Multidimensional Positioning of a Set of European Smart Cities

Abstract

This chapter aims to resolve the problem of the aggregation of smart city dimensions when ranking a set of European cities. Rankings are often used to analyze a certain characteristic of cities, such as entrepreneurship; however, the use of a multidimensional concept, such as the smart city, requires a different approach in order to consider the several dimensions. The analysis initially used fuzzy subsets to describe the cities. Theses fuzzy subsets are composed of 29 factors related to the economy, people, governance, mobility, environment, and quality of life. The findings suggest that there are significant differences between western and eastern European cities. Several studies have analyzed the aggregation problem, but this study uses the goals of the city to build a multidimensional ranking of European cities. The strengths and weaknesses analysis in relation to the proposed factors presented in this chapter will help cities and regional institutions to select better strategies.