Analysis of the different metrics looking over the success of smart cities

MEASURING SUCCESS OF THE SMART CITIES: INSIGHTS FROM SOUTH KOREA Student’s Name Course Professor’s Name University City (State) Date Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1. Introduction PAGEREF _Toc177160276 \h 32. Discussion PAGEREF _Toc177160277 \h 42.1 Success Metrics of Smart Cities: Evidence from Leading Smart Cities PAGEREF _Toc177160278 \h 42.2 Importance of Creating Smart Cities: Evaluation by Theories, Metrics and Indices PAGEREF _Toc177160279 \h 72.3 Singapore: A Success Summary of Smart City PAGEREF _Toc177160280 \h 112.4 South Korea: An Economic and Historical Overview PAGEREF _Toc177160281 \h 122.5 Songdo: Smart City Evaluation PAGEREF _Toc177160282 \h 142.5.1 City Overview and Economic Insights. PAGEREF _Toc177160283 \h 142.5.2 Lifestyles and Sustainability. PAGEREF _Toc177160284 \h 162.5.3 Success or Failure. PAGEREF _Toc177160285 \h 172.6 Sejong: Smart City Evaluation PAGEREF _Toc177160286 \h 182.6.1 City Overview and Economic Insights. PAGEREF _Toc177160287 \h 182.6.2 Lifestyles and Sustainability. PAGEREF _Toc177160288 \h 192.6.3 Success or Failure. PAGEREF _Toc177160289 \h 212.7 Songdo vs. Sejong: Key Takeaways and Strategic Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc177160290 \h 223. Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc177160291 \h 23References PAGEREF _Toc177160292 \h 24Appendices PAGEREF _Toc177160293 \h 30 1. Introduction Smart cities are a modern concept that emerged with technological innovation, economic performance, and environmental sustainability. Theoretically, cities with smart technological integration, robust ecological controls, and progressive lifestyles are categorized as ‘smart’ worldwide. The ‘United Nations (UN)’ speculates that 70% of the world population will become a part of smart cities by 2050. The association will increase environmental friendliness, urban transportation networks, and clean water supply. Buildings and infrastructure will provide diverse amenities and high energy efficiency to improve residents’ lifestyles in the long run. Smart cities have excellent communication networks and virtual reality adaptation for households to facilitate lifestyle choices (Bonab et al., 2023). According to Gracias et al. (2023), smart cities have attracted significant investments and scholarly attention in past years. Globally, government bodies and investors announced projects to improve smart city delivery, concept, and implementation for people. The research identifies smart cities as intelligent and digital-friendly for people. Smart cities prioritize sustainability, efficiency, and quality of life through technological integration for residents. Besides, smart cities offer more diversity, inclusivity, and geographical densities without restricting growth opportunities. Smart cities are sensible, synchronized, socialized, and augmented so people can enjoy a high quality of life in the long run (See Figure 1 in the Appendices; Gracias et al., 2023). This research will gather secondary data to measure the success of smart cities worldwide. The exploratory discussion focuses on Songdo and Sejong, the leading smart cities in South Korea. The discussion will explore Singapore’s global robustness as a smart city before exploring South Korean cities to position the success metrics. The research will measure success through economic factors, lifestyle quality, technological integrations, and sustainability controls in evaluating progressions. Smart cities are modern infrastructures for countries to adapt and grow with financial, technological, and climatic efficiencies. 2. Discussion 2.1 Success Metrics of Smart Cities: Evidence from Leading Smart Cities Smart cities are distinguished by robust infrastructure, environmental efficiencies, and progressive economic models. Evidence from leading smart cities suggests that quality of life and economic progress are common propositions for residents. As evidence, Akrami et al. (2024) evaluated smart city metrics in Oslo, the capital of Norway. The authors suggest that Oslo is more principled by its sustainability, inclusivity, and infrastructure resilience when promoted as a smart city. The residential vicinity in Oslo provides accessibility to amenities like healthcare, leisure, employment, and communication. Oslo residents overstep the geographical constraints when start-up ventures and pursuing financial independence, regardless of gender, cultural, ethnic, or racial associations. Oslo’s diversity and inclusivity connect with the infrastructure solutions to strengthen accessibility. The government ensures a continuous supply of amenities influencing lifestyle choices (Akrami et al., 2024). Hence, Oslo’s success classifies accessibility and inclusivity as critical metrics for a smart city to progress in the long run. Additionally, Carboni (2024) found that citizen participation is a fundamental success metric for smart cities to ensure sustainable progress. The author confirmed that Oslo offers robust citizen participation in environmental sustainability, economic growth, and civic duties. Oslo surpasses other smart cities in civic participation due to literate urbanization. Residents receive continuous education from the government and agencies to prevent pollution, encourage green spaces, and take lifestyle accountabilities to enjoy success. As a result, critical indices like crime rate, employment inclusivity, business opportunities, and cultural harmonies are competitive in Oslo. The metrics lead Oslo to enjoy continuous growth without compromising stakeholder interests, ethical compliance, and other economic factors. Oslo remains a benchmark for Norway and other European countries building smart cities for robust urbanization (Carboni, 2024). Successful smart cities combine civic duties and economic wellness to enjoy sustainable progress in the long run. Nonetheless, infrastructure development is a competitive success metric for smart cities. Huizing et al. (2024) shared insights from Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, to evaluate smart city accomplishments. The analysis suggests that Amsterdam offers a robust digital ecosystem for progressive development in residential communities. Amsterdam uses digital solutions to monitor climate change, housing pollution, and wetlands to foster ‘floating urbanization.’ Digital infrastructure empowers public agencies to speculate behavioral, and performativity changes to deploy controls with minimal lead time. The robust response measure allows Amsterdam to acquire community support, manage ecological parameters, and promote social liberalism. Digital space nurtures opportunities for residents to connect with people, agencies, and service providers cross-border to overcome lifestyle challenges and disruptions (Huizing et al., 2024). As a result, Amsterdam is one of the leading smart cities that benchmark success with its digital infrastructure and virtual ecosystem in the long run. Emerging smart cities could take lessons while allocating resources and strategizing success parameters for sustainable growth. Infrastructure integration in urbanization is a necessary metric for Amsterdam to measure the success rate. As evidence, Amsterdam uses artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to increase liveability for citizens. AI promotes social inclusion and public health solutions for residents in Amsterdam. AI increases transparency in municipal framework to improve technology accessibility and ethical standards (IAA, 2024). Besides, the solutions ensure friendliness and wellness with amenities like healthcare, communication, and community welfare services. As a result, lead time in service delivery is controlled and managed by technology in Amsterdam since the AI solutions navigate municipal frameworks. Besides, transparency prevents people from digital scams, threats, and privacy violations. Residents could raise questions about the administrative and servicescape performances of the municipality once AI controls detect malpractices (IAA, 2024). Hence, infrastructure integration to promote convenient and ethical lifestyle choices is inevitable in progressive smart cities like Amsterdam. Singh (2024) argued that technological breakthroughs like AI integration facilitate diverse functions in smart city success. The author took evidence from Dubai and Abu Dhabi while evaluating the significance of technological advancements through AI solutions. The insights denote that Dubai and Abu Dhabi integrated AI solutions to manage municipal services like traffic control, security measures, and energy consumption. The integration empowered the Middle Eastern government to reinforce best practices by monitoring qualitative and quantitative violations in a residential or commercial area. As a result, Dubai and Abu Dhabi automated core infrastructure functions and strengthened security measures in the long run. The government reduced response lead time while facilitating residents with fundamental amenities (Singh, 2024). Governance inclusivity, sustainable lifestyles, and economic transparency are critical metrics while evaluating smart city success in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Evidence from Oslo, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi confirms that smart city success relies on diverse factors. Each city offers a distinct proposition with competitiveness and sustainability to attract global opportunities. Research suggests that technology and infrastructure advancements are central attractions in smart cities. Technology solutions like AI strengthen transparency and social inclusivity to improve lifestyle choices. However, smart cities should balance lifestyle progressions with environmental sustainability, ethical accountabilities, economic developments, and social participation. Hence, governments should adopt a balanced strategy while allocating resources, injecting capital, and preparing feasibility in constructing a smart city. A smart city is a leading notion for future growth and urbanization. Scholars and decision-makers must understand functional success through theoretical insights to formulate a progressive framework. 2.2 Importance of Creating Smart Cities: Evaluation by Theories, Metrics and Indices The evidence from the cities above indicates that smart cities are inevitable for future robustness and lifestyle improvements. According to Chen et al. (2024), smart cities operate on urban efficiency, significant for economic activities. The authors used Marxism theory to explain the significance of smart cities in economic development. The findings suggest that smart cities mitigate geographical barriers through technological solutions to promote business activities and opportunities between countries. Smart cities unlock e-commerce opportunities for small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to explore market expansions in emerging economies for profitability. Besides, smart cities improve business networks by bridging market forces between SMEs and large-scale enterprises (LSEs). LSEs outsource operations and allow SMEs to grow in economic size (Chen et al., 2024). The rising business opportunities in smart cities foster economic development, create employment opportunities for households, and holistic productivity in the long run. Furthermore, Wang and Zhong (2023) supported Marxism theory by discussing the digital economy in smart cities. The authors examined China and observed significant improvements in macro environment factors like industrialization, employment, and emerging business communities due to smart city paradigms. The research argued that smart cities ensure continuous economic growth for a country by attracting opportunities and mitigating threats in the macro environment to sustain national growth. The research discussed qualitative and quantitative contributions of the Chinese digital economy driven by smart city paradigms to improve productivity mechanisms in the long run (Wang & Zhong, 2023). Hence, smart cities are inevitable for countries to improve economic conditions, provide growth opportunities to business communities, and avoid disruptions by embracing change through a progressive approach. Nonetheless, smart cities contribute to infrastructure development by integrating critical indices during formation. Jayasena et al. (2023) evaluated Hong Kong’s infrastructure to evaluate the impact of smart cities in China. The research found that the utopia allowed Hong Kong to offer more public-private partnerships to improve infrastructure. The Chinese government issued contracts and built robust networks with private institutions to build state-of-the-art infrastructure that boosts economic activities and environmental compliances. Private institutions strengthen performance by providing software support, innovative operational roadmaps, and functional tactics to public agencies. The partnership allows the public sector to operate better for households and