Sustainable urban development and smart cities: Achievements, opportunities and challenges for Astana to become a model of smart and sustainable city

The ECE and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) define a smart sustainable city (SSC) as an innovative city that uses ICTs and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental and cultural aspects. A smart city, therefore, can be understood to be an agglomeration that enables each of its residents to access all services (public and private) in a way best suited to his or her needs. It implies the building of adequate hard infrastructure, human capital and skills, community institutions and (digital) technologies that fuel sustainable development and provide an attractive environment to foster innovation and human well-being. In other words, smart cities can be described as a process by which urban centres become more sustainable, inclusive, safe, resilient to climate change, and able to respond more quickly to development challenges. In addition to fostering local innovation, the embeddedness of smart cities in world networks of knowledge and technology has also been emphasized. Thus, smart cities are also cities which have successfully built experience in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) from global sources, which have become socially and economically open to the rest of the world as well as environmentally sustainable.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Sustainable Cities and Communities