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This article addresses the increasing need for participatory approaches to disaster reduction at the community level. Based on the author's 30-year engagement in the mountainous community Chizu Town, Tottori Prefecture, Japan, a unique participatory approach called "Zero-to-One Movement" has been strategically studied. The study areas are found to have adaptively increased their coping capacity. Their unique participatory process is shown to be an adaptive process for SMART community governance under persistent disruptive risks—"S" represents small-sized and survivability-minded, "M" modest-scale and multiple-stakeholder involved, "A" anticipatory and adaptive, "R" risk-concerned and responsive, and "T" is transformative. Finally, the Case Station-Field Campus scheme is proposed to serve as a platform for studying the adaptive processes over a long period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This editorial introduction to this special issue provides an overview and a conceptual framework of governance and economics of smart cities. We begin with a discussion of the background to smart cities and then it focuses on the key challenges for consideration in smart city economics. Here it is argued that there are four dimensions to smart city economics: the first is regarding the scale of global market for smart cities; the second issue concerns data to be used for smart city projects; the third concerns market competition and structure and the fourth concerns the impact on local economy. Likewise, smart city governance framework has to be considered a layered and multi-level concept focusing on issues of transparency and accountability to the citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract There has been increasing scholarly interest in the concepts and practices of smart governance. However, there is a lack of comparative studies of smart governance in different institutional contexts. This study develops a framework for comparing smart governance in different institutional and technological contexts. Comparative and discourse analyses are conducted to understand the similarities and differences of smart governance practices in selected Western countries and China. A key finding of this study is that different institutions have largely affected smart governance strategies, arrangements and outcomes. Smart governance is tightly linked with e-governance and e-democracy in some Western countries, while it officially emphasizes smart management and service in China. A common aspect is that the increasing use of social media, smartphones, portals, crowdsourcing platforms, and planning support systems have generally promoted smart governments and services, e-participation, and wider collaboration through both top-down and bottom-up approaches. This could lead to gradual changes in government organizations, new relations between governments, the private sector and citizens, and improvements in the city. Highlights • This study develops a framework for understanding smart governance in different contexts. • It compares the similarities and differences of smart governance in selected Western countries and China. • Different institutions have affected smart governance strategies, arrangements and outcomes. • Smart governance is linked with e-democracy in Western countries, while emphasizing smart management in China. • New technologies have promoted smart governments and services, e-participation, and wider collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Research on smart cities lacks a systematic understanding of the different components of smart city governance, the metrics to measure these components, their envisaged outcomes and potential contextual factors influencing both components as well as outcomes. This study analyzes the relevant body of literature and proposes conceptual insights. A research scheme is generated and used for an extensive discussion of the literature. The systematic literature review indicates that various smart city governance definitions exist. Also, this study reveals substantial variances in contextual factors, measurement techniques and outcomes among the concepts of smart city governance. Highlights • In general, research on smart cities lacks a systematic understanding of the different components of smart city governance. • Therefore, this paper analyzes the relevant body of literature on smart city governance and proposes a systematic understanding of the different components of smart city governance, the metrics to measure these components and their envisaged outcomes. • Thereby, a research scheme is generated and then used for an extensive discussion of the literature. • The systematic literature review indicates that various smart city governance definitions exist, emphasizing on various focal points. • Also, this study reveals substantial variances in contextual factors, measurement techniques and outcomes among the concepts of smart city governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The data-driven approach to sustainable urban development is becoming increasingly popular among the cities across the world. This is due to cities’ attention in supporting smart and sustainable urbanism practices. In an era of digitalization of urban services and processes, which is upon us, platform urbanism is becoming a fundamental tool to support smart urban governance, and helping in the formation of a new version of cities—i.e., City 4.0. This new version utilizes urban dashboards and platforms in its operations and management tasks of its complex urban metabolism. These intelligent systems help in maintaining the robustness of our cities, integrating various sensors (e.g., internet-of-things) and big data analysis technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence) with the aim of optimizing urban infrastructures and services (e.g., water, waste, energy), and turning the urban system into a smart one. The study generates insights from the sensor city best practices by placing some of renowned projects, implemented by Huawei, Cisco, Google, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Alibaba, under the microscope. The investigation findings reveal that the sensor city approach: (a) Has the potential to increase the smartness and sustainability level of cities; (b) Manages to engage citizens and companies in the process of planning, monitoring and analyzing urban processes; (c) Raises awareness on the local environmental, social and economic issues, and; (d) Provides a novel city blueprint for urban administrators, managers and planners. Nonetheless, the use of advanced technologies—e.g., real-time monitoring stations, cloud computing, surveillance cameras—poses a multitude of challenges related to: (a) Quality of the data used; (b) Level of protection of traditional and cybernetic urban security; (c) Necessary integration between the various urban infrastructure, and; (d) Ability to transform feedback from stakeholders into innovative urban policies.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) is considered the foundation of digital transformation in everyday life, the Industrial IoT (IIoT) is considered its business counterpart. Together with the Physical Internet (PhI), they represent the foundation of smart production and logistics as part of the new digitized Society 5.0. Smart grids of different kinds with applications, ranging from power distribution to transportation, represent the infrastructure of smart cities and communities. Like with the PhI, they rely on the acceptance and integration of their services to fully unleash their potential. Hence, apart from the open interoperability model, which enables the interoperability and operational transparency of the IoT and IIoT, consistent design and development of their diverse augmented services is crucial for their wider acceptance as well as their safe and sustainable utilization.

This study explores how the perception of specific aspects of smart governance affects the business environment as to attract investment. To this end, we used a survey design and collected data from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou. A total of 500 responses from different industries and companies were obtained and then empirically analyzed using ridge regression and intermediary effect models. We found that the perception of smart governance enhances investment due to strong governance and abundant business opportunities. Natural sustainability attracts investment directly because, when cities become smart, they tend to improve their sustainability and attract talent and capital inflows. This external participation has a direct impact on enterprise investment because it creates more business opportunities. An improved social credit system represents the comprehensive progress of the business environment and positively mediates smart governance and investment. This is the first study to combine the key elements of smart governance, the development stage of smart governance, and various dimensions of the business environment to analyze the influence of smart governance perceptions on commercial investments., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Cities play a fundamental role in the economic development of the country. The vast majority of jobs, innovations and services are concentrated in the cities, thereby determining the country's economy. Currently, the Smart City is the key concept of sustainable urban development throughout the world. It covers a broad spectrum of issues related to effective, sustainable city management. Today, Kraków faces important challenges in the field of socio-economic and functional development. For years, the city's authorities have been undertaking activities aimed at making Kraków a smart and modern metropolis, based on scientific potential, while maintaining the unique historical and cultural heritage. The aim of the present work is to analyse the effectiveness of implementing the Smart City concept in Kraków. To achieve that goal, the most important resources, challenges and development aspirations of Kraków have been examined. The strategic objectives set out in the Kraków Development Strategy and the degree of development of selected elements and systems of the city were also analysed. An important element of the work is a questionnaire-based survey carried out among the residents of Kraków. The results of the analyses do not fully confirm the effectiveness of the measures implemented. A city that aspires to become a strong European metropolis should improve solutions to its current development problems, the most important of which include air quality and transport nuisance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart government relies both on the application of digital technologies to enable citizen's participation in order to achieve a high level of citizen centricity and on data-driven decision making in order to improve the quality of life of citizens. Data-driven decisions in turn depend on accessible and reliable datasets, which open government and social media data are likely to promise. The SmartGov project uses digital technologies by integrating open and social media data in Fuzzy Cognitive Maps to model real life problems and simulate different scenarios leading to better decision making. This research performed a multiple-case analysis in two pilot cities. Both municipalities use the technologies to find the best routes: Limassol to improve the garbage collection and Quart de Poblet to improve the walking routes