Page 13 - Digital solutions for integrated city management and use cases: A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

1 Introduction

1.1 Context and background

Since first mainstreaming in the early 1990s, the "Smart City" concept has transitioned from the use
of information technology to help address cities’ needs, to also include a focus on sustainability
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– along with resilience, inclusiveness, citizen engagement, and participation. This transition has
occurred, in large part, due to the rise of new digital technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence,
BlockChain, Cloud Computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart embedded devices can
provide city managers of real-time spatial, economic, and environmental data for improved and
agile decision-making. The city data platform infrastructure is a key element of this transformation
that assures seamless communication between heterogeneous systems and technologies.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – the United Nations specialized agency for
information and communication technologies (ICTs) – has accordingly put forth the concept of
“Smart Sustainable Cities” (SSC) in conjunction with other UN bodies.

Smart sustainable cities are defined in the Recommendation ITU-T Y.4900: “Overview of key
performance indicators in smart sustainable cities”:

“A smart sustainable city is an innovative city that uses information and communication
technologies (ICTs) and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation
and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future
generations with respect to economic, social, environmental as well as cultural aspects."

City competitiveness in the definition above refers to “policies, institutions, strategies, processes
(and innovation) that determine the city's sustainable productivity” .
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Smart sustainable cities successfully adopt advanced forms of digital technologies and ICTs
to improve their performance in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the
requirements of urban growth and technological proliferation. In doing so strategically, they tap
into the tremendous potential that exists to enhance urban operations, functions, services, designs,
strategies, and policies for the benefit of citizens and the environment.

Smart sustainable cities do this, in part, by combining the role of ICTs as the platform for the
aggregation of information and data (city platform) with traditional infrastructures. ICTs in smart
sustainable cities provide valuable insights into how the city functions in terms of resource
consumption and services.

U4SSC: Digital solutions for integrated city management & use cases 1