The paradigm of the modern city: SMART and SENSEable Cities for smart, inclusive and sustainable growth

Abstract

The concept of the "smart city" has recently been introduced as a strategic tool to encompass the modern functioning processes of urban development and, in particular, to highlight the importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for developing competitive and sustainable of a city. The present paper aims to shed light on the often still elusive definition of the concept of the "smart city" and tries to define a new reading of the "smartness" of a city that includes the size of the equity as a parameter to (re)definition of the International and European rankings of smart cities. In detail, the classifications made by Boyd Cohen's of Top Ten Global Smart Cities and Top Ten Smartest European Cities based on the metric of "Smart Cities Wheel" of Vienna Polytechnic will be reinterpreted according to the values of the Equity City Index, compiled by the UN-Habitat 2012. Finally, comparing the two dimensions (smartness + equity) will be presented different possible models of Smart-Equitable Cities and policies. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.