Introduction to Metrics for Smart Cities

The concept of a Smart City holds much promise for improving the quality of life for city dwellers, but what exactly do we mean by “Smart City?” It means aligning information technologies to citizens’ needs in order to enhance their day-to-day lives by increasing efficiency, lowering costs, and engaging more directly with city dwellers. Smart City has emerged as an interdisciplinary concept that covers different aspects related to big cities, including the infrastructure that enables communication between channels and entities for overcoming economic backwardness in a community, and for addressing differences between various urban and suburban zones. A dynamic model is observed that can be analyzed as a complex system. Since a city can´t be visualized in only one perspective, this course tackles some of its individual sectors to obtain the key performance indicators that are essential to improving the quality of life, including: urbanization, communication, education, and economy. Quantifying that data is useful for estimating consumed resources, forecasting shortages, and correcting damage in a timely manner.

Once participants understand the importance of a Smart City and its classifications, they will learn to identify the impact of using metrics to measure its performance. A very important skill to develop is how to classify a metric and to identify its units or measure. The main focus of this course is to develop participants’ basic knowledge of a Smart City by being able to identify the parameters involved in its creation. Participants will also be able to define and establish the necessary metrics to measure the performance of a Smart City.