Smart Cities Essay

Smart cities are becoming a phenomenon worldwide and countries are trying to be part of this phenomenon by converting one of its cities to be smart. The smart city has different acronyms such as intelligent city, sustainable city, eco-city, knowledge city, and digital city (MANVILLE, et al., 2014). A smart city is defined as the city which applies the “information and communication technology (ICT)” in most of its vital aspects such as economic, social and environmental aspects. It aims to improve the quality of life as well as meeting the different needs of its current and future generations. Also, it is looking for generating value for people to which they can cope with life and world changes. In order to reach their goals and be smart cities, countries need to pay attention to the

First, starting with the factors of success which are setting a clear vision, defining people involved in the process, and the process of transformation. Second, countries should consider that urban areas are a place to introduce new policies and regulations related to environment and economy. Therefore, urbanizations will encourage innovations especially if the plan is to convert the city to a smart one. There are many reasons that prove the importance of innovation to build a smart city because they need new products, new services, and new processes to make the life easier for citizens and provide a sustainable lifestyle. Innovation is reorganizing, restructuring, reproducing, and renovation, in order to make sure the success is continuous which smart cities are looking for. Building smart cities depend on three main things; hardware by introducing sensors, software by linking sensors together, and business models. Sensors are the start point for innovation in smart cities to which open the opportunities to explore more