Becoming Smarter through Smart City Pilot Projects: Experiences and Lessons from China since 2013

Although a large body of research has advanced our understanding of the definition, characteristics, and domains of smart cities at a high level of abstraction, relatively little attention has been given to varying smart city practices. This study analyses the contents and progress of 2,080 smart city pilot projects across 136 sampled smart cities in China since 2013. While the central government has set a unified framework for guiding smart city practices, both the experiences and progress vary substantially at the local level. Among the smart city domains, pilot projects related to smart government have been the most common but those on smart living and smart people have not received as much attention. The findings confirm that smart city development is a process. A period of 1.5–2 years is typically required for pilot projects to demonstrate actual progress. Smart cities at the county/township level have progressed better in infrastructure but have lagged in the institutional and people dimensions. Those implemented in Eastern China have also advanced more noticeably than those in Central and Western China.