A Benchmarking Methodology for Smart City Assessment in the Polish Context

The main factor determining the conduct of this study is the progress of urbanization and the steady growth of the urban population, which contribute to the intensification of multidimensional challenges related to climate, the environment, transportation, and social issues—challenges that, in turn, necessitate the search for innovative and sustainable solutions for urban development. In this context, the Smart City concept is viewed as one of the key approaches to managing the development of modern urban areas. It is therefore essential to diagnose and assess the level of development of smart urban solutions. The main aim was to develop an interdisciplinary methodology for creating tools to benchmark smart cities, in accordance with the paradigm of sustainable development and the principles of social integration and egalitarianism in selected Polish cities. Various methods and techniques were employed to achieve the main aim. The study focuses on three provincial capitals in Poland: Gdańsk, Wrocław and Poznań. The result of the research is a proprietary methodology that enables the assessment and comparison of cities based on standardised and comparable data across six smart city components: mobility, environment, economy, governance, society and living conditions. Validation of the methodology has shown that all the cities studied are implementing the principles of the smart city concept, albeit to varying degrees and with different development priorities. The city of Poznań achieved the highest score. This reflects a high level of economic and social development, as well as a fairly balanced focus across all smart city areas. It achieved the highest scores in the following components: smart environment, smart community and smart living conditions. Future studies should include data updates, which would allow for capturing the dynamics of ongoing changes and identifying new trends in urban development. Such an approach would not only enable the assessment of the effectiveness of existing measures but also point the way for further urban interventions in the spirit of sustainable development.