Assessing smart city contributions to urban resilience toward disasters

It has been suggested that initiating smart city programs can significantly enhance the quality of life in urban areas, including their resilience to disasters. This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between smart city initiatives and urban resilience to both fast-onset and slow-onset disasters. The study employs focus group discussions (FGDs) with key stakeholders and a citizens' survey. The research was conducted across four Indonesian cities that have adopted smart city initiatives and are known to be vulnerable to various types of disasters. The findings indicate that smart city initiatives generally correlate with resilience. More specifically, the people dimension of smart city initiatives exhibits the strongest association with urban resilience, particularly in the preparedness phase of fast-onset disasters, followed by smart living and smart economy dimensions. The extent of these correlations varies among the cities studied, which highlights the local initiatives. This study provides critical insights for policymakers and city planners, emphasizing the importance of customizing smart city strategies to enhance urban resilience and improve overall disaster management. • The study examines the relationship between smart city initiatives and urban resilience. • The smart city dimensions include smart governance, mobility, people, living, and environment. • City resilience is assessed for fast- and slow-onset disasters across preparedness and response phases. • The results find that smart initiatives, especially the smart people dimension, positively correlate with city resilience. • The result suggests that smart city strategies should be adapted to city-specific characteristics.