Smart Cities Initiatives and Perspectives in the MENA Region and Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the evolution of smart cities in developing countries. It starts by mapping the definitions and evolutions of smart cities concepts. Then it outlines the progress and current practices that emerging economies, in general, have achieved in their transition towards smart cities and the significant key challenges and takeaways that can be acquired so far. It analyses what could have been done better and what factors are still missing in smoothening this transition. Furthermore, it zooms into the smart city initiatives in Saudi Arabia to better extract lessons learned and the way to move forward. The analysis suggests measures that each actor can take: the public, private and international sides to further smoothen the transition to address the rising challenges of urbanization in emerging economies.

1 Introduction

Urbanization of the world’s population is increasing steadily. The world population approaches 8 billion, half of which lives in urban areas, and 85% of the world’s GDP is generated in cities (UN, 2019). By 2050, the global population is projected to increase to approximately 9.8 billion, and more than two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas (UN, 2019). Cities are particularly well positioned to play a leading role in tackling climate change and fostering the transition to a more sustainable world. This intensive urbanization already presents serious challenges to our society, including environmental quality degradation, increasing socioeconomic inequalities, energy security, intensive energy use, and increased natural and human-made disasters fueling climate change.

Smart cities promise to address these challenges and make cities that are more sustainable, resilient, eco-friendly, and livable. By integrating new digital technologies (such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud computing, and big data), communities, and policies, smart cities can potentially deliver well-being, competitiveness, transparency, and sustainability (Yigitcanlar et al., 2019). In recent years, the concept of smart cities has gained popularity in academia, industry, and public policies.

Although the concept of smart cities is widespread, research in this area is still in its infancy. According to Yigitcanlar et al. (2019), the notion is still ambiguous, with limited conceptualizations and practical frameworks that could assist policymakers in realizing their smart city initiatives.

One straightforward definition of smart cities is the use of different technologies, including the IoT, in urban areas to collect and share information and improve the operational performance of urban cities’ services, such as mobility and energy. Conceptually, the notion of smart cities consists of six city-oriented elements: habitat, population, transportation, economy, environment, and government (Albino et al., 2015). An illustration is provided in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

The six pillars of smart cities. (Source: Authors)

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will be a global urbanization hotspot over the next decade. Indeed, the region’s urban population is expected to increase by one-quarter between 2020 and 2030 (UN, 2019). In this context, we consider it necessary to advance in this line by outlining the progress and current practices that emerging economies, in general, have achieved in their transition toward smart cities and the big key challenges and takeaways that can be acquired thus far.

Smart cities in the MENA region, particularly in Saudi Arabia, are pivotal to supporting the dynamic growth of population, diversifying economies, and showcasing the region’s capabilities to the world. Building on this conjecture, this chapter aims to review the smart city concept and highlight insights into the policy implications of smart city development. It also aspires to contribute to the literature on the global governance of smart cities and their role in accelerating energy and ecological transition.

As many organizations and policymakers are under constant pressure to collect, process, and disclose detailed and accurate information on the considerable challenges posed by increased energy demand and urbanization, a systematic understanding of the complex nature of smart and sustainable cities becomes paramount. Especially in light of recent challenges facing urban developments (e.g., energy transition and consumption, improving air quality, adapting to climate change, improving interaction/integration between transportation and buildings, biodiversity preservation, etc.), aggressive urban agenda development becomes necessary to share information in real time, identify problems, anticipate risks and design solutions that enhance cooperation among stakeholders to improve growth, quality of life, and innovation in cities, and resolve societal challenges.

The remainder of this chapter proceeds as follows. Section 2 reviews the definitions and evolution of smart city concepts. Section 3 discusses the progress toward smart cities in MENA countries. Section 4 presents smart city initiatives in Saudi Arabia. Finally, Sect. 5 concludes the chapter and discusses policy implications and future work needed to build smart, sustainable cities in emerging economies.

2 Definitions and Evolution of the Smart Cities Concept

The smart cities notion was first introduced in the early 1990s (Orejon-Sanchez et al., 2022). In recent years, the “smart cities” concept has attracted increased interest in political, industrial, and academic circles (Orejon-Sanchez et al., 2022). However, even though the smart cities concept is popular, research in this area is still in its infancy. Furthermore, the notion is still vague and ambiguous, with limited conceptualizations and practical frameworks that could assist policymakers in realizing their smart city initiatives. The smart cities notion is an indication of a relationship between public and private sectors and cities where equipment is deployed on public utilities, using sensors to collect information. This information is used to manage resources, services, and assets efficiently. Smart city approaches offer municipal authorities and policymakers a new opportunity to improve municipal services and citizens’ well-being. It is a concept that will shape the future of the evolution and transformation of the urban living environment.

