Page 65 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

2.3 Need for a comprehensive definition

As discussed in the previous subsection, there is a clear need for a standardized definition for a
"smart sustainable city". The process for developing a new definition will clearly pave the way for a
more defined structure not only for the definition of the term but also in relation to ICT
infrastructure, KPIs, metrics and policies for smart sustainable cities as viewed by ITU. Another
aspect which is also critical is that within ITU‐T, there are multiple study groups involved with topics
which overlap or intersect with smart sustainable cities. Data security (SG17) as well as other SDOs
such as ISO, BSI, ANSI, IEC, and IEEE are working on smart sustainable cities as well, albeit through
a different lens and based on a different framework.

3 Observations from literature

The following preliminary observations are made from the literature describing smart and
sustainable cities. The definition of a smart sustainable city depends on the lens or the viewpoint
taken (refer to Annex 1 for list of definitions and features analysed). This is important to note, since
this approach will provide an insight into why and what certain attributes are important. There are
many subjective viewpoints of what a smart sustainable city is and these can be segmented into the
following categories:
 Attributes
 Themes
 Infrastructure

A combination of smartness/intelligence in an urban environment with sustainability as a key
backdrop is the basis for this Technical Report. Note that this Technical Report is not a
recommendation document for best practices but a description of what is prevalent in the open
literature.

3.1 Attributes

The following attributes appear consistently across the literature in terms of describing a smart
sustainable city:
 Sustainability – This is related to city infrastructure and governance, energy and climate change,
pollution and waste, and social, economics and health.
 Quality of life – Quality of life (QoL) is a recurrent theme. One of the aims of SSC would be to
improve QoL in terms of emotional as well as financial well‐being.
 Urban aspects – This includes multiple aspects and indicators including: technology and
infrastructure, sustainability, governance and economics.
 Intelligence or smartness – A "smart" city exhibits implicit or explicit ambition to improve
economic, social and environmental standards. Commonly quoted aspects of smartness include
smart economy, smart people, smart governance, smart mobility, smart living and smart
environment.

3.2 Core themes

There are four core themes for a smart sustainable city:
 Society – The city is for its inhabitants (i.e. the citizens).

 Economy – The city must be able to thrive – jobs, economic growth and finance, etc.

ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications 55