Smart Cities and Sustainability

Abstract

The term smart city is often synonymous with a sustainable city. The word smart implies the use of digital technology that serves to make processes and services more efficient and to connect the different actors on the urban scene. However, this is no guarantee of sustainability. A city can become sustainable if it changes its metabolism and from linear to circular as in nature s ecosystems. For this to happen, it is necessary to overcome the paradigm of quantitative economic growth based on the infinite substitutability between natural and economic capital. If smart city governance stakeholders primarily pursue profit according to the logic of the free market, the city may be smarter and efficient in the use of energy and resources, but it is not sustainable, often not even inclusive. The challenge of sustainability implies a paradigm shift and the use of digital technologies at the service of the collective good. In this context, after a general analysis of the characteristics of smart cities, the chapter focuses on an Italian case study, Turin Smart City.