Actually, the concept of smart cities is constantly evolving and remains under debate. The literature offers many definitions of smart cities. Caragliu et al. (2009) offer one of the most comprehensive definitions: a city is considered smart “…when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory governance” (Caragliu et al., 2009, p. 70).

A smart city is broadly considered by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to be “a new model and concept, applying the next generation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to facilitate smart city planning, construction, management and services” (ISO, 2014).

Alternatively, according to the EU, the smart cities concept is about using “a smart city is a place where the traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital and telecommunication technologies, for the benefit of its inhabitants and businesses” (European Commission, 2022).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines smart cities as “initiatives or approaches that effectively leverage digitalization to boost citizen well-being and deliver more efficient, sustainable and inclusive urban services and environments as part of a collaborative, multistakeholder process” (OECD, 2019).

The smart city concept is often equated with other concepts, such as the knowledge city, sustainable city, intelligent city, ubiquitous city, digital city, and information city concepts. Essentially, all of these concepts focus on the application of information and communications technology (ICT) to urban management. These applications aim to improve the accountability, transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness of interactions between residents and local authorities. However, the concept of smart cities has shifted beyond a narrow focus on ICT diffusion. Instead, it addresses the needs and demands of individuals and communities holistically. Although ICTs are not the primary pillar of smart cities, they facilitate the establishment and development of smart communities (Pira, 2021).

The design of smart cities has traditionally focused on technology, smart devices, and urban infrastructure. However, in recent years, the concept has been expanded by several cities to incorporate socioeconomic aspects (Pira, 2021). The most relevant description of the concept as applied to urban projects is provided by Trencher (2019), who argues that smart city initiatives primarily focus on individuals, and technology is just a tool that is used mainly to serve citizens. Accordingly, this paradigm shift allows the smart cities approach to move beyond the techno-centric process and to expand its potential impacts on the economic, social, and environmental dimensions.

To date, the smart cities concept has been developed in three different phases. The first smart city generation, the so-called Smart City 1.0, is viewed as a technology-driven approach. This first generation of smart cities mainly concentrated on leveraging technology to enhance and facilitate urban activities, including the use of software, smart devices, and high-tech platforms in mobility, health, energy, and security domains. This has prompted investigation and research on the commercial potential of digital technologies (Han & Hawken, 2018). From the early stage of smart city generation, six critical components have been identified as the core attribute of this concept: mobility, people, lifestyle, economy, environment, and governance (Albino et al., 2015), previously illustrated in Fig. 1.

While with the first generation of smart cities, the big IT companies led this movement in urban areas intending to provide municipalities with their products, Smart City 2.0, the second generation of the smart city, has been led by municipal authorities and decision-makers. The primary purpose was to improve services and enhance well-being and quality of life in urban areas by effectively harnessing the beneficial aspects of new technologies.

In recent years, a new phase of smart cities has emerged. Rather than adopting a technology-driven or city-driven model, large smart cities are moving to cocreation models involving citizens in developing the next generation of solutions. Accordingly, Smart City 3.0 focuses on citizens’ role and involvement in addressing community issues and helps municipality managers identify effective and reliable solutions for various city challenges, including social, economic, and environmental issues. Figure 2 illustrates the evolution of the smart city concept.

Fig. 2

The three generations of smart cities. (Source: Authors)

3 Progress Toward Smart Cities in Emerging Economies

Cities are at the origin of significant climate change activities and energy and mobility challenges; they must cooperate regionally and globally to identify and develop solutions. Most cities around the world today are embarking on important initiatives to make significant progress toward our societal and environmental objectives. This section seeks to understand how policies at the city level in emerging economies are developing the plans that country governments need to follow to achieve sustainable livelihoods for all.

