Management and Structural Aspects of Creation of Sustainable Smart Cities

In light of the exponential rate at which urbanization is accelerating, the smart city concept has gained more attraction worldwide. Smart cities use the latest technologies, sensors, and various monitoring tools in their infrastructure and smart buildings and adopt green sustainable practices in all of their sectors to improve their operational efficiency, sustainability, safety, and disaster resilience while providing the best access to different services and enhancing the quality of life of their citizens. To some extent, the smart city movement has been limited to developed countries, primarily due to several obstacles that may prevent developing countries from implementing smart city initiatives successfully. The research in smart cities initiative, especially in the field of civil engineering is relatively new and is developing rapidly and continuously and is expanding to include more areas in construction and building techniques. The aim of this study is to identify the key factors affecting smart cities from sustainability and disaster management aspects and propose some strategies for improving the more effective factors. For the identification of more important factors a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis is used. First, a questionnaire survey technique is used to determine the relative importance of these factors. Then, a TOWS matrix is conducted to find the relationship between the SWOT's external and internal factors and draw strategies accordingly. Specifically, this thesis aims to draw strategies for developing countries to take advantage of smart cities' strengths and opportunities while minimizing their weaknesses and threats in two areas of sustainability and disaster management.