Multiagency Modeling of Transformation Strategies Towards Sustainable Smart Cities

Abstract

Given the relentless development of intelligent information and communication technology (ICT) systems, a growing need for cities to transform towards smart solutions and, on the other hand, a lack of firm methodological approaches to implement such transformations, the paper contributes to establishing a theory for modeling the transformation of cities towards sustainable, smart cities. The article presents the results of research: a model and a visualization method for supporting cities in elaborating and implementing transformation strategies. The authors’ experience is that intelligible, algorithmizable, and easily visualized models are being sought to assist city authorities in making informed decisions regarding the development of their cities. The paper proposes the concepts of the smartness zone and sustainability corridor, which allow one to devise and visualize the process of a city’s development and transformation in a simple, coherent, and comprehensible way, and to observe and monitor its development path. It presents a new generic instrument for modeling transformation strategies, which are the tools addressed to municipal authorities, analysts, and developers who can use them in order to design, implement, monitor, and optimize transformation strategies towards smart cities.

Keywords

• smart city
• transformation strategy
• modeling methodology
• information and communication technologies (icts)