How National Governments Can Help Smart Cities Succeed

Smart cities are those that use sensors, data, and analytics to tackle important issues such as how to better manage sanitation systems, improve transportation networks, and deliver government services more efficiently. While city governments can and should manage most of their transformation into smart cities, national governments must address the problems cities cannot resolve on their own. This report outlines five challenges preventing cities from evolving into smart cities, and provides recommendations the federal government can take to encourage their development; these solutions include allocating a share of infrastructure investments to specifically target smart infrastructure, developing policies for smart city technology that encourage interoperability and data sharing, and fostering collaboration between smart cities to facilitate inter-city learning and reduce knowledge sharing barriers.