Smart capital cities: towards a smart new administrative capital (NAC)

Smart city dimensions

Since their first appearance in the literature in 1997, smart cities have exploded in popularity, attracting major scientific and industrial attention. The goal of smart communities is to promote cities that provide basic infrastructure and provide a fair quality of life for their residents, as well as a clean and sustainable environment using “smart application” solutions.

The smart city’s dimensions are linked to traditional urban development and growth theories like transportation, economy, natural resources, quality of life, and participation. Figure 1 shows these six dimensions that are involved in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) and innovation by cities (new, existing, or districts) to maintain economic, social, and environmental sustainability and address multiple challenges (people, economy, governance, mobility, environment and living).³

Figure 1. Six core domains of a Smart City.

A simple hierarchic structure shown in Figure 2 was developed to describe a smart city and its six dimensions, where each level is described by the results of the level below. As a result, each dimension is defined by a set of factors and each of which is described by a set of indicators.

Figure 2. Structuring the analysis.

The factors were defined in several workshops, with the overall goal of smart city development in mind. Finally, 33 factors were chosen to describe the six dimensions. Those six dimensions and their assigned factors represented in Figure 3 below help researchers in developing a framework for evaluating the performance of smart cities. Innovation, entrepreneurship, trademarks, productivity, and labor market flexibility, as well as integration in the (inter-)national market, are all factors that contribute to a smart economy. Smart people are defined not only by their level of qualification or education, but also by the quality of their social interactions in terms of integration and public life, as well as their openness to the “outside” world. Political involvement, citizen services, and administrative efficiency all fall under the umbrella of smart governance.⁴

Figure 3. Characteristics and factors of a smart city.

All Figures 1, 2 & 3 were acquired from Rudolf Giffinger journal article with a permission and were edited by the researcher.

City Keys smart cities performance framework

The City Keys framework has five basic dimensions, with relative weights ranging from 13% to 27%, and weights distributed to each dimension based on performance measurement indicators.

A set of indicators was designed to evaluate smart city projects and the performance of smart cities for the City Keys framework based on a study of indicators from 43 existing indicators; new indicators were also proposed to fill gaps in existing frameworks, mostly related to specific characteristics of smart city projects.

The following is how the indicators were organized in a framework: people, planet, and prosperity, with specific smart city indicators and sub-themes that match key policy goals, were identified. Indicators for evaluating smart city projects that assess or evaluate individual projects, indicate the impact of the project, or compare projects. City indicators can be used to show the extent to which public policy objectives have been met. Smart city indicators focus on monitoring the development of the city towards a smarter city development over time.⁵

International Standardization Organization (ISO)

The ISO/TS 37151 standard was published in October 2015 and covers:

ISO is a global federation of national standards organizations (ISO member bodies). International standards are usually developed by ISO technical commissions, and each interested member body has the right to form a technical committee and be represented on it. Intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations also participate in collaboration with the (ISO) technical standardization committee.

ISO/TC 268 on sustainable development in communities and SC1 on smart community infrastructures are the committees responsible for this document. Quality of life, economic growth, poverty reduction, pollution control, and congestion relief are all goals that communities strive to achieve. Communities and their activities benefit from community infrastructure such as energy, water, transportation, waste management, and ICT.

As a result, investing in such infrastructures allows communities to achieve internationally recognized societal goals (such as the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations [MDGs]).⁵

Standards for the Regional Science Center at the Vienna Technical University

A group of researchers from the Technical University of Vienna’s Regional Science Center identified 31 factors to evaluate smart cities, which fall under the smart city’s dimensions (smart economy, smart people, smart government, smart mobility, smart environment, smart life), and selected 74 indicators to analyze the performance of each factor.

The criteria were based on the smart city concept, which was used to express areas that use information and communication technologies, cities with smart industries, industries that use technologies in production processes, as well as cities that seek to develop the education system, in other words, the city with the most intelligent people.

