Smartening urban governance: An evidence-based perspective

Abstract

This paper presents a framework that provides guidelines on how information and communication technology (ICT) can create added value to smarten urban governance. Furthermore, the framework was applied to measure and interpret the added value of ICT functionalities for governance practice, based on an international questionnaire (268 respondents) and in-depth expert interviews (12 experts). For improving governance processes and handling related urban problems, the results suggest that differentiated strategies should be employed. In this way, the use of ICT in smart planning can realize its full potential—and ‘smartening’ urban governance can be achieved in specific contexts.