A framework for assessing smartness of cities – a case study of Gujarat

Abstract

 Globally, over 50% of the population is urbanized as on today. As per World Bank’s estimates, by 2045, the world's urban population will increase by 1.5 times to 6 billion. Cities are in focus primarily and the world has evidenced that cities are core to socio economic development of any nation. Cities also in perceived as source of threats for climate change. The attention on cities is not only for socio-economic development of any nation but also as potential to bring in disasters. Smart city concept is considered to be a novel model, to address both the issues balancing development and disaster prone characteristics of city, using technology. However, the taxonomy of smart cities varies through geographies. Government of India in 2014 selected 100 cities for transformation into smart cities in a mission mode through infrastructure development with an objective to improve quality of life of citizens, by use of technology. Many media have released ranking of smart cities but measure of smartness in a systematic & scientific approach has been limited. This study presents a framework of smart cities in India and suggests a methodology to assess smartness of cities under six broad dimensions using fuzzy multi criteria decision making (MCDM) technique. This model gives a comprehensive Smart City Index, which evaluates cities on the basis of multiple characteristics of a smart city including economy, governance, environment, mobility, living and people. The model assesses datasets across 31 factors for 4 cities of Gujarat, and smartness index was calculated for 4 cities of Gujarat state in India. The results presented gives an understanding on performance of the cities in various aspects and provides guidance to authorities to take corrective measures for improvement.