of chaperones guiding children to school. The article proposes a generic framework for Smart City Governance focusing on the inputs and outcomes of this process in the use of technologies for policy making built based on the analysis of the SmartGov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reveals the concept and developed the model of an ideal smart city, analyzed the currently known international rankings, which assess different aspects of the development of smart cities. The advantages and features of ratings as a tool for presentation of the results for evaluation and comparison of smart cities. To construct the ideal model of a smart city, we will use the classical six smart characteristics: economy, governance, society, mobility, environment and life. The success of "smart city" directly depends on effective planning and control over its implementation, which determines the success of the overall restructuring program. The flexible approach to developing a restructuring program is a smart city roadmap, which, according to our proposal, consists of six stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This literature review has focused on smart governance as an emerging domain of study that attracts significant scientific and policy attention. More specifically, this paper aims to provide more insight in the definitions of and relationships between smart governance and concepts such as smart and electronic government, in the context of smart cities. The literature review shows that smart government can be considered as a basis for developing smart governance, through the application of emergent information and communication technologies (ICT) for governing. Smart governance as the intelligent use of ICT to improve decision-making through better collaboration among different stakeholders, including government and citizens, can be strongly related to government approaches. In this case ICT-based tools, such as social media, and openness can be factors that increase citizen engagement and support the development of new governance models for smart government. Smart governance may also have an important role in smart city initiatives, which require complex interactions between governments, citizens and other stakeholders. Based on the literature review, this paper coins a definition of ‘smart city governance’ and contributes to developing a framework for building new, smart governance models addressing the challenges of the digital society, collaborative governance, information sharing, citizen engagement, transparency and openness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government policies aim to address public issues and problems and therefore play a pivotal role in people's lives. The creation of public policies, however, is complex given the perspective of large and diverse stakeholders' involvement, considerable human participation, lengthy processes, complex task specification and the non-deterministic nature of the process. The inherent complexities of the policy process impart challenges for designing a computing system that assists in supporting and automating the business process pertaining to policy setup, which also raises concerns for setting up a tracking service in the policy-making environment. A tracking service informs how decisions have been taken during policy creation and can provide useful and intrinsic information regarding the policy process. At present, there exists no computing system that assists in tracking the complete process that has been employed for policy creation. To design such a system, it is important to consider the policy environment challenges; for this a novel network and goal based approach has been framed and is covered in detail in this paper. Furthermore, smart governance objectives that include stakeholders' participation and citizens' involvement have been considered. Thus, the proposed approach has been devised by considering smart governance principles and the knowledge environment of policy making where tasks are largely dependent on policy makers' decisions and on individual policy objectives. Our approach reckons the human dimension for deciding and defining autonomous process activities at run time. Furthermore, with the network-based approach, so-called provenance data tracking is employed which enables the capture of policy process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of urban sustainability is key to urban planning, and its usefulness extends to smart cities. Analyses of urban quality typically focus on applying methodologies that evaluate quality objectives at environmental, urban, and building levels. Research has shown that a system of indicators can be useful for developing qualitative and quantitative descriptors of urban environments. The first step in this study was to formulate a methodology to measure the quality of urban life based on investigative checklists and objective and subjective indicators, aggregated to develop an index to evaluate a city's level of smart urban quality. The second step was to apply this methodology to evaluate the city of Cagliari (Italy) at the neighbourhood scale, which is considered by literature the most suitable as a self-sufficient spatial unit for showing redevelopment results. In addition to sharing its research findings, this study aims to verify whether the methodology can be applied to similar urban contexts. The main outcomes of this research pertain to opportunities to numerically measure both objective and subjective aspects that affect urban quality. In this way, the most critical areas to be requalified have been highlighted in order to prepare policies congruent with the local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizens increasingly contribute directly to the evolution of