Towards smart(er) resilient cities. Evidences from Romanian urban areas

Abstract

The investment in communication technologies has become increasingly prominent in cities, as they face a considerable pressure to become “smarter”. Connected technologies are able to collect and analyze data in real time, leading to predictive and adaptive decisions. However, being smart(er) does not necessary mean being more resilient; in fact, using sophisticated technologies may have some drawbacks that diminish the general resilience capacity of cities. The present paper aims to explore the relationship between resilience and smart city initiatives. The number of smart city projects is therefore firstly correlated with the resilience capacity (built on three dimensions: economic, socio-demographic, and environmental), then to the outcome resilience (calculated as the recovery following the recent economic crisis). The results show a clear connection between the most socially resilient cities, the share of employment in tertiary activities, and the implementation of smart city projects.