Preface: SCOUT 2021

With the widespread digitalization of various sectors and advancements in information and communication technology (ICT), smart city missions have been receiving huge attention over the past two decades. In developing countries, urbanization has been seen an accelerated growth. Furthermore, due to rapid growth of mega cities, a large number of people are swiftly migrating to urban areas, thus contributing to the population growth of the areas. Although growth in urbanization has a significant role in economical growth, if it is not well-planned and managed, it may lead to chaos. Thus, while transforming urban areas to realize smart city missions, proper planning and governance is required. Due to this unprecedented shift in migrating population growth, increasing demands for basic services has imposed lots challenges to the development of smart cities.