Transitioning from Wired City to Super City: a review of selected ‘Smart City’ case studies

The contemporary technological advancements of the twenty-first century are introducing paradigm shifts in every aspect of life. The “Smart City” concept has also brought the latest emerging technologies and their applications to the urban areas. The integration of Nano-technological devices collecting and transmitting data coupled with the availability and penetration of high-speed internet will only raise this potential by providing an easy way to receive and send real-time data more swiftly. The devices could also be connected with each other via the internet under the Internet of Things (IoT), making it possible to establish the machine to machine (M2M) communication between them. This large amount of urban Big Data can also deploy machine learning assisted techniques to ensure robust and precise urban analysis for getting significant insights and desired simulations ensuring the proper deployment as well as utilization of the phenomenon of Urban Intelligence. As the cities are entitled to become “Smart” in due course of time, these Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) will play a major role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of urban services and management. Due to their highly versatile and adaptable nature, these technologies can be linked with different components of Smart City thereby enhancing the efficiency and capability of the existing urban systems. This paper discusses the emerging concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) and other associated technologies within the context of contemporary urban scenarios through relevant case studies. It further presents crucial insights based on the influence of these technologies as well as their associated challenges while also exploring the implications of the concepts like ‘Super City’ on the cities of tomorrow.