Abstract -

“Smart Cities” promise to improve urban life through implementing various Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for data collection to help manage and optimize city operations. While smart cities are not a new phenomenon, only in the last few years have we reached a point post-construction where we can begin to critically analyze and assess how successful they are in achieving that and where improvements can be made. This paper examines smart cities and the ethical issues surrounding its development to better serve the common good. To do this, we look at past precedents of urban design philosophies relate them to the current shift in smart city strategies, and make recommendations on how these strategies can be improved in future implementation strategies. By shedding light on current issues and gaps in smart city design and implementation, we can begin to develop guidelines for how ICTs can fill those gaps. We will explore the current state of smart cities, discuss some of the challenges they face, and examine current trends to combat those challenges. We will then synthesize recommendations for how ICTs can be used to build upon historic urban design philosophies in the future, and make suggestions for next steps in research to continue the on-going goal to develop better urban design practices.