The interaction between the government and citizens, as well as the employment of new technologies in daily life, are all part of this concept. Technology refers to a variety of ideas such as modern transportation technologies, sustainability, energy, security, and safety, in addition to information and communication technologies. Each level of the assessment expresses the level before it, so each dimension is represented by several factors, and each factor is represented by indicators in Table 1.⁵

The relative weight is evenly distributed among the six main dimensions, with each accounting for 16.67 percent of the overall relative weight. The relative weight of each sub-criterion is shown separately in Table 1. According to 2015 data, the Vienna Technical University framework (as an integrated framework) was used to assess the performance of seven European cities: Bonn, Bristol, Stockholm, Rennes, Helsinki, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen. As illustrated in Figure 4 and Figure 5, the six dimensions of the framework are rated on a scale of +2 to -2 for each dimension; the last column shows the overall average rating. Figure 5 illustrates the composition of the total rating by characteristics for each city.

Figure 4. Application of the Vienna Technical University framework to measure the performance of smart cities on seven European cities.

Figure 5. Final rating and composition.

Figures 4 & 5 were acquired from Rudolf Giffinger journal article with permission and were edited by the researcher.

A smart capital city, which incorporates information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve the quality and performance of urban services such as energy, transportation, and utilities, and uses smart application systems to cover the dimensions of the smart city in order to reduce resource consumption, wastage, overall costs, and to improve the quality of living for its citizens through smart technology, could be a solution given to a deteriorated overcrowded capital city. Studying successful examples that have faced comparable issues can facilitate the development of one of these evaluation criteria, resulting in a framework that can be used to assess the performance of smart cities.³

Cyberjaya, Malaysia

In 1999, Cyberjaya was the first Malaysian smart city to launch. Its main goal was to serve as a hub for information technology (IT) companies, encouraging investors to set up shop there.

The city used a variety of applications, including:

The smart city applications developed by Cyberjaya aim to support the multimedia corridor project’s growth, increase competitiveness, and close the digital divide, which is the gap between demographics and regions with access to modern information and communication technology such as telephones, televisions, computers, and the internet.

Songdo, Korea

Songdo was built as a growth pole in the multi-central region of the capital city. It is a financial, technological, and research center that focuses on technical and knowledge-based sectors as the primary engines of Korean economic growth.

This city is known as the “Northeast Asia Gateway” and is known as the International City or Smart City. Songdo followed a sustainable development strategy to solve environmental challenges, it is ranked 122 out of 146 in the 2005 Sustainable Environmental Classification, while Korea was classified among the top 10 countries in CO2 emissions by the International Energy Agency in 2005.

Songdo used a variety of applications, including:

Songdo provides good communications, transport and cultural facilities, infrastructure, business climate and better quality of life, and offers incentives for foreign investment and multinational companies through tax exemptions for foreign investment.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The transformation of Dubai into a smart city is part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government’s aim to strengthen Dubai’s commercial and economic hub, rather than relying solely on the oil economy. The objectives were to use information and communication technology to create an atmosphere that draws foreign corporations, so promoting the local economy, as well as to attract clever talent, as the knowledge economy is dependent on humans.

Dubai’s smart applications are:

Dubai has an electronic administration center that communicates with the public using electronic and multi-media channels, putting the city on the worldwide map. Apart from that, the government should promote the telecommunications industry and infrastructure by creating an investment climate that attracts investment, experience, and well-known international corporations, as well as reducing barriers for foreign investors in computer software and hardware. As concluded from studying the previous Asian examples; It was clarified that new smart cities need few elements to exist, these requirements were repeated in most of the previous examples which are ICT infrastructure, building skills and abilities, and “smart applications” which were distinguished to be used to bring intelligence to cities. Each application refers to a certain dimension from the six dimensions of the smart city.

The use of ICTs to improve and develop working in many sectors of the smart city has been proven in a number of nations. As a result, it is critical to develop electronic applications in critical sectors as shown in Table 2, and these apps should be adapted to the preferences of each city, whether in the fields of education, health, government, tourism, or industry. To get the most out of electronic applications, they should be adapted to the local needs, available to the broadest possible audience, and simple to use.

Bristol, United Kingdom

Bristol is geographically well-connected to the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world. The port and airport provide important links for business to international partners. Bristol Airport is the UK’s ninth largest airport, and the fifth largest outside of London, with ambitions to rapidly expand to 12 million passengers per year.

The following are some of the problems that Bristol faces:

Smartness has the following characteristics:

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm was named as the first European Green Capital in 2010. The assessment was based on a number of criteria, including climate impact, local transports, green areas and air quality.

