Copenhagen Tops List of Europe's Smartest Cities

In September, Cohen discussed the impetus for his creation of the Smart Cities Wheel, which aims to bring clarity and measurability to the growing discussion of "smart cities" by identifying six key components for evaluation: a smart economy, smart environmental practices, smart governance, smart living, smart mobility, and smart people. 

Cohen is back with a ranking of the top 10 European cities according to this metric, with Copenhagen coming out on top. "I feel bad for the rest of the competitive sustainable and smart cities around the globe because Copenhagen regularly wins top prize in rankings like this," says Cohen. "The city generally scored well across all components of the Smart Cities Wheel, but also took home first place in the Smart People category due to its strong human capital ranking in the Citigroup/Economist Intelligence Unit Global City Hotspots report." Stockholm, Amsterdam, Vienna, and Paris complete the top 5.

"Cities need not all adopt similar strategies to achieve desired outcomes, but all cities should strive to have smarter economies, smarter environmental practices, and smarter mobility," concludes Cohen. "Hopefully this ranking helps to create a dialog and moves cities beyond 'smartwash.'"

North American rankings are due next month.