In the context of the MENA region, an above-average population growth rate of 1.56% per year (vs. 1.1% globally) and a high speed of urbanization lead to the high importance of smart city solutions. While in 1960, less than 40% of the MENA population was living in cities, in 2020, this rose to above 60% and is expected to rise further significantly (World Bank, 2022). The MENA region also faces significant climate challenges impacted by changing precipitation patterns, rising sea levels, and water insecurity. This, in turn, hinders the development process through channels such as agriculture and the environment, which slows the economy’s self-sufficiency (Sieghart & Betre, 2018).

This section reviews the progress toward smart cities in some MENA developing countries, namely, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It then explores the critical elements and indicators of smart cities.

3.1 Overview of Progress in the MENA Region

The smart cities market and initiatives are proliferating in the MENA region. Many countries have planned to invest heavily in the sector.

Algeria has not set a clearly written (environmental) sustainable building policy; the focus is more on building and housing delivery. The country’s regulatory framework ensures compliance with international standards but lacks specific links to sustainability performance improvement. The country recently developed a new smart city concept, Sidi Abdellah, which shows the government’s wish to integrate sustainable development in the design and management of the city to create a liveable and sustainable environment for its residents.

Egypt has made ongoing efforts toward greening both the tertiary and residential sectors since 2009. A set of measures was adopted in 2010, reviewing sustainability, ecology, energy and water efficiency, resources and environmental quality, and technological innovation. The cities of Sharm El Sheikh, Kom Ombo, and Kuraymat are hybrid plant projects supported by the newly instituted New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), seeking to introduce and develop renewable energy technologies in the country.

Jordan faces severe issues of sustainability. Accordingly, the country has recently promoted the concept of smart cities and has achieved great work in transforming the construction market by instilling sustainable economic projects, products, and services. Amman, Sahab, and Irbid cities are great examples of the country’s commitment to developing a national green economy based on renewable and sustainable energy sources.

The absence of legislation for green construction, energy conservation, water conservation, etc. in Lebanon, makes it lag behind its MENA neighbors in terms of economic commitments through the sustainability lens. Legal constraints and financial dependency hinder Lebanese municipalities in their duties and obligations. Promising programs have been launched to comply with international standards, such as the Country Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Demonstration Project for the Recovery of Lebanon (CEDRO), which works on developing the energy market in effective and sustainable ways.

Morocco imports almost the totality of its energy needed to meet increasing demand. Thus, the country now seeks to sustainably improve its national energy production and has adopted the concept of sustainable development. To date, it has established several stepping stones to achieving a sustainable development vision that drives many reforms, including political, institutional, legal, and socioeconomic programs. Smart cities are at the heart of national research and innovation. Under the Sustainable Development Plan, which targets energy efficiency in energy-intensive sectors and promotes renewable energy, the city of Casablanca recently experienced a major transformation to improve its long-run livability.

Saudi Arabia has launched major smart city projects and is now positioned among the leaders in the MENA countries. Although sustainable development initiatives and programs continue to be slowly developed, they are only gradually being publicized, with the Saudi Green Initiative and Green Riyadh project being highlighted recently. Several mega projects are currently under development, including The Line, Oxagon, and Trojena in NEOM, a smart cities initiative that will be further discussed in this chapter.

The UAE aims to become the most sustainable country in the world (UAE, 2022) and has, before others, launched many smart city projects, such as Dubai and Masdar City. The country has addressed climate change by launching adaptation measures and policies and mitigation actions at many levels. It reflected its commitment toward sustainable development in its Vision 2021 and Green Economy Strategy for Sustainable Development. Abu Dhabi’s Masdar city is often seen as a frontrunner for smart city development, reaching interconnectedness and minimal environmental pollution through large greenfield investments (Ringel, 2021). The country intends to promote the adoption and implementation of green strategies to accelerate the growth of the green construction sector.

These government-steered transitions to smart cities are typical for the MENA region’s smart city approach (with dedicated initiatives of high prominence in Casablanca, Algiers, Cairo, Kuwait, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and many more). The government’s approach is to provide sustainable solutions that map across areas, including energy, mobility, and architecture. This is further based on integrating information technology and artificial intelligence. Table 1 presents the different commitments and progress toward smart cities in these countries.

