Page 59 - Implementing ITU-T International Standards to Shape Smart Sustainable Cities: The Case of Dubai

Implementing ITU-T International Standards to Shape Smart Sustainable Cities – The Case of Dubai

strategic pillars in order to improve the overall understanding of the KPIs in relation to
a given city’s smart city dimensions.

Conclusions

The transition to a smart sustainable city is an on-going
and evolving process. As the sun sets on the first year of
the Dubai pilot project, this case study presents the path
for the future based on the infinite smart city wisdom
gained by ITU and Dubai during the first leg of their
limitless “smart” journey.

This case study exclusively examines Dubai’s journey to
becoming a smarter and more sustainable city. It also
provides an overview of the main steps adopted by Dubai
in this endeavour.

In May 2015, ITU and Dubai signed a cooperation
agreement to test the KPIs for smart sustainable cities contained in Recommendations ITU-T
Y.4901/L.1601 and ITU-T Y.4902/L.1602. These Recommendations provide a framework to
assess the use of ICTs in smart sustainable cities and to evaluate the impact of this use on a city’s
smartness and sustainability.

The first year of the ITU-Dubai pilot project took place from July 2015 to December 2015. Dubai,
as the first city to test the KPIs, has set the path for other cities to understand the importance
of assessment frameworks in advancing smart sustainable city initiatives. From Dubai’s
experience, the following conclusions have been gathered:
 During its development, cities need to improve the definition of certain KPIs to facilitate
the collection process on a city level. Furthermore, during the collection process, cities
may need further guidance and a clear methodological framework to facilitate analysis
and data collection procedures. ITU should work in this direction and provide the
mechanisms to standardize KPIs collection methodologies.

 ITU should apply the lessons learned from the pilot project undertaken by Dubai to the
KPI assessment and verification processes carried out in other cities which are
participating in ITU’s pilot project. The results from this case study are still a work in
progress and hence aspiring smart cities are advised to not to directly use the results
from the first year of the pilot project in Dubai as the baseline or for comparability at
this stage. Interested cities may follow the work conducted during the upcoming second
year of the Dubai pilot project and could derive benefits from the best practices and
opportunities for improvements as given in this case study.

 ITU may consider developing a generic “applicability checklist” before commencing the
data collection process to determine how many KPIs will be considered applicable to a
given city.

 ITU could also establish a score card for the cities participating the pilot project. Only
the city administrators will be notified of the scores for their city. These scores will help
cities ascertain their smart city progress between verification periods.

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