A smart city is one that illustrates a technopolis and hard infrastructure. The term "smart city" first appeared in 1993 as a component of global cities. After that, the phrase "intelligent city" became well-known, and definitions of it started to appear.
According to "Komninos," intelligent cities are places with a high capacity for learning and innovation that are built on the ingenuity of their residents, institutions for knowledge creation, and digital infrastructure for communication and knowledge management. A number of terms, all of which share fundamental components, have been developed since the term "intelligent city" first appeared, including "digital city," "knowledge city," and "smart city."
A smart city's essential components are
(i) Networked infrastructures, including transport, business services, housing, and ICT,
(ii) Business-led urban development,
(iii) E-governance, and
(iv) Social and environmental sustainability.
Similar to smart cities, smart cities are made up of humans, technology, and institutions. Public and private sectors, schools, and citizens are actively engaged and collaborated as part of the technology element. An environment that promotes lifelong learning, social equality, creativity, open-mindedness, and public participation describes the human element. Lastly, the institutional element connects the government with citizens, communities, and businesses, thereby stimulating growth, innovation, and progress. The institutional element should be transparent and engage citizens in decision-making and participation.
In recent years, the term "smart city" has been used to describe a city that invests in human and social capital, traditional and modern infrastructure, and manages natural resources wisely, through citizens' participation in politics. "Smart city" refers to innovative socio-technical and socio-economic aspects of growth. Both aspects lead to four concepts:
(i) “Green” as in urban infrastructure for environmental protection and reduction of CO2 emissions
(ii) “Interconnected” as in revolution of the broadband economy
(iii) “Intelligent” as in the capacity to process and produce added value from sensor-based city data
(iv) “Innovative” as to the ability to innovate based on knowledgeable and creative human capital