sustainable cities, in particular where new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) promise to transform urban governance into 'Smart city governance' and where ICTs are integrated in strategies for citizen participation and the co-production of public services and policy. This article provides a multi-disciplinary understanding of Smart city governance, including new insights around the opportunities for citizen engagement in the co-production of service-delivery and decision-making. Using findings from a review of Smart cities literature and practice, the article aims to establish the breadth of Smart city initiatives which emphasise citizen participation and the realities of delivering such initiatives in complex city environments. Emphasising the emerging role of the technologically 'empowered' citizen, a new conceptual model is presented, where mutual trust, shared understanding and new opportunities for co-production emerge in an environment mediated by new technology - this form of Smart governance is referred to here as 'technologically-mediated municipal reciprocity'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Future Policy Modelling Project (FUPOL) is a research project funded by the 7th framework program of the European Union. Its research focus are new technologies and methods for e-governance, e-participation and policy modelling. The FUPOL consortium consists of partners from European countries, China and Kenya. and comprises innovative multinational companies, leading research institutes, high-level political organizations as well as strong pilot partners. This paper describes the FUPOL new integrated approach to policy design and implementation including also specific examples from real life pilots in cities from different countries. FUPOL consists of an advanced policy lifecycle and an IT-solution with features supporting all phases of the proposed lifecycle. The FUPOL concept and functional modules as well as the technical architecture to achieve such a complete integration are described.

Good governance practices through electronic government (eGov) platforms can be suitable instruments for strengthening the outcomes of smart city policies. While eGov is the application of information and communication technologies to public services, good governance defines how well public authorities manage public and social resources. Contemporary public management views, such as ‘new public service’, include citizen participation as a critical factor to sustainable government in smart cities. Public services, in the age of digital technology, need to not only be delivered through eGov platforms, but also need to be coproduced with the engagement of social players, e.g., citizens. In this sense, eGov platforms act as digital commons, and conceived as digital spaces, where citizens and public agents interact and collaborate. In this paper, we presented the Municipal eGov Platform Assessment Model (MEPA), which is a model specifically developed to evaluate eGov platforms regarding their potential to promote commons in smart cities. The study applied MEPA to 903 municipal websites across Brazil. The results revealed that the majority of investigated Brazilian eGov platforms have only a low level of digital commons maturity. This finding discloses less citizenship coproduction, and fewer opportunities for city smartness. As the MEPA model offers public authorities an instrument to depict weaknesses and strengths of municipal eGov platforms, its adoption provides an opportunity for authorities to plan and manage their platforms to act as promoters of digital commons and citizen coproduction.

This research proposes a conceptual model and a technological solution for the creation and consolidation of the Social Weave (social and human capital) for the development and effectiveness of Smart Governance mediated byInformation and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the context of Smart Cities. Premises of lifelong learning arising from globalization and the digital revolution used as a basis to improve the skills and competencies of people throughout life (criticalfor innovation,productivity and competitiveness), aiming their realization staff, their participation in society and succeed in the workplace. It also aims to create a framework to assist the government in defining the associated public policy.The design of methodologies for characterization of the population,the development of citizenship skills and digital skills in inclusive settings (using principles of instructional engineering) and customization of services offered on the websites of the Government on line is proposed. Similarly, from the point of view of government institutions, It takes into account processes of organizational learning (key to the success of the Government Online),in order to guide the transformation of information into knowledge, disseminate and exploit such knowledge to increase the innovative and competitive capacity of these institutions.For testing the model, a prototype of Local Government website for the city of Bucaramanga. The prototype is oriented to offering health services. This study case leads to build strategies to strengthen the relations Government to Citizen (G2C) and Citizen to government (C2G), as results, Citizens members of the Information Society (sensitized and trained ) and the Government entity as a knowledgeable of needs citizens that provides clear, intuitive and simple services to facilitate management and strengthen its relationship with the Citizen .The context of Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web,methods,techniques and tools of statistics and Artificial Intelligence are the technological implements that will allow to carry out the development and testing of these initiatives.

