End-User Approach to Evaluating Costs and Benefits of Smart City Applications

Abstract

As a part of an ongoing series of studies in the smart city domain from the perspective of end-users, the paper presents the results of an exploratory survey based on the cost-benefit analysis of different smart city solutions from users' point of view. Starting from a list of benefits and costs for four selected smart city applications (smart parking, water quality monitoring, air quality monitoring, and realtime traffic monitoring) that was generated by a young demographic of (future and current) users, a survey was organised to classify, reduce, and evaluate the initial set of items. The respondents rated the identified potential benefits and costs of using the applications as a part of an integrated smart city solution. The results of a multivariate analysis based on the feedback from over 200 participants are presented in the paper. The main factors of identified perceived costs and benefits are indicated, and the link with the intention to use an integrated smart city application is reviewed.