Holistic Smart Cities Viewed Through the Lens of Performance Evaluation Schemes

In the modern urban space cities are crumbling under the burden of urbanization. Holistic smart cities offer a multifaceted point of view for future cities. By compiling data on smart city components from 23 evaluation schemes, covering 13 countries and 4 geographic regions, this study dissects the intricate nature of comprehensive smart cities. We divide the smart city components into 9 sub categories and 3 main categories based on recurring themes among smart city components. The findings demonstrate that the six predefined components—Economy, People, Environment, Mobility, Living, and Governance—are inextricably linked to the holistic approach. New components including Technology, Infrastructure, Energy, Pandemic Resiliency that result from the study endorse the dynamic nature of the holistic smart cities. We propose that the three major categories should be represented in a well-balanced manner in the assessment schemes for reliable and better holistic evaluation of smart cities. As a result, the holistic approach gains value and smart cities become truly holistic by fostering diversity and context-specificity. Researchers and policy-makers can use the study to upgrade evaluation schemes for analyzing smart cities holistically.