Conceptualizing Small and Medium-Sized Smart Cities in the Mediterranean Region: An Ontological Approach

After a decade of interest in smart cities there is still no agreed definition. Definitions run from purely technological ones to much broader ones. The authors say this lack of a shared vocabulary blocks semantic interoperability, the ability of separate systems to exchange data with its meaning intact. They also note that technology-led smart city projects have often failed to deliver in several urban domains.

Their argument is that planning "smart" should fit the spatial and other particulars of a city and the way its subsystems interact. That means first understanding the city's ontology: the kinds of things in the city and how they relate. The aim of the extension is to set out the main drivers of small and medium-sized Mediterranean cities and how those drivers relate, so that the smart city idea makes sense in that spatial context.

The result is a vocabulary for describing a small or mid-sized Mediterranean city as a set of drivers and relations.

Published in volume 8, issue 4, pages 17 to 41. The full text is available through the publisher, by institutional access or purchase.