Page 8 - Guide for smart and sustainable city leaders: Envisioning sustainable digital transformation

United Nations University

As has been known for some time, many factors and parameters affect how institutions in
public and private spheres function. The developments deriving from the rise and varieties
in technology continue to transform even the daily transactions of institutions, irrespective of
differentiations sourcing from their nature. Thus, information and communication technologies
(ICTs) deeply impact structuring, organizing, and interaction concerning all institutions in any
context. Thus, urban ecosystems are no exception. Therefore, institutions need guidance and
helpful suggestions to successfully implement their digital transformation agenda and integrate
these technologies, sometimes in a smooth reconstruction after possible disruptions, for various
purposes, including daily functioning.
To initiate digital transformations of cities in their respective urban ecosystems, we evaluate
the functionality of employing emerging technologies like digital twins, artificial intelligence,
metaverse, the internet of things, big data, and social media analytics. However, embedding
stakeholders' input, feedback, and involvement to generate public value is as important as
deploying these technologies to achieve public interests. As the cities are undergoing structural
and organizational changes due to ICTs, they are also facing crucial challenges due to macro
changes like complicated urbanization processes, climate change, complicated processes of
economies, and an increase in natural and human-made emergencies/disasters. For these
reasons, it is important to have an equilibrium between all processes' supply and demand
sides. It is of utmost importance that digital transformation in cities should be initiated and
maintained with precautions. The sustainability of digital transformation is as important as the
ethical use of technologies.

We hope that the introduction of this Report, identifying a wide set of elements for guiding
and supporting the cities in achieving a smart and sustainable city, will help the cities by driving
them to accomplish their mission through an eight-step cycle.

Tshilidzi Marwala
Rector of the United Nations University
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

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