Overview of the Smart City initiatives and challenges in Middle East

Abstract

Cities already house half of the world’s population, a proportion that is expected to rise to 70% by 2050 (Kirimtat et al., 2020). This expansion has caused cities to expand at an alarming rate, affecting the quality and performance of their services as well as their residents’ quality of life. Many countries and governments around the world have begun taking action and developing potential strategies to mitigate the negative effects of overpopulation and climate change, as well as to create urban spaces where people can carry out their daily activities with high success rates in a sustainable, creative, and socially responsible environment. Due to the potential for developing innovative solutions for the social and environmental problems that are constantly changing and evolving based on the responses of the public, the concept of smart cities has recently gained popularity in developed nations primarily in Europe and the USA. Problems related to health, traffic, and pollution, scarcity of resources, waste management and poor infrastructure arises and hence development of city falls apart. These problems undermine the growth of city and dismantle it completely. This has led to application and adaptation of technology as a solution of all these issues hence the concept of Smart Cities is developed. Smart Cities bring solutions to sustainable environment. As a result, numerous governments and businesses from the private sector are starting various field test initiatives all around the world (Lai et al., 2020). Moreover, other regions such as Middle East, UAE and Saudi Arabia have also started considering smart city initiative as modern more accessible alternatives for their needs. This paper will use literature reviews to look at the aspects of “smart cities”, their applicability and adoption in Middle East, in addition this paper will discuss the challenges that need to be considered when designing a smart city.