Transforming cities through digital innovations is becoming an imperative for every city. The 'Smart City' concept promises to solve the most urgent queries of progressive urbanization in the area of mobility, energy, water supply, security, housing deprivation, and inclusion. Despite the exploitation of existing potential in lighthouse-cities including Barcelona, Munich, Lyon, and Vienna, the unambitious pursuit of smart city possibilities in the majority of municipalities has resulted in major discrepancies between leading smart cities and those that are less aspirational. Although the necessity of action is frequently recognised, an appropriate path of action remains obscure. Smart Cities: Introducing Digital Innovations to Cities offers answers with clarifying examples, to questions that have stayed unanswered for many cities:
What core elements constitute smart cities?
How can the digital shadow of city elements be utilized?
Where lies the greatest potential? What is the ideal starting point?
What procedures have other cities applied?
What can be learned from greenfield-approaches of Chinese smart cities?
What methods and tools can be implemented in cities?
What are promising business models for private-public partnerships?
How can diverse stakeholders be effectively integrated?
How can the digital shadow of a city be systematically extended? Based on perennial international research in the field of smart cities, this book brings together the authors' collective experience in practice-based political, administrative, and economic projects to provide a common framework to guide and engage key stakeholders in the transformation and realization of smart cities.
