Mapping smart cities in the United States

Abstract

The commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could not be achieved without local efforts. Scholars have proposed transforming cities and communities into “smart cities” as a means to operationalize and advance the SDGs. Yet, a large gap exists concerning where smart city initiatives are taking shape, what characteristics they present, and what their goals are in the context of sustainable development. Herein we text-mined the official websites of all 19,518 municipalities in the U.S. and pinpointed a total of 397 smart cities. Residents in smart cities are generally more educated, racially and ethnically diverse, and have higher income but lower income equality. In addition, municipal websites from smart cities generally discuss social sustainability goals slightly more than environmental and economic ones. Our findings emphasize the importance of monitoring the outcomes of smart city implementation to ensure it effectively contributes to achieving the SDGs, with particular attention paid to municipalities of smaller sizes.