Scenario-based identification of key factors for smart cities development policies

摘要

This article is devoted to an analysis of the key characteristics of smart cities. It provides insight into the key features of urban development that allow for distinguishing between smart cities and conventional ones as well as taking these features into consideration for improving existing policy instruments for smart cities. The authors used an approach based on the overview of the evolution of the concept of smart city as such and the identification of key factors/drivers of the development of smart cities. The influence of these factors was assessed with respect to their importance across 13 studies aimed at building scenarios for urban development. A set of factors peculiar to the scenarios related to smart cities was applied to an analysis of policy documents determining the development of three cities of differing scales: a megacity (Moscow), a large city (Kazan), and a small city (Winterthur).