank dimensions and indicators in order of their impact on quality of urban smart living. • Structural equations modeling (SEM) using partial least squares (PLS). • Health and hygiene, public education, and security had the greatest impact on quality of urban smart living. • The housing and building, culture, and the environment and natural resources had the least impact on quality of urban smart living. In current century, in order to address increasing demands of twentieth-century man, science is rapidly advancing in various fields on the basis of vast information and communications technology. The quality of life in a smart city will be undoubtedly affected by such an approach and the impact of smartness concept had led to a new viewpoint on the correlation between different aspects of assessment of urban life quality and smart city phenomenon. This study aims to design a structural model and identify the importance order and impact factor of features influencing quality of smart urban life through structural equations adopting a Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach in Tehran metropolis. Significance of this study is reflected in increasing influence of smart technologies in citizens’ lives. Results show that integration of dimensions of health and hygiene, public education, security, social coherence and participation, consumption of resources and the environment, culture, and at last development of housing and buildings with development of smart information and communications are the most significant contributory factors in improvement of quality of smart urban life. Furthermore, education and enhancement of awareness are of utmost importance as indicators influencing dimensions of health and hygiene as well as security.