The Scottish Government has commissioned UrbanTide to develop a Smart Cities Maturity Model and Self-Assessment Tool that helps cities understand where they are on the journey to becoming a ‘smart city’.
Working in conjunction with the Scottish Cities Alliance, and on behalf of Scotland’s cities, UrbanTide have developed a model that Scottish cities can use to:
- Assess their current position on the journey to being a Smart City.
- Decide where they want to be by 2020 aligned to strategic priorities.
- Identify what investments and adjustments are required to get them there.
- Consider whether any parts of their forward programme might be better advanced in collaboration with other cities and wider partners.
A key driver for this work is to support the development of an outline investment roadmap targeted towards available funding and also provide a focus for future funding.
The Smart Cities Maturity Model and Self-Assessment Tool was developed as an asset that can be re-used over time by cities and other communities.
What is a smart city?
“The Smart City can be defined as the integration of data and digital technologies into a strategic approach to sustainability, citizen well-being and economic development”
– Scottish Government
Resource scarcity, climate change, unemployment and ageing populations will all define the development and success or failure of our cities. While these are big challenges, they also present major new business and innovation opportunities.
The concept of a ‘Smart City’ is to use data and digital technologies to manage these challenges. Using data and technology, cities can provide new solutions for urban congestion, maximise energy efficiency technology, enhance public security, and allocate scarce resources based on real-time evidence.
Smart Cities adopt a ‘system-of-systems’ approach to service delivery and develop collaborative service models to focus on shared outcomes across organisational boundaries. They make best use of data and digital technologies to invest in enhanced openness and transparency that promotes citizen and business engagement in, and ownership of, service reform.
The Smart Cities concept is based on replicating this data process across multiple systems delivering exponentially greater benefits with fuller deployment across service areas.
The Smart City Maturity Model
The Smart City Maturity Model and assessment tool has been developed to help cities understand where they are on their journey towards becoming Smart.
The tool draws on and adapts existing models and frameworks in this field. In particular, a focus has been placed on the best practice model developed by the British Standards Institution PAS181 ‘Smart City Framework: Guide to Establishing Strategies for Smart Cities and Communities’.
The Smart Cities Maturity Model remains compatible with these models but is designed to walk cities through the process of clearly identifying next steps, together with investment and resources required to realise their ambitions.
