A Taxonomy of Smart Cities Initiatives

Abstract

Governments are required by the increasing urbanisation to provide new and innovative services. Information and Communication Technologies have emerged as key drivers in the redefinition of the city mechanism and its relationship with citizens. In the newest paradigms, cities constitute an environment for implementing innovative actions and promoting the contribution of many stakeholders. Several studies have analysed and assessed the "smart city" as an ecosystem with focus on challenges, performance indicators, and barriers; or have proposed taxonomies for its evaluation and frameworks for its definition. But not much has been done for classifying possible smart cities implementations. The aim of this study is to review and categorise the smart cities developments in the municipality operational areas, to map the implemented initiatives and to propose a living taxonomy of smart cities possible actions. The suggested taxonomy consists of ten primary areas and 85 developments. This study is a first attempt to introduce a comprehensive taxonomy in order to support decision-makers planning the future of their cities as well as to serve as a reference model for the communication among the actors of the quadruple helix towards next developments prioritization.