The detailed basemap of Madiun City, known as RDTR and RTRW has been developed in 2016 and approved by Indonesian Geospatial Information Agency (BIG). This detailed and accurate digital map is supposed to be used by Madiun City Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) and other units in Madiun City Government as their reference map. Several digital maps are being developed on top of this reference map, including the Madiun City Asset map which record all buildings and land areas owned by the Madiun City Government. To improve the usability and functionality of this asset map, an asset management system, based on WebGIS is proposed. In this WebGIS, city assets of land and buildings are coded and organized in a web-based application for a better management, and it can be accessed by public easily and quickly. The system development method is the Waterfall. ArcGIS Map is used as an online map platform for the visualization map of land and building asset in Madiun City. The current asset map contains more than 400 asset data with 17 categories. This WebGIS asset management system supports the smart governance in Madiun City toward the development of Madiun Smartcity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study addresses the concept of smart governance in the context of smart cities, with a focus on analyzing the phenomenon of smart collaboration. Relying on the existing collaboration and participation concepts in the smart city domain, an empirical analysis was undertaken of how ICT can promote collaborative governance and increase the participation and engagement in government. The multiple case studies focus on three cities in Brazil that run municipal operations centers in an effort to “become smarter”: Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and Belo Horizonte. Interviews with directors, managers, and technicians shed light on the contribution that ICT makes in promoting an environment of collaboration in the government. The findings have revealed that ICT has an important role in supporting information sharing and integration between government agencies and external stakeholders, including citizens, especially in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The current widespread attention on the concept of smart city in both policy and practice has stimulated academic discussion regarding the scope and applicability of this concept. An important question is whether cities and regions are truly advanced in implementing the concept in their policies and practices relative to its conceptual elaborations in academia. The aim of this paper is to analyse this congruence between theory and practice in the context of the ongoing transformations of railway station areas in European urban regions. Based on in-depth interviewing using aspects of Q-methodology, this paper investigates whether and how smart city concepts are implemented by stakeholders in three station redevelopment projects in the Netherlands. The results show that the current implementation of smart city concepts in practice is varied but modest and not (yet) very advanced. Knowledge exchange and innovations are currently hampered by a lack of acceptance and know-how among stakeholders, as well as by institutional and competitive constraints. For instance, stakeholders stress that data privacy regulations should be well organized before further implementation can occur. Transparency about how and what data are used may create more willingness among users to assist in developing and accepting new data technologies. However, the technologies are not yet completely developed, and concerns about the “loss” of personal privacy are holding back the widespread and advanced use of data supplied technologies. Although stakeholders seem to be aware of the opportunities the smart city concept offers, for now, the widespread implementation of innovative and advanced smart city concepts remains in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attention for Smart governance, a key aspect of Smart cities, is growing, but our conceptual understanding of it is still limited. This article fills this gap in our understanding by exploring the concept of Smart governance both theoretically and empirically and developing a research model of Smart governance. On the basis of a systematic review of the literature defining elements, aspired outcomes and implementation strategies are identified as key dimensions of Smart governance. Inductively, we identify various categories within these variables. The key dimensions were presented to a sample of representatives of European local governments to investigate the dominant perceptions of practitioners and to refine the categories. Our study results in a model for research into the implementation strategies, Smart governance arrangements, and outcomes of Smart governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Triple Helix Model, established by Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, is a model, which copes with different forms of university – industry – government interaction. It reacts on the rising uncertainty and ignorance in society, which are results of the developments towards a knowledge society. The defined organisational frameworks they illustrate, shall be evaluated with regards to their usability in the context of Smart Governance – a type of governance, which demands new, intelligent democratic structures as a foundation for a new way of governing society. Triple Helix constellations in the nanotechnological industry and in the context of different forms of security in society show that these structures are a useful instrument to generate intelligent solutions on certain societal problems. With regard to Smart Governance, Triple Helices are able to increase the intelligence of democratic structures and parts of their processes. In contrast, they lack influence on metarules. The capitalisation of knowledge is an influencing factor, which prevents a more general implementation of Triple-Helices.