Exploring architectural and organizational features in smart cities

Smart cities is a "booming" international phenomenon and they suggest both a novel economic and research domain, which is concerned from various perspectives, i.e. smart growth and urban planning; living labs; information and communications technologies (ICT) state-of-the-art topics etc. Although smart cities follow different forms they offer various types of services to the local communities. Recent studies illustrate that smart cities tend to evolve to green or eco-cities, where technology is capitalized for urban sustainable growth. However, it is not clear what different architecture types are followed and how these architectures are formed. This paper investigates and compares the alternative architectures that are followed by existing smart city cases, as a means to understand how different architectures offer e-services in urban areas.