Table 1 Progress toward smart cities in some MENA and GCC countries

Congestion, scarcity of resources, and waste management demand intelligently designed cities. Through first laying a foundation with aspirations (e.g., “The Line” in Saudi Arabia, or Tunis and Cairo’s mostly conceptual stage in the smart cities transition), citizens, businesses, and investors are pooled toward jointly designing smart cities life. The second stage curtails the convergence of a city toward the outlined vision through a dedicated plan and investment efforts. Gulf Cooperation Council countries have pushed their “signature cities” into the convergence phase with successful implementations and large-scale investments. Finally, the transformation phase encompasses network-enabled utilities, security services integrations, and smart transport available to all inhabitants (Shokeir & Yahia, 2020). Ideally, a transformation aligned to the needs of all stakeholders is thus reached: business, citizens, and nature. All stages have risks and challenges: aligning to a vision might be difficult with diverse and changing populations in cities across the MENA region. Successful convergence is dependent on significant governmental coordination and stable ground for investments, which cannot (yet) fully be found across the MENA region. In addition, Ringel (2021) finds that poor management is seen as the biggest barrier to successful convergence to smart cities. Last, the transformation is dependent on the continuous availability of sustainable energy (i.e., the ability to harness MENA’s abundant renewable energy capacity).

3.2 Key Elements and Indicators of Smart Cities

We have assembled “indicators” or “pillars” of smart cities by combining various structures from the literature. Camargo et al. (2021) recommended that emerging economies follow a new structured model to adopt smart cities. They suggest that the model consists of four pillars (agile governance, urban planning, social cohesion, competitiveness, and growth). In a very similar fashion to the pillars of smart cities, Pira (2021) elaborates on the indicators of smart cities. We combine both frameworks to present a comprehensive framework that embraces five verticals of smart cities, also illustrated in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Verticals of smart cities. (Source: Authors)

The first vertical is agile governance. We dissect this into three main pillars: agile policies, advanced infrastructure, and technology. The first pillar of agile governance is agile policies, which suggests a more flexible approach to designing policies (economic policies, i.e., fiscal and monetary as well as other types of policies) to solve issues related to mobility, security, migration, and equity, among other issues. The second pillar is advanced infrastructure, which includes developed health and educational systems, safety and security platforms, and efficient and clean transportation. All of these elements ease the mobility of citizens (Pira, 2021). The third pillar is technology that supports this adaptability and agility of governance by embracing online sources, open data, and privacy maintenance simultaneously (Camargo et al., 2021). For example, designing smart tax policies as well as e-taxation platforms is an example that combines fiscal policy development, technology, and data privacy and sharing. E-taxation platforms allow the government to establish a better relationship with taxpayers and boost equity through income redistribution while at the same time collecting better structured data on filing and payment behavior that could be used for confidential research purposes. Lessons learned from research can then lead to policy recommendations on fine-tuning tax policies, increasing tax revenues from the “right” people, and maximizing public investment in this tax revenue.

The second vertical is the environment, which entails smart buildings that are sustainable, resource management that takes care of reducing one’s carbon footprint and pollution, and sustainable urban planning that matches climate protection (Pira, 2021). Urban planning is crucial in the face of growing populations and is based on the efficient management of resources to match the rising demands of citizens (Camargo et al., 2021).

The third vertical is a comprehensive inclusive culture. This implies social cohesion, which is the effort to smooth the use and integration between a proper infrastructure, data, and people in a way that flows in favor of smarter cities (Camargo et al., 2021). A smart city also embraces a culture of education, positive spillovers, maximizing potential, and enhancing equity.

The fourth vertical is a well-established private sector that promotes economic growth, fosters a self-sufficient economy, and boosts trade. The first element is constructive competitiveness that promotes economic scales, product diversity, market entry requirements, and other economic factors (Camargo et al., 2021). The second element is innovation and creativity in producing according to comparative advantage, which enhances trade relations.

The fifth vertical involves international organizations and aid. This vertical relies on all other verticals because, first, receiving aid, and second, its proper utilization depends on the public and private sector’s development and environmental status. We argue that a smart city with good governance and a self-contained private sector can smartly invest in the aid it receives without accumulating a large amount of debt. This is because investing in technology, infrastructure, and sustainable policies provides the private sector with a space to flourish and grow, which then generates an economic growth rate larger than the country’s debt growth rate.

4 Smart City Initiatives in Saudi Arabia

This section focuses on the urban development projects of Saudi Arabia, which are on the trajectory of becoming a smart city. Why does this section focus on Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Middle East, both in terms of its land as well as the economy, and among the largest Middle Eastern countries in terms of its population. Namely, Saudi Arabia is inhabited by approximately 35.5 million people (2021 estimate), and its major economic indicators can be summarized by a real GDP growth of approximately 2.8% and its large oil reserves that constitute approximately 20% of the world’s conventional oil reserves (2021 estimates). These are among the reasons why Saudi Arabia makes an interesting case and has the potential to set a stage for the development of smart cities in emerging economies, namely, the MENA region.

