Assessing the smart city: A review of metrics for performance assessment, risk assessment and construction ability assessment

Abstract

With the growing interest and concerns about the concept of smart city, assessing the smart city gains increasing attention from government planners, policy makers and related researchers around the world. This paper aims to provide a critical review of metrics involving national frameworks, institutional standards, and local reports, which focuses not only on the evaluation systems but also the assessing methodologies for assessing performance, risk and construction ability of smart cities. It is concluded that, most existing standards and research foci are on performance, and more attention needs to be paid to assessments of risk and construction ability. The former one suffers from the poor reliability and comparability resulting from massive indicators and unclear calculations, while the latter two are constrained by vague evaluation systems and insufficient method applications. Based on the comparison and discussion of the current research status, limitations and the future research directions, this research sheds light on better planning, monitoring and governance of smart cities. It also contributes to understanding and promoting the development of related research and even strategies or policies.

Keywords:

• smart cities
• performance assessment
• risk assessment
• construction ability assessment
• review

Acknowledgments

The draft of this work has once been discussed with Prof. Xiaoling ZHANG at Shenzhen Research Institute of City University of Hong Kong, and the author appreciates it greatly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Relevant data and information can be referred to IDC Worldwide Smart Cities Spending Guide released by International Data Corporation (2020), at: https://www.idc.com/cn/prodserv/new-research.

2. Relevant statistics can be collected in 2022 China Smart City Construction and Development Insight Report released by Tianyancha Research (2022), which is partly available at: http://www.100ec.cn/home/detail–6621829.html.

3. Relevant information concerning IBM smart cities (2011) can be available at: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/smartercities/us/en/.

4. Relevant information released by Intelligent Community Forum (2011) can be available at: http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/.

5. Relevant information can be available at: https://www.idc.com/ap/smartcities/#category_nominations.

6. Relevant information is presented in Shanghai: Smart City Evaluation Index System 2.0 released by Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Government (2012), which is available at: http://www.pudong.gov.cn/website/html/shpd/pudongNews_inform/Info/Detail_451178.htm.