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ABSTRACTEffective urban planning is increasingly affected and governed by the current information society. This paper argues that the so-called third data revolution creates unprecedented challenges for sustainable city policy in the digital age. Three types of data revolutions are distinguished in this paper. The nowadays popular notion of smart cities may be helpful to enhance the cognitive quality of urban policy-making, but leads also to new issues on complex data handling in the modern age of social media and digital information systems. The various issues at stake are outlined in this paper, while this study is concluded with a sketch of the contours of a so-called smart city policy fly-wheel, so as to demonstrate that the urban fabric – also in a smart city context – is always work in progress, with a view to the achievement of sustainable development goals.Highlights The birth of the smart cities concept originates from the third data revolution.Sustainable city policy calls for smart data management.In the ‘New Urban World’ systematic data warehousing is needed.The tension between closed administrative city borders and open data systems can be bridged.The attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) presupposes smart city policy.
Kourtit et al. (Wed,) studied this question.