Understanding Risks in Smart City Projects

Many cities worldwide have moved or are considering moving towards becoming smart cities for better services and quality of life for the residents and visitors; optimized resource utilization; improved environmental protection; improved infrastructure operations and maintenance; and strong safety and security measures. This trend will start many smart city systems projects worldwide. Nevertheless, many risks could face these projects leading to problems and making it hard to meet their defined objectives within the defined scopes, times, costs, and quality. These risks could result in delaying or even terminating some projects. This paper investigates the risks in smart city projects and discusses some strategies to deal with them. These risks can be categorized as business, technical, organizational, project management, and political risks.