ABSTRACT
Rapid urbanisation across the globe is expected to see about five billion people located in cities by the late 2020s, with South East Asia hosting a significant proportion of their population in its megacities. Korea trademarks its smart cities under the brand of 'ubiquitous cities' or 'ubiquitous eco-cities' and most recently as 'compact and smart cities'. The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city project, positioned in one of the fastest growing regions in China, represents the Chinese and Singaporean governments' joint attempt at building a sustainable and smart urban model from scratch. The conceptualisation of the Barcelona perspective on smart cities is comprehensive and places information and communication technology (ICT) as a core element in the city's approach to becoming a smart city. Abu Dhabi is part of the UAE and is the largest of seven semi-autonomous emirates forming a federation located in the Arabian Peninsula, where the land is largely hot and dry desert.
