Page 67 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

For each definition, a set of key words was extracted and tabulated. These keywords were then
grouped under some common themes. Some words such as "smart" and "city" are implicit and were
mentioned in almost every description, so they are not captured explicitly as a separate keyword.

4.3 Approach

A systematic approach was followed throughout the study including:

 Top down approach – indicators, indices, and rankings.
 Bottom up approach – definitions, attributes, and descriptors.

As part of the research, multiple words and combinations thereof were used during the search from
primary sources. Primary search words included (but not limited to): smart, sustainable,
environment, city/cites, definition, attributes, index, indicator, characteristics, ICT, intelligent,
urban, methodology, solution, example, success, and ranking. A detailed analysis of different key
words and attributes and perspectives from these diverse sources was performed. Such an approach
has provided a truly diverse set of definitions and supplied a sense of "completeness" or
comprehensiveness to the study.
Based on the definitions, a series of keywords was identified and documented as illustrated in the
sample below in Table 1:

Table 1 – Sample table depicting the definitions, keywords and the respective sources for each

Source Definitions Keywords
Giffinger, Rudolf, et al.. "Smart "A city well performing in a forward‐ Economy, people, governance,
Cities Ranking of European looking way in [economy, people, mobility, environment, quality
Medium‐sized Cities." Centre of governance, mobility, environment, and of living, forward looking,
Regional Science, Vienna UT, Oct. living] built on the smart combination of aware citizens, self‐decisive
2007. Page 10. Web. Last Accessed endowments and activities of self‐decisive, citizens, independent citizens.
8 Feb. 2014. http://www.smart‐ independent and aware citizens."
cities.eu/download/smart_cities_
final_report.pdf
Cohen, Boyd. "The Top 10 Smart Smart sustainable cities use information ICT,
Cities On The Planet." Fast and communication technologies (ICT) to cost efficiency,
Company, 11 Jan. 2011. Web. Last be more intelligent and efficient in the use energy efficiency, energy
accessed 12 Feb. 2014. of resources, resulting in cost and energy savings,
http://www.fastcoexist.com/16791 savings, improved service delivery and quality of life,
27/the‐top‐10‐smart‐cities‐on‐the‐ quality of life, and reduced environmental environment,
planet . footprint – all supporting innovation and improved service delivery,
the low‐carbon economy. innovation,
low carbon economy.

ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications 57