Developing Smart Cities: The Risks of Using Information and Communications Technology

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of the smart city concept, which has been positively proven in foreign practice and is actively being introduced in Russia, making it possible to form within its territories a concentrated area for investments, innovation and intellectual human resources, thereby establishing sustainable development on a digital platform of modern information and communications technology. It was determined that the regions generating positive transformations in Russia are those with a concentrated amount of megapolises that are the most active in attracting investments and intellectual resources and adequately equipped with an information and communications infrastructure. The conceptual model they introduce can and should be further scaled for other regions of the country. Likewise, this paper identifies the main risks of introducing this concept based on modern ICT and the possible ways to mitigate their impact. Research of the advantages of introducing the smart city concept, along with the possible difficulties of actively using information and communications technology, suggests the need to: 1) determine the positive results for strategically managing territories, as well as the positive effects for businesses and society; 2) evaluate, identify and characterize the risks and complications associated with using information and communications technology. Introducing the smart city concept based on the ubiquitous use of ICT leads to positive results for everyone involved in this process. The local community has an opportunity to quickly solve issues they are concerned with, while the government can synchronize existing requests, assess the needs of businesses and the population and integrate relevant management technology into a single system that is efficient and versatile. Meanwhile, businesses can operate in a comfortable urban environment favorable for business. It is advised to differentiate the risks and complications related to using information and communications technology into systemic ones, appearing everywhere and associated with the technical and cultural component and the safe use of ICT, and ones that are characteristic for the conditions in Russia, consisting of a difficulty in attracting financing and organizing processes and administrative barriers. These specific risks and difficulties can be controlled by the timely planning and synchronizing of organizational and management processes “on the ground”, while systemic difficulties cannot be completely and totally eliminated. However, it is possible to localize them and take a timely accounting of them while mitigating their impact on how well a smart city system operates when there are initially high demands for the safety and reliability of the information and communications infrastructure and for the training of workers, education and involvement of youth and development of ICT in all regions of the country.