Smart City Paradigm: Importance, Characteristics, and Implicatios

World population is increasing rapidly. Extensive industrialization, higher economic activity, better education and healthcare in cities have attracted people to flux into urban areas thereby causing rapid urbanization across the globe. This has impacted the environment and lifestyle of people. Therefore, it has become important to manage our cities more effectively and in efficient manner. This requires major changes in the way urban operations and infra structure are managed today. This paper attempts to provide fundamentals of smart city (SC) concept, briefly describes its main characteristics and worldwide implementation. Finally, a case study on Smart Dubai initiative is provided. SC is based on internet of things (IoT) that comprises of a system of interrelated computing devices, machines, objects, and living creatures that are provided with unique identifiers. The provision of enough funding and technology development are two major hurdles that are causing delay in integration of smart cities concept into urban management.