Smart Cities: The Next Urban Evolution in Delivering a Better Quality of Life

Abstract

This study aims to elucidate the impact of implementing the latest state-of-the-art of technologies on well beings of nations and its people who live in cities generally, and in Bahrain specifically. Technology became a part of our daily activities such as paying bills, surfing the internet, social media apps, news, weather forecast and even shopping (e-commerce). Researchers and Information & Communication Technology (ICT) experts expecting most cities will turn to be smarter in the coming few years which will occur positive returns. This study will illustrate the primary role of smart cities in improving the standard of living and quality of life, aiming to serve the rapid population growth in addition to improve the quality of environment. The main definition of smart cities is the automation of managing transportation, water, energy, security and safety, traffic, services, wastage, communications and other resources. Smart Cities play a major role in economic growth in terms of production, resources efficiency, job opportunities, new investors, and tourism. However, this part won’t be part of this study because smart cities is not fully implemented yet which makes quantitative analysis difficult.