More specifically, Saudi Arabia has faced significant urbanization and population growth that have incentivized the need to establish smart cities. In the latter, Saudi Arabia’s city populations almost tripled between 1980 and 2018, from approximately 9.32 million to 26.3 million, where most of the population is centered in Riyadh (AEC, 2018). This high population growth alongside migration from rural to urban areas induced urgency in devoting attention to urban development in Saudi Arabia. Such rapid urbanization has brought a suite of challenges, including resource exhaustion, such as water, road congestion, and pollution. This raised the need for the government to implement new solutions to address these challenges.

Since 1990, Saudi Arabia has been in the stage of developing structural reforms that boost its privatization, also known as “Saudization,” encourage liberalization, and enhance investment regimes. In 2016, the country established the “Vision 2030 plan,” which aims to expand the sustainability of resources for future generations while maximizing the well-being of citizens (Belaïd and Al-Sarihi, 2023; Saudi Vision, 2022). The vision adopts concepts of a smart city in regard to sustainability as well as the use and processing of knowledge. Aldusari (2015) illustrates how the Saudi government relies on knowledge-rooted technological advancement that would contribute to setting society on its path to sustainable development.

More directly related to the smart cities initiative, the government of Saudi Arabia has developed a vision to enhance its citizens’ quality of life through smart reforms that begin by targeting five cities in Saudi Arabia: Makkah, Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Madinah, and Al-Ahsa. Next, examples of existing and future smart initiatives in Saudi Arabia are given, namely, the cities of Yanbu and NEOM, respectively, followed by criteria for assessing smart cities.

4.1 Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu and NEOM Smart City Concepts

The first smart city initiative in Saudi Arabia was the Yanbu Industrial Smart City. As the third-largest oil refinery center in the world, Yanbu has been more dependent on oil for its growth and development. This motivated the initiative that aims at diversifying the sectors that generate growth. The development of this initiative has been implemented through three stages. First, enhancing the public infrastructure, including roads, buildings, water, etc., as well as information infrastructure, including information networks and computing. The second stage consists of the smart usage of ICT applications. The third stage comprises the establishment of a smart community portal such as big data analytics to make city management as effective as possible (Doheim et al., 2019).

Recently, launched, NEOM is a smart city project focusing on three pillars: trade, innovation, and knowledge (NEOM, 2022a). First, it is a project that belongs to the Public Investment Fund. The location is also strategically chosen. The region is located in northwestern Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea, and it is expected to grow into a hub for business and creativity, raising hopes for it to be a smart city of the future. There are four main objectives for developing NEOM, represented in Fig. 4. First, it aims at diversifying Saudi Arabia’s economic production of goods and services. This, in turn, enables the country to lead in world trade and thus boost its economic growth and connections with other countries. Second, the project aims at establishing a city that serves multiple purposes: it became a city that serves both residential and works purposes, in addition to including aspects of exploration and diversity that also serve the purpose of leisure for its residents. The third objective is to build robust sustainability for the city in terms of its urban, health, and environmental development. It aims to do so by first establishing high-quality standards for this sustainable development associated with measurable outcomes and, second, using technology to make the process more efficient and smarter. The fourth objective is complementary to the first three, which involves merging multiple communities into one: establishing research centers as well as leisure venues to supply the needs and multidimensional demands of citizens.

Fig. 4

The four objectives of NEOM. (Source: Authors)

What makes this project unique is its dependence on the comparative advantages of each of the countries it is implemented in: Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia (Doheim et al., 2019). NEOM offers a new perspective for building a smart city, as new land has been selected in the northwestern region of Saudi Arabia. The motivation is to build cities that are unique and different from the conventional aspects of a city, and one way to ensure this is to start from scratch in developing businesses, technology, artificial intelligence, and promoting skilled labor (Farag, 2019).

NEOM will host three new smart city projects: Oxagon, Trojena, and The Line (see Fig. 5; NEOM, 2022b). First, Oxagon is meant to become the region’s financial and economic hub. Strategically located in the coastal part of NEOM, it will be the largest cruise terminal in the Red Sea, with 13% of global container traffic passing through the nearby Suez Canal. Up to 70,000 job creations and 90,000 inhabitants are expected by 2030. The city seeks to power “a fully integrated next-gen automated port and supply chain” with 100% clean energy, along with homes, research, industries, and business environments.

Fig. 5

NEOM’s three smart city projects (from left to right: Oxagon, Trojena, The Line). (Source: NEOM, 2022b)

Second, Trojena seeks to adapt to the region’s climate, located at a height of 2400 meters, and takes advantage of its large temperature range, from 0 to 30 degrees Celsius, by developing a premium luxury ski village, also including a freshwater lake, a thriving wildlife reserve, and residential areas. Driven by the principles of sustainability and cutting-edge technology and intended to become a year-round mountainous destination in NEOM and across the world, the city has very recently announced its bid to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games (NEOM Directory and News, 2022).

Third, The Line is envisioned to grasp multilevel benefits through its smartly planned infrastructure and even going beyond. It is by far the most publicized project of Saudi Arabia’s new three cities in NEOM. As a new city, it is possible to design it on a line that is planned to optimize transportation efficiencies, minimizing the time needed for personal mobility and business logistics but also to minimize the footprint. Indeed, the recently announced designs of The Line provide its main characteristics: it will be 200 meters wide, 170 kilometers long, and 500 meters high, eventually accommodating 9 million residents, for a total and reduced footprint of 34 square kilometers. Led by the vertical city architectural concept, The Line redefines living, enabling inhabitants to attain a good work/life balance by ensuring close proximity to work, leisure, education, and health services. The city will be carbon neutral and 100% powered by renewable energy.

4.2 How Is a Smart City Assessed?

There are standard criteria that collect consensus on assessing a smart city. Doheim et al. (2019) use six criteria to assess how “smart” Saudi Arabia’s cities are. First, a smart city is grounded in smart governance, that is, a government focused on citizens’ well-being through democracy, transparency, and technology usage to bolster citizens’ engagement (Kumar et al., 2016). This resonates with the “Ambitious Nation” theme of Saudi Arabia’s vision, which relies on building an effective and transparent government (Doheim et al., 2019). The second pillar is building a smart economy that leverages the comparative advantage of workers and develops partnerships with other countries to enhance trade and international relations while also empowering innovation locally (Giffinger et al., 2007). Saudi Arabia plans to diversify and broaden its exports and income possibilities from its dependence on oil and gas, privatize its services, and invest in talent, which suggests that it is on the trajectory of adopting a smart economy (Doheim et al., 2019).

Third, smart cities rely on smart mobility by strengthening interconnections in the city through transport networks and better transmission of data and information (Giffinger et al., 2007). This dimension is not separable from the other dimensions of a smart city. Saudi Arabia’s efforts are in line with the definition of this pillar, as it has eased transport and ensured its safety (Doheim et al., 2019). The fourth criterion of smart cities is establishing a smart environment that achieves a long-term goal of top quality of life for citizens by developing sustainable, environmentally friendly urban planning strategies (Giffinger et al., 2007). By focusing on preserving the environment, combating pollution, managing waste disposal, and other practices, Saudi Arabia is dedicated to developing a smart environment for the welfare maximization of its citizens (Saudi Vision, 2022; Belaïd and Massie, 2023). Fifth, what eventually makes the city smart is the people. Smart people are a notion that refers to the smart engagement of people in providing innovation and urban solutions to critical issues in the city. This indeed requires investment in the people, and the best form of investment in people is education (Giffinger et al., 2007). Saudi Arabia’s vision aligns with education and labor training by investing in people’s talents by offering education through its top universities and spreading knowledge of its heritage and Islamic values among its people (Doheim et al., 2019). Relatedly, the last buttress of smart cities is smart living, which makes efficient use of all other pillars to satisfy people’s needs and utilize their best potential to enhance the welfare of society. More practically, smart living involves smart management of public spaces and facilities and developing information infrastructure (Giffinger et al., 2007). “A Vibrant Society” is one of Saudi Arabia’s vision themes that align with developing telecommunication and fostering an attractive environment to live in, including safe and good quality living spaces (Saudi Vision, 2022).

