A smart city needs more than just technology: Amsterdam’s energy atlas project

Smart city is an emerging concept being implemented by many governments around the world, who each define their own approaches for adopting this idea. This means that smart cities are context dependent, with no common definition or representative framework for their development. Here, we present our case study exploring the organization of the Amsterdam Smart City concept, and a specific smart city project developed within it. Built on data gathered from literature and interviews, this study contributes to the development of the smart city concept by discussing a successful project from which smart city-related insights can be extracted. We reveal that smart cities require not only technological development but also collaboration among actors and institutions. The essential “smart” concept is specified and modeled by the people of the city, who create innovative solutions to cope with and effectively manage the challenges of a contemporary city. An innovative solution involves both technological and nontechnological advances, such as a new community organization and different ways of financing.