Most "smart city" projects to-date are somewhat isolated and are not part of a more comprehensive network.
"Smart Cities" are a catchall phrase for using technology to make cities more resilient, responsive, and financially solvent. A recent piece in Scientific American notes that it doesn't always work out that way, at least not yet, as efforts often fail to account for local, government and socioeconomic conditions.
A smart lighting system here and a traffic signal timing system there are isolated, not part of a comprehensive, integrative system. Kendra Smith writes:
"The current reality of smart cities is that there aren’t any. At the end of the day, most so-called smart cities are just cities with a few or several standout smart projects."
The article asks important questions like how a smart city affects social justice, what is its true cost, and who decides what the city really needs before any switches get flipped?
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