Smart Cities: The Hopes and Hypes

Abstract: Smart cities are being planned for several advanced applications and services for the inhabitants. Smart cities initiative promise many new services which are not possible in the traditional city frameworks. In the smart city framework, the basic aim is to provide all the essential services through sensor based systems which does not need much human intervention. This system is designed to operate on its own in a self-organizing manner. Therefore, the hopes are really big from the smart cities to enhance the quality of lives and the economy. However, some of the promises in the smart cities are very much over hyped. In this article, we analyse the realities of the smart cities and their practical significances based on the technological aspects of these projects. We also address the false promises that are around which are just the hypes. We clarify these hypes with appropriate logical explanations.