European urban strategic initiatives involving emerging technologies for addressing climate change

Abstract

In the contemporary era, climate change (CC) has become a defining challenge and a wicked problem for society, particularly in urban areas, due to their direct experience of the impacts of climate variability and extreme events. This has led to a heightened focus on the strategic planning processes, which are now under pressure to develop long-term strategies and investments for CC adaptation at the local level. This includes the implementation of effective measures and smart initiatives to address CC. In this context, smart cities (SCs) are progressively adopting emerging technologies (ETs) that hold the promise of enhancing urban resilience. Nonetheless, this implementation should be grounded in the strategic smart initiatives previously delineated in the strategic document of these cities, a domain that has remained largely unexplored. Thus, the present study aims to examine how a sample of European SCs are planning strategic actions to address the CC challenge through the design and execution of smart initiatives. Particularly, we focus on the analysis of governance issues -the leadership of the smart initiatives (RQ1) and the departments involved (RQ2)-, the smart dimensions involved in the strategic actions (RQ3) and, finally, the use of ETs (RQ4) in the
different CC adaptation actions planned. The findings indicate fragmented governance, weak interdepartmental coordination, and minimal involvement. While some municipalities have dedicated sustainability departments, many initiatives lack centralized management. Although big data and AI play a key role in decision-making, the adoption of advanced technologies remains limited.