Page 64 - Redefining smart city platforms: Setting the stage for Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

9 Conclusion

This Report has undertaken an important journey of acquiring a better understanding of smart city
platforms. While the importance of data in enabling cities to become smarter and more sustainable
was well acknowledged, urban stakeholders are now increasingly exploring new pathways for
enhancing the existing urban architecture oriented towards sustainable digital development,
keeping interoperability as the basis for all operations and leveraging existing data streams.

By reviewing existing smart city architectures to support the move to a platform-based approach
to data management along with the list of key requirements for a city platform-enabled ecosystem,
it was feasible to extrapolate the minimal interoperability mechanism for deploying the upgraded
urban architecture for sustainable digital development.

The area of data platforms for cities and communities to support sustainable development is an
evolving one, with leading cities pushing forward the boundaries of technology to enable them
to provide better services and quality of life for their inhabitants.

However, the foundations for the new architecture covered in this report will remain the same, and
the advice provided in this report will continue to be relevant and helpful for many years to come
to cities and communities as they set out on this important journey.

One key recommendation is that further guidance should be developed to help cities and
communities at whatever stage they are with their procurement of data platforms.

U4SSC will keep in touch with ongoing developments, capturing best practice and learning and
making it available to help support cities and communities to become smarter and more sustainable.

To get engaged and to take the next steps, the reader is encouraged to follow the activities of
ITU-T Study Group 20 on IoT and Smart Cities and Communities, and to participate in different fora
where contributions to global standards and policy are being discussed and formed based on the
needs of cities and communities.

54 Redefining smart city platforms: Setting the stage for Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms