Smart cities have emerged to cope with economic and environmental challenges posed by modern-day complex city systems. A study hypothesized that overcoming such challenges with a smart city framework entails a systematic approach to increasing synergies and eliminating trade-offs between different smart city indicators.
This study applied network analysis and used data from 33 smart cities worldwide for the period 2005–2019 to ascertain these synergies and trade-offs by introducing a modified framework of smart cities based on the community identification of interconnected smart city drivers.