Measuring Success in the Development of Smart and Sustainable Cities

As cities increasingly become hubs for the world’s population, their built environments and existing infrastructure are often inadequate to respond to population growth and changing resident needs. In addition, cities contribute disproportionately to climate change. It has become imperative, therefore, to develop methods for creating “Smart Cities,” that use technology, design, and metrics to improve efficiency, reduce emissions, and improve lives for their citizens. The Smart City movement has become global. The movement has, in turn, produced a range of measurement systems available to help cities set and then work toward both smart city and sustainability goals. Three of the most widely adopted are the British Standards Institute (BSI) Maturity Model, the International Standards Organization (ISO) standard indicators for city services and quality of life, and the IDC Smart Cities MaturityScape. Rather than choosing between them, managers tasked with developing smart city approaches would do well to combine the three for the most complete picture. Together, they offer not only quantitative measures, but also aspirational models and a path toward smart city “maturity.”