You might want to look up literature on liveability in cities or urban centres. It is related to what you want to do and it also gives an idea as to what attracts people to cities hence pro iding the population for investment opportunities.

You might want to look up literature on liveability in cities or urban centres. It is related to what you want to do and it also gives an idea as to what attracts people to cities hence pro iding the population for investment opportunities.

@Alexander, here is some data.  Bandar Iskandar is a smart city in the south of my country, close to SIngapore.

"Since January, it is encouraging to note that Iskandar Malaysia has successfully attracted new investments worth RM24.97 billion.

"In committed investments alone, Iskandar Malaysia has secured RM156.51 billion since 2006, of which 51 per cent or RM79.17 billion has been realised to date," he said in his latest Facebook entry last night.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/iskandar-attracts-rm24.97-billion-in-new-investments-this-year-says-najib-b#sthash.LU6jK5Ql.dpuf

Dear Alexander,

I think the relationship between the private sector and the smart city concept is even closer: it is of ontological nature, as the smart city concept is, at least partially, a concept promoted by a series of private actors like IBM and Cisco.  Such actors aim at selling softwares that enhance the performance of urban infrastrutures using intelligent systems and big data collection and treatment. There are of course other definitions and geneaologies of the concept, but this one is the one that, in my opinion, is the most relevant in present-day cities.

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_cities/overview/

http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/smart_connected_communities.html

The smart city tool is thus also a marketing offensive against the domination in urban infrastructures of firms like Veolia or Suez (Engie) that historically sold hardware (tubes, sewers, waterpipes, transportation infrastructures) and their exploitation as well as the commercialisation of the ressources. Such firms try to defend their domains of competence (and their profits) in promoting alternative forms of smart city.

This context, I think, is decisive as for the interpretation of the notion of smart city.