Sustainability, Resilience, and Smartness: A Novel City Characterization Diagram

Abstract

The transition of cities toward smartness has accelerated in recent years, yet the interplay between smartness, sustainability, and resilience (SSR) remains underexplored, posing challenges in establishing comprehensive indicators for smart city development. This study introduces a multidimensional approach to analyse and visualize the interconnections between SSR parameters, which can be incorporated with multidimensional SSR frameworks in order to offer a unified, quantitative perspective. This study was initiated by integrating a comprehensive dataset of 31 Chinese cities and employing a multivariate linear regression model. The model showed a high-quality performance with an R-squared value of 0.9977, showcasing exceptional predictive accuracy. The proposed method introduces the ZOG diagram—a ternary plot that uniquely captures the ideal equilibrium among SSR indices. This diagram allows cities to be classified based on their SSR performance, identifying deviations from ideal development and providing actionable insights for policymakers. Additionally, the Biased Development Coefficient (κ) is introduced as a metric that quantifies development disparities and assess alignment with balanced SSR growth. By incorporating these advancements, the approach enables real-time monitoring, classification, and strategic planning for urban development, surpassing the limitations of existing methodologies. This study offers high capabilities and potential for understanding SSR interdependencies, laying the groundwork for universally applicable frameworks to evaluate smart city performance and guide sustainable, resilient urban transformation