| Abstract |
The evolution of the 'smart city' concept among scholars has been remarkable over the last decades. While the diversity of related descriptive notions (digital, knowledge, intelligent, creative, livable or ubiquitous city) remains, academic papers in steadily growing numbers scrutinize 'smart cities' from various aspects (knowledge management, ICT infrastructure or urban planning). This paper aims at establishing a conceptual model to determine cities' position on the path to becoming a 'smart city.' May we expect that a city with an established high-tech digital library, however, lacking an intelligent public transportation system will reach the level beyond which academics will affix the 'smart city' tag? What happens if some contributing components improve while others remain at their previous levels or even diminish over time? We constituted a knowledge-based model comprising of smart city attributes and rules, taking into account their effect, to be prepared to answer questions like these. First, we defined all the relevant and independent attributes that build up the 'smart city' from the smallest factors, grouped by the three main deterministic dimensions: technology, institutions, and people, as conceptualized by academics (Nam & Pardo, 2011). Second, in commencing research, we shall define probability levels for these attributes, representing what extent they contribute to their governing factor. We shall use four linguistic variables to describe these fuzzy values. In the final step, we shall implement a deductive reasoning model to facilitate conclusions on the likelihood of reaching the goal: the smart city. We shall also demonstrate the results of the model by investigating actual scenarios from the world of our time. The comprehensive set of substantial and organized contributing factors previously studied by numerous academics, the adequately defined rules, and the deductive reasoning underpin the trustworthiness of our conceptual model. |