The following is a list of cities that have implemented smart city initiatives, organized by continent and then alphabetically.
The Institute for Management Development and Singapore University of Technology and Design rank cities in the Smart City Index based on technological, economic, and human criteria (e.g., quality of life, the environment, and inclusiveness). In the Smart City Index 2023, the top 15 smart cities were, in order, Zürich, Oslo, Canberra, Copenhagen, Lausanne, London, Singapore, Helsinki, Geneva, Stockholm, Hamburg, Beijing, Abu Dhabi, Prague, and Amsterdam. Since the index's first publication in 2019, Zürich and Oslo have consistently ranked first and second.
Africa The New Capital, Egypt
Asia
Dubai, UAE In 2013, the Smart Dubai project was initiated by Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president of the UAE, which contained more than 100 initiatives to make Dubai a smart city by 2030. The project aimed to integrate the private and public sectors, enabling citizens to access these sectors through their smartphones. Some initiatives include the Dubai Autonomous Transportation Strategy to create driverless transits, fully digitizing government, business and customer information and transactions, and providing citizens 5000 hotspots to access government applications by 2021.Smart Dubai 2021. (2018). Retrieved from https://2021.smartdubai.ae/
Two mobile applications, mPay and DubaiNow, provide a range of payment services for citizens, from utilities and traffic fines to educational, health, transport, and business services. In addition, the Smart Nol Card is a unified, rechargeable card that enables citizens to pay for all transportation services, including the metro, buses, water buses, and taxis. There is also the Dubai Municipality's Digital City initiative, which assigns each building a unique QR code that citizens can scan to access information about the building, plot, and location.
The Smart City Index 2021, published by the Institute for Management Development and Singapore University of Technology and Design, ranked Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the smartest cities in the region of the Middle East and North Africa, and in positions 28 and 29 worldwide.
GIFT City, India
GIFT City is India's first operational greenfield smart city. It is being developed as an international financial hub. Work on core infrastructure has fully been completed. It is the first South Asian city which has a centralised district cooling centre and automated solid waste collection system. Many commercial buildings, a school, and the Gujarat Biotechnology University are complete. Work on several residential projects is ongoing. Two international stock exchanges, international banks, and fintech firms are currently operating from this city. IBM opened its software lab in the city in September 2022. Work on GIFT Riverfront started in September 2022.
Chennai, India Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu which will be developed into a Smart City. The Chennai Smart City project has focused on accomplishing Smart Energy, Smart Water, Smart Environment, Smart Mobility, and Smart Technology. The project successfully rejuvenated 210 water bodies, which improved groundwater levels. The CSC project constructed a suspension glass floor bridge making a stunning tourist attraction. The project plans to make the quality of life in the city better through these initiatives. Work on the CSC project began in 2015 and was expected to finish in June 2024. The CEO of the project is Raj Cherubal.
Isfahan, Iran Isfahan has a smart city program, a unified human resources administration system, and transport system.
Neom, Saudi Arabia
NEOM () is the name of a future planned city to be built in Tabuk Province in northwestern Saudi Arabia. It is planned to incorporate smart city technologies and to function as a tourist destination. The site is north of the Red Sea, east of Egypt across the Gulf of Aqaba, and south of Jordan. It will cover a total area of 26,500 km2 (10,200 sq mi) and will extend 460 km along the coast of the Red Sea.
New Songdo City, South Korea
Songdo International Business District is planned to be a smart city.
Shanghai, China Shanghai has seen considerable productivity gains from the development of the IoT and high-speed broadband connectivity. During the first China International Import Expo, Shanghai focused on smart mobility and installed sensors to accept smartphone traffic cards at all metro stations and on buses to improve mobility.
Singapore
Singapore, a city-state, has embarked on transforming into a "Smart Nation" and endeavors to harness the power of networks, data, and information and communication technologies to improve living conditions, create economic opportunities, and build closer communities.
Taipei, Taiwan
Taipei started the "smarttaipei" project in 2016, whose main concept is to change the culture of the city hall government to adopt new ideas and concepts through a bottom-up mechanism. The Taipei City government established the "Taipei Smart City Project Management Office", also known as the "PMO", to implement and govern the development of the smart city. Thereafter, building an innovation matchmaking platform to connect industry and government resources to develop smart solutions that meet public needs.
PMO accepts proposals from industry and helps negotiate with the relevant department of Taipei City to initiate a new proof-of-concept (PoC) project, using a matchmaking platform that allows citizens to access necessary innovative technologies. There are more than 150 PoC Project established, and only 34% project finished.
Australia
Brisbane Brisbane launched a project to install poles across the city to monitor key metrics such as air quality and environmental noise. The information they collect is used by the city council to improve operations around the city. They also serve as street lights, have outlets for charging, and Wi-Fi.
