Using IT to Monitor Well-being and City Experiences

Gibson first proposed the term smart city in 1992 to broadly define how urban development was turning toward technology at that time and the subsequent innovation and globalization possible as a result. Since then, the term smart city has evolved, and Zanella (2014) uses it to describe how a city will "...be equipped with microcontrollers, transceivers for digital communication, and suitable protocol stacks that will make them able to communicate with one another and with the users." These sensors are used around cities to record a wide range of data, including information on utilities (e.g., smart grids, street lighting, water and electricity consumption), the environment (e.g., temperature, humidity, pollution), and traffic management (e.g., parking space usage, traffic monitoring and modeling). This data is analyzed by city authorities, utility companies, and businesses to enable maintenance and investment in infrastructure and services throughout the city.