provide competitive amenities in the long run (Jayasena et al., 2023). As a result, smart cities are necessary for countries to improve infrastructure performance by transforming public sector deliverables for households through amenities and services. Additionally, Tran et al. (2022) evaluated public-private partnerships in smart cities to measure the success through infrastructure development. The research found that public agencies collaborate with private institutions to gain support for building robust communication and transportation networks. The authors found that smart cities build communication and transportation networks to function on an automated roadmap, allowing people to enjoy innovation, advancements, and urbanization in a utopian environment. The utopia also improves public safety by preventing crimes, forecasting hazards, and creating response measures to provide a quality lifestyle in the long run. Besides, smart city infrastructure supports economic development and robustness to combat macro environment disruptions. Advanced communication and transportation networks empower people to perform business exchanges with minimal lead time and costs. The process increases profitability and ensures holistic growth in GDP per capita (Tran et al., 2022). Hence, smart cities improve infrastructure development, a fundamental success index for scholars, economists, and decision-makers. The above scholars emphasized relationships between smart cities and infrastructure development. However, infrastructure development is beyond communication and transportation networks. Ernst et al. (2023) argued that robust infrastructure solutions in smart cities empower public agencies to address energy concerns. Smart cities entail precise grid management and opt for clean energy solutions to promote urbanization. Clean energy implements the utopia behind the smart city vision while pushing people to embrace urbanization. Smart cities offer optimal integration of renewable energy to accomplish sustainable economic development. The solution attracts more visitors, accelerates return on investment (ROI) for the government, and injects more business opportunities (Ernst et al., 2023). The research indicates that smart cities are necessary for countries to integrate clean energy while promoting economic activities and GDP per capita. Hence, governments should invest in building smart cities to progress towards modernization in the long run. Mata et al. (2023) evaluated smart cities in the United States of America (US), the Middle East, Europe, and Mexico by measuring the consumption of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC). According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), HVAC systems consume maximum energy in metropolitan cities in the US, Middle East, and Europe due to robust urbanization. However, IEA’s statistics denote that smart city paradigms in the US record 60% less consumption due to robust infrastructure and clean energy supply. The statistics further confirmed a 40% reduction in Europe since smart cities integrate modern infrastructure to mitigate HVAC utilization and increase household energy efficiency (Mata et al., 2023). Hence, smart cities provide infrastructure solutions to the government that increase consumption efficiency and promote clean energy supply for continuous growth. Lastly, environmental sustainability is a fundamental success index for smart cities. Toli and Murtagh (2020) explained the relationship between environmental sustainability and smart cities through the empathy-altruism theory. The authors found that smart city residents have more empathy towards ecology, climate change, and resource consumption than non-utopians. Utopians demonstrate empathy towards carbon emissions and footprints industries release to manufacturing commodities. As a result, citizens avoid purchasing commodities that disrupt environmental balances. Instead, smart city residents prefer and promote green purchases. Demand for organic food, clothing, and clean energy solutions is high in smart cities. The paradigm allows countries to achieve sustainability objectives and preserve natural resources in the long run (Toli & Murtagh, 2020). Hence, smart cities influence environmental sustainability and encourage empathy in citizens to prevent resource exploitation by altering lifestyle choices. Hui et al. (2023) confirmed that smart city technologies align urbanization with environmental sustainability for organic growth. The research argued that smart cities create green spaces for citizens by mitigating ecological challenges urbanization offers during economic expansion. Controls like water waste, air pollution, and deforestation allow smart cities to accomplish organic urbanization. Smart cities deploy waste management and recyclability indices to promote environmental sustainability through green spaces. As a result, citizens develop empathy towards ecological balances and demonstrate altruism through social morality. The process strengthens lifestyle performances and encourages organic urbanization through environmental sustainability in the long run (Hui et al., 2023). Green spaces are value propositions smart cities offer to their citizens for continuous growth. The above indices denote that economic development, infrastructure advancements, clean energy solutions, and sustainable ecology are critical indices for smart cities. Governments investing in smart city projects should categorize success by measuring indices-driven performances. The indices are necessary to calculate ROI by incorporating qualitative and quantitative measures in smart city development. 2.3 Singapore: A Success Summary of a Smart City Singapore is a benchmark for smart cities worldwide due to technology integrations, economic growth, and sustainability performance. Figure 2 in the Appendices illustrates Singapore’s technological performance in 2023. The indices found that the Singaporean government digitized the economy through infrastructure investments (Cinar et al., 2024). Singaporeans use digital solutions for activities like employment search and business opportunities. The internet speed and readability score 84.2%, the highest among other smart cities worldwide. 90% of Singaporeans own smartphones to access digital services, amenities, and communication interfaces in the long run. Besides, 71% of Singaporean education facilities teach information technology (IT) subjects to prepare future resources and secure continuous growth as a leadi...