Digitalization – The Key to Smart City Development

Abstract

By addressing the theme of smart city, we have set out to illustrate some of the challenges that can arise in the intelligent development of cities, in order to adapt the public services provided to the needs of a number of constantly evolving inhabitants and to their increased demands. The aim of the work is to present, through a comparative analysis, Romania's situation with other European countries, concerning the composite index of the digital economy and society, as well as the direct link between the evolution of urban income and activities using digital technology. The challenges of transition processes, for smart city development, stem from the need to identify the optimal mechanisms to be used by city administrations so that the decision-making level supports scientific and practical methods of analyzing existing situations and communities' future needs, and the digitalization of all areas of activity is a key element supporting the strategic goals of a smart city.

Keywords

• development
• smart city
• challenges
• digitalization