Analysing the Challenges and Opportunities of Smart Cities

The exponential increase in population, urbanisation, climate change and other artificial issues has led to the prospective demand and growth of smart cities. This exponential growth has attracted the attention of multiple researchers, and various kinds of research have been conducted to ascertain the feasibility, challenges and opportunities presented by smart cities. In this chapter, a holistic analysis was made to bring forth the opportunities brought about by smart cities, the challenges faced while developing them and the issues faced by the residents with a clear focus on design, implementation, policies, systems and services. The problems are categorised in terms of data (security, policies, storage and usage), residents (infrastructure, governance, environment and migration) and design (implementation, systems and services). It was noted that there is a need to maximise the use of renewable energy, implement policies that adhere to the standard quality of life, increase public-private partnerships and ensure that right to information is truly available. It was also recommended that future researchers adopt a multidisciplinary approach to analysing smart cities and adopt the latest tool and technologies.