Scaling Smart Cities: An Analysis of how Small Cities Implement Smart Technologies

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Last Modified
  • February 26, 2019
Creator
  • Theurer, Ryan
    • Affiliation: School of Information and Library Science
Abstract
  • Smart cities have become an incredibly pertinent and intriguing topic across the United States over the last decade. While there is a lot of excitement, many of the testing and research of this new trend has occurred in large cities. This study aims to examine how small cities implement these smart technologies. Furthermore, this study aims to figure out the common obstacles, technologies, and strategies small cities use to incorporate these projects. These research questions are explored through the lenses of the Top-down/Bottom-up model of project implementation and the Quadruple Helix Model of innovation creation. The findings of this study suggest that small cities have similar problems finding funding, obtaining skilled labor, and identifying proven smart city implementation strategies. This study also found that small cities generally implement city management, utility, and transportation technologies when working on smart city projects. Small cities were also found to use similar strategies when implementing smart city technologies. These strategies were; acquiring state and federal funding, collaborating with private industry, and interacting closely with their constituents. This study also found that small cities feel as if there are some big benefits that come with being their size. These benefits are; better interaction with citizens, less bureaucratic inflexibility, and a more controlled testing environment for piloting projects. This study recommends that small cities take a more proactive strategy by approaching government, industry, and university entities for help in implementing smart city projects. This study also recommends that government, industry, and university entities leverage small cities more and take advantage of their beneficial attributes.
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Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Rajasekar, Arcot
Degree
  • Bachelor of Science
Academic concentration
  • Information & Library Science
Honors level
  • Honors
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Graduation year
  • 2018
Language
  • English

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