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Top2. Conceptual Explanation
We live in an increasingly urbanized and complex world in which technologies are more and ever more prominent in almost every facet of our lives. With that, the need arises to create a concept/idea that covers the term city and technology, thereby appearing the Smart City. The term itself does not yet have a clear definition as it can accommodate a wide variety of objectives, purposes, tools and procedures, since everything in the city seems to be smart. Thus, the identification of these different actions that suppose complexity and difficulty involved in the conception of a Smart City has to be understood as a wide and open concept (Seisdedos et al, 2015).
Therefore, as Nam and Pardo (2011) clarifies, the concept of Smart City despite being known popularly is often used under other names and in different circumstances, which creates a range of conceptual variants by replacing the term Smart with other alternative adjectives.
In one of the first definitions that were made about Smart Cities, presented by a group of researchers from the IBM firm, it was stated that the term indicates an instrumented, interconnected and intelligent city (Harrison et al., 2010; Guede, 2016). In this line the Natural Resources Defense Council defines Smart City as a city that exerts itself to become “smarter” in the sense of being more efficient, sustainable, equitable and habitable.
Many experts argue that these characteristics are the result of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) combined with other means of organization and planning to improve urban management and to promote sustainability. Technological innovation becomes the basis for territorial management projects and initiatives.