One of the issues facing Stockholm is that the population is predicted to grow by more than 11% between 2014 and 2020, or 50 people each day on average. Furthermore, Sweden is one of the world’s top ten most globalised countries, resulting in increased international travel and communication to the capital.¹²

The City of Stockholm approved the Smart and Connected City Strategy in 2017, which claims that by 2040, the city intends to be the world’s smartest and most connected city.

Features of being smart:

The capital has the world’s largest open fiber network and a 100 percent broadband coverage¹² which helps in:

Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki, the capital of Finland, is the administrative center of the country. With a population of 650,000, the total area of the city is 719 km². One of the problems Helsinki faces is the rapid growth in the population, as it is growing at a rate of 0.75-1.2%, which increases the need for smart management of city resources.¹³

Features of being smart: improving the personnel’s capabilities in emerging digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and a new data-based concept of ‘smart education’, is one of Helsinki’s aims. The smart education concept utilizes data analytics, providing more individual learning designs and experiences.¹⁴

Households’ proportion with more than two working adults were 23.1%, 67.0%, and 73.3%, respectively.

Helsinki City Council helps to encourage innovation by offering a platform for bringing together various smart city stakeholders, including application developers, investors, and regulatory organizations.

So, As concluded from studying the previous European examples, it is clarified that Smart applications vary from one smart city to another, but they all contribute to improving the quality of smart city dimensions’ factors by improving city services and living experiences of citizens as shown in Tables 3, 4 & 5. To measure the performance of smart cities, Vienna University technical framework could be used which has been applied to seven European cities in 2015 by rating is in the range from 2 to -2

Smart applications vary each city, depending on citizen expectations; they help to achieve the smart city dimension’s goal to improve city services. As shown in Tables 6 & 7, for the previous studied European examples examined in 2015, the dimension in which each city focused on building its related smart apps had a higher value than the other dimensions. This shows that smart application has an impact on the value of smart dimension evaluations, which in turn has an impact on the overall smartness of a city.

Improving services for citizens

E-Health and E-Education – All medical and educational facilities must have the proper connectivity through the FTTx or IoT network to guarantee the e-Health and e-Education services deliverability according to their scope of work. All hospitals and clinics will be interconnected through a unified system to ensure the quality of health services offered to citizens across the whole city.

Smart cards – Access control, digital identity, and payments for all services such as utilities, parking, and transit will all be managed with a single card.

Public Wi-Fi – With focus on infrastructure and connectivity, free Wi-Fi will be provided in public areas to help citizens in business and governmental districts stay connected.

Portable cell tower – The new administrative capital and the telecommunication company implemented the first sample of a shared portable cell tower shown in Figure 9 for five different mobile network companies to cope with 4G and the 5^th generation.¹⁶

Figure 9. Portable cell tower.

Energy sources and utilities

Photovoltaic (PV) system – The system will be an on-grid PV system shown in Figure 10 connected to the low voltage side of the project buildings’ distribution substations, and 50% of the roof top of each building will be reserved for PV system. The system will be equipped with smart metering system connected to the City Operation Center (COC). No batteries are required due to the high cost and inefficiencies of batteries.¹⁶

Figure 10. PVs on Ministries buildings’ roofs.

Smart meters – Smart meters are smart utility network systems that enable the management and operation of vital facilities (electricity water gas) with cost and distribution efficiency.

Smart waste management – System components will be managed by the COC through IoT platform to ensure operational efficiency and waste reduction across the city.

Roads and transportation

Electric car charging stations – The electric car charging stations will be built and distributed across the city to encourage the use of electric cars with the focus on saving the environment and reducing pollution.

Intelligent traffic and public transportation – Live updates on traffic to ensure smooth and easy trips for all citizens and to manage traffic lights, bus stations, gates, speed limits, gas stations, emergency situations and road directions based on real-time information.

Smart street light column – designed to be sustainable street column repeated each 250 meters as shown in Figure 11 with exchangeable units utilized as cameras, public Wi-Fi, public addresses, digital ads, environmental sensors, cell phone network strengthening units, charging electric cars and smart lighting.¹⁶

Figure 11. Smart Street light column.

Smart parking – The smart parking system will make it easier for citizens to discover parking places and to pay for and reserve them.

The new administrative capital is implementing smart applications in several areas as shown in Table 9 in seeking to be a smart city, as the evaluation of smart cities should compromise “smart applications” as a measuring indicator which measures the smart cities’ performance.