Smart cities concept and challenges: Bases for the assessment of smart city projects

ASCIMER (Assessing Smart Cities in the Mediterranean Region) is a project developed by the Universidad Politecnica of Madrid (UPM) for the EIBURS call on “Smart City Development: Applying European and International Experience to the Mediterranean Region”. Nowadays, many initiatives aimed at analysing the conception process, deployment methods or outcomes of the - referred as - Smart City projects are being developed in multiple fields. Since its conception, the Smart City notion has evolved from the execution of specific projects to the implementation of global strategies to tackle wider city challenges. ASCIMER's project takes as a departure point that any kind of Smart City assessment should give response to the real challenges that cities of the 21st century are facing. It provides a comprehensive overview of the available possibilities and relates them to the specific city challenges. A selection of Smart City initiatives will be presented in order to establish relations between the identified city challenges and real Smart Projects designed to solve them. As a result of the project, a Projects Guide has been developed as a tool for the implementation of Smart City projects that efficiently respond to complex and diverse urban challenges without compromising their sustainable development and while improving the quality of life of their citizens.