دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی عملکرد های بین اندازه و شاخص های شهرهای هوشمند - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

The paper focusses on the concept of a smart city and its specific components in relation to size of the city. Smart cities are a topic whose key importance is being increasingly recognised across both academic disciplines and urban planning. The idea of a smart city is a dream of urban planners all over the world, and a subject of many research and business initiatives as well as policy debates. As cities vary considerably in size, it is important to ask if the size influences the level of selected indicators of smart cities. Our main presumption is that the development level of indicators of smart cities varies in cities of different size. Our scientific objective is to find a simple understandable model linking the categorical variable “city size” to a group of smart city indicators. Our data set contains 26 smart city indicators for 158 European smart cities, divided into two sizes: medium-sized cities and larger cities. We draw from the methodology of “European Smart Cities” elaborated by the Vienna University of Technology (Project ID: 314704) that classify European smart cities and smart city indicators by considering their size. Analysing the statistics by using decision tree modelling, we identify the most significant indicators of smart cities that can divide smart cities into size categories with impressive 96.2% correct classification. Besides excellent classification result based on real empirical data, several research results overturn common assumptions about smart cities. Based on the research results the paper also highlights intriguing future challenges in smart city research and policy development. Several research results have policy implications and might be useful for urban planners, policy representatives and decision makers.

6. Conclusion, research and policy challenges

Besides above mentioned interesting and challenging research results, our paper contains several original ideas, excellent statistical results and contribution to literature and practice in terms of future urban planning and decision making.

Considering existing knowledge and experience from academia and practice, we can identify two approaches in the definition of smart cities. The first approach may be defined as technocratic. Technocratic approach is based on the preference of technical solutions, in particular the use of modern ICTs and their massive exploitation in urban planning. From our point of view, this technocratic approach refers mainly to ʻdigitalʼ, ʻcyberʼ (for more information see Scott, 2016) or ʻintelligentʼ cities (see for example Komninos, 2002, 2013; Paskaleva, 2014). Second approach may be defined as integrated approach. Besides the role of ICT, integrated approach advocate the importance of human aspect (inter alia Caragliu et al., 2011, 2014, Dameri, 2017, Dameri, Sabroux, & Negre, 2016, Giffinger et al., 2007, Hollands, 2008, Nam & Pardo, 2011). In principle, we can talk about smart solutions that concern management, organization and processes. We incline towards integrated approach because of its complexity and orientation on integrity, not only partial technical solutions. In coherence with above mentioned is an approach that adopts European Parliament (2014). The evolution of each particular smart city is shaped by a complex mix of technologies, social and economic factors, governance arrangements, policy and business drivers. The implementation of the Smart City concept, therefore, follows very varied paths depending on each city's specific policies, objectives, but also size, funding and scope. Big investment into ICT, as required in technocratic approach, may not always be the best or the most efficient solution for smaller and medium-sized smart cities. Return of such investments may not always be reliable for smart cities of smaller size. This is the first added value of our paper in terms of enriching current theoretical knowledge on smart cities. Besides, the paper contributes to the literature in following important ways. Although there are several studies that investigate the relationship between urbanization and economic growth, this particular paper analyses the so far understudied relationship between city size and smart cities performance. Another contribution to literature relates to the analysis of significant indicators that allow division of smart cities into size categories. More precisely, the paper explores how the city size shaped individual components (characteristics and indicators) of smart cities.