Smart City Projects Assessment Matrix: Connecting Challenges and Actions in the Mediterranean Region

There is much enthusiasm about smart city development, but the actual implementation of smart projects creates a need for specific methodologies to assess smart city projects. This paper proposes a holistic framework for assessing and interrelating smart city projects and urban challenges in a specific region and for evaluating the projects’ potential to generate effects. A generalized Smart City Projects Assessment Matrix (SC[PAM]) is proposed as a tool and applied to the South and East Mediterranean Region at both the regional and project levels. The tool is validated through its application to five case studies. Guidelines for project implementation in the area are extracted.