In 2023, the Salisbury smart cities controversy arose after a proposal for smart city technology in the South Australian local government area of City of Salisbury was met with community backlash, leading to a range of conspiracy theories.
Europe
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Amsterdam smart city initiative, which began in 2009, currently includes 170+ projects developed collaboratively by local residents, the government, and businesses. These projects run on an interconnected platform through wireless devices to enhance the city's real-time decision-making abilities.
To promote efforts from local residents, the City runs the Amsterdam Smart City Challenge annually, accepting proposals for applications and developments that fit within the city's framework. An example of a resident developed app is Mobypark, which allows owners of parking spaces to rent them out to people for a fee. The data generated from this app can then be used by the city to determine parking demand and traffic flows in Amsterdam. A number of homes have also been equipped with smart energy meters, and incentives are available for those who actively reduce energy consumption.
Other initiatives include flexible street lighting (smart lighting) which allows municipalities to control the brightness of street lights, and smart traffic management where traffic is monitored in real time by the city and information about current travel time on certain roads is broadcast to allow motorists to determine the best routes to take. The City of Amsterdam claims the purpose of the projects is to reduce traffic, save energy, and improve public safety.
Barcelona, Spain Barcelona has established several projects that can be considered 'smart city' applications as part of its "CityOS" strategy. For example, sensor technology has been implemented in the irrigation system in Parc del Centre de Poblenou, where real time data is transmitted to gardening crews about the level of water required for the plants. Barcelona has also designed a new bus network based on data analysis of the most common traffic flows in Barcelona, utilising primarily vertical, horizontal and diagonal routes with a number of interchanges. Integration of multiple smart city technologies can be seen through the implementation of smart traffic lights as buses run on routes designed to optimise the number of green lights. In addition, when an emergency is reported in Barcelona, the approximate route of the emergency vehicle is entered into the traffic light system, setting all the lights to green as the vehicle approaches through a mix of GPS and traffic management software, allowing emergency services to reach the incident without delay. Much of this data is managed by the Sentilo Platform.
Copenhagen, Denmark In 2014, Copenhagen claimed the prestigious World Smart Cities Award for its "Connecting Copenhagen" smart city development strategy. Positioned in the Technical and Environmental Administration of Copenhagen, the smart city initiatives are coordinated by Copenhagen Solutions Lab, the city's administrative unit for smart city development. There are other notable actors in Greater Copenhagen that coordinate and initiate smart city initiatives, including State of Green and Gate21, the latter of which has initiated the innovation hub smart city Cluster Denmark.
In an article with The Economist, a current major smart city project is explained: "In Copenhagen, as in many cities around the world, air quality is high on the agenda when it comes to liveability, with 68 percent of citizens citing it as of high importance when it comes to what makes their city attractive. To monitor pollution levels, Copenhagen Solutions Lab is currently working with Google and has installed monitoring equipment in their streetview car in order to produce a heatmap of air quality around the city. The information will help cyclists and joggers plan routes with the best air quality. The project also gives a glimpse of the future, when this kind of information could be collected in real time by sensors all over the city and collated with traffic flow data."
In another article with The World Economic Forum, Marius Sylvestersen, Program Director at Copenhagen Solutions Lab, explains that public-private collaborations must be built on transparency and a willingness to share data, and be driven by the same set of values. This requires a particularly open mindset from the organisations that wish to get involved. To facilitate open collaboration and knowledge-sharing, Copenhagen Solutions Lab launched the Copenhagen Street Lab in 2016. Here, organisations such as TDC, Citelum, and Cisco collaborate with Copenhagen Solutions Lab to identify new solutions to city and citizen problems.
Dublin, Ireland Dublin has been referred to as an unexpected capital for smart cities. The smart city programme for the city is run by Smart Dublin an initiative of the four Dublin Local Authorities to engage with smart technology providers, researchers and citizens to solve city challenges and improve city life. It includes Dublinked - Dublin's open data platform that hosts open-source data for smart city applications.
Gdynia, Poland
Gdynia was the first city in Eastern Europe to receive the ISO 37120 certificate issued by the World Council on City Data. In 2015, the TRISTAR intelligent road traffic management system was implemented in the city. Trolleybuses in Gdynia have been operating since 1943 and are still being developed as low-emission transport - some of them have their own batteries, which allows them to reach areas with no traction.
Over 200 sets of up-to-date data from 21 areas of the city's functioning are published on the Open Data portal. The data sets meet the requirements for machine readability and are also presented in a way that is comprehensible to users. There is also an Urban Lab that fosters cooperation among residents, experts, and representatives of city structures.