Smart cities are cities created with the vision of combining information and communication technologies. This is achieved by including IoT solutions to manage the city. Management implies the management of a city's assets, for example power plants, healthcare systems, transportation systems, schools, libraries, sewage systems, waste management systems, and law enforcement systems. The Internet of Things is used to enhance the quality and ease of interactivity. The goal is to improve the quality of the city by automating various aspects of life in a city. Smart cities don't just emphasize automation, but also try to increase the quality of communication by providing new means.
By bringing technology into urban life, management can be made easy. It can also improve the relationship between the people and the city's authorities. A smart city can also be referred to as an information city, a knowledge-based city, telecity, teletopia, mesh city, cyberville, digital city, electronic communities, wired city, and so on. Many major cities are in the fight to achieve the status of a smart city. Some examples of smart cities are Milton Keynes, Southampton, Laguna Croata, Manchester, New Songdo City, Santa Cruz, Singapore, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, and Stockholm. On the other hand, Tel Aviv, Israel was awarded the World Smart City Award in 2014.
There are six aspects of smart cities: living, environment, people, governance, mobility, and economy. Smart cities needs to satisfy each of these aspects. This means that for smart cities, all decisions (either technical or financial) should be taken by considering all these six aspects.
An abstract diagram depicting the vision of smart cities is shown here:
