The development of digital technologies in the different disciplines, in which cities operate, either directly or indirectly, is going to alter expectations among those in charge of the local administration. Every city is a complex ecosystem with a lot of subsystems to make it work such as work, food, cloths, residence, offices, entertainment, transport, water, energy etc. With the growth there is more chaos and most decisions are politicised, there are no common standards and data is overwhelming. The intelligence is sometimes digital, often analogue, and almost inevitably human.

Smart Cities is a world initiative leading to better exploit on of the resources in a city in order to offer higher level services to people. Smart cities are related to sensing the city’s status and acting in new intelligent ways at different levels: people, government, cars, transport, communications, energy, buildings, neighborhoods, resource storage, etc.

A vision of the city of the “future”, or even the city of the present, rests on the integration of science and technology through information systems. A future that will require a re-thinking of the relationships between technology, government, city managers, business, academia and the research community.