One could infer that the “smart cities” concept has already been incorporated into Saudi Arabia’s vision and mission for one or two decades, without it being labeled with this exact terminology. While Saudi Arabia has yet to achieve all the pillars of a smart city, the assessment that was based on common criteria to evaluate smart cities hints toward the potential that Saudi Arabia’s cities have to become smart.

Designing a framework for establishing a smart city relies on the city’s history, challenges, and dynamic features. While some challenges or exogenous factors might affect many or all cities, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, its impacts are still diverse in different cities. In parallel, returning to our framework of verticals of smart cities, while we can generalize a few verticals and their corresponding pillars, the specificity and applicability of these verticals eventually depend on the complexity of the city itself. Even if located in the same region, not just in each country, each city still has a unique set of challenges and features that necessitate specific policy making. We can indeed learn lessons from one smart city to apply them to another. However, the dynamic evolution of the set of challenges faced by a city demands a dynamic evolution of how smart cities are being developed.

5 Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

In response to economic and environmental challenges, cities around the world are striving to develop multiple smart systems throughout their territory to foster efficiency, sustainability, technological transition, and improved quality of life. Smart city initiatives are recognized as a universal commitment to innovate, inspire and push cities to generate positive economic and social transitions. Ideologies such as smart territory, smart region, or nation are increasingly used by governments.

First, this chapter reviews the concept of smart cities. Then, it focuses on outlining the progress and current practices that emerging economies, in general, have achieved in their transition toward smart cities. Finally, it highlights the key challenges and opportunities that have been identified to date.

The analysis shows that even though the smart cities concept is widespread, there is still confusion about why we need smart cities and how we can transform existing cities and build new sustainable cities. The absence of a clear definition and the many unarticulated assumptions also obscure the smart cities concept. The analysis in Sect. 2 clearly shows an evolution of the purpose from the early 2000s. Initially, ICT infrastructure was given greater importance. Although environmental and economic sustainability were identified as major components early on, the concept of individual-centered and social capital development was recognized only recently.

Over the past three decades, the evolution of the smart city has followed a particular roadmap: it began with exigencies for Internet connectivity in the early 1990s, leveraging ICT for urban development in the early 2000s, and shifting to advancing innovation for urban sustainability in the early 2010s. Currently, the smart cities concept is more likely to be seen as an “advancement” turning cities into resilient, user-friendly, sustainable cities (Anthopoulos, 2017). Cities worldwide have evolved along with the smart cities concept, falling into several specific groups: (1) cities that focus on innovation and individuals to codesign their future; (2) cities providing specific innovative services to communities (e.g., lighting, parking, etc.); and (3) cities that are retrofitting or building entirely new neighborhoods (e.g., Sidewalk Toronto, Halifax, Songdo, etc.) or even entire cities that provide wide-scale smart services (e.g., NEOM, Toyota Woven city, Masdar, etc.

Smart city initiatives and projects in the MENA region and Saudi Arabia need to go beyond the TIC and urban planning dimensions and include other aspects such as well-being, sustainable economic development, and sound governance. Economic needs and the sustainability of society should be the cornerstone of the urban transformation agenda. Effective measures must be undertaken to reconcile social needs and urban development at different organizational levels.

To increase the socioeconomic outcomes and decrease the environmental impact of cities in emerging economies, we recommend the following strategies:

• First, existing data infrastructures should be built and strengthened. The lack of data-driven planning and decision-making is one of the most difficult challenges facing many cities in emerging economies. Greater efforts are needed to strengthen data infrastructures and harness digital intelligence within existing urban services and systems to address this issue. The generated data will play a leading role in accelerating evidence-based city management and planning.

• Second, develop a framework to assess and monitor progress toward sustainable and resilient cities. This can be achieved by framing key performance indicators (KPIs) that cover all aspects of smart cities. The performance indicators must incorporate both efficiency (process) and outcome metrics (sustainability, economic performance, life quality, inclusion, policy efficiency, etc.). KPIs need to be designed and approved at the earliest stage of any smart city project, as do their data collection, monitoring, and processing systems.

• Third, an appropriate governance framework should be designed to help city managers select the most effective rules to help facilitate the economic, social, and operational sustainability of their integrated data exchange systems and, in tandem, their smart city initiatives and efforts.

• Finally, develop a collaborative planning and action model involving all actors in every stage of the development, including the design, execution, reporting, and evaluation. Continuous commitment will guarantee respect for economic and social sustainability as a process to improve human outcomes.