ABSTRACT

Cities across the world are in the midst of a conglomeration of challenges such as the rapid increase in population, drastic decline in city budgets, and inability to strike a balance between the supply and demand of resources that are required to sustain them. Present-day cities need to take some drastic steps to meet these ever-increasing demands of their citizens and also improve the quality of services that are being provided to them. Information technology (IT) can act as a catalyst of this change by fueling the automation of various city systems and processes, which would in turn equip cities to deliver more with limited resources and budgets. ere are various phases in the transformation of a city based on the levels of technology integration that has been embraced by it. e two main types of cities that we consider in this chapter are digital cities and ubiquitous or intelligent cities. Digital cities devise and implement IT-based strategies and IT-based social initiatives to drive radical changes in the way they function. ese in turn will help cities to improve the quality of life of their citizens. Ubiquitous or intelligent cities are cities that have attained very high levels of technology integration in almost all aspects of their infrastructure and processes to an extent that the various infrastructural components can communicate seamlessly with one another. is communication is done with the help of various components such as sensors, actuators, and control systems using diverse types of ubiquitous networks. e value propositions offered by U-cities to its residents are the following: (1) Efficient and effective delivery of services. (2) Efficient use of

city infrastructure components. (3) Effective and unprecedented strategic information on the use of the city and its services. ese two types of cities, together with the various types of technology integration supported by each of them, and the strategic governance framework required for the digitization of cities are the key topics of this chapter.