New Paper – Exploring Smart City Project Implementation Risks

The final paper from Dr. Kushboo Gupta’s dissertation has been published in the Journal of Urban Technology. This new paper focuses on exploring smart city project implementation risks in the cities of Kakinada and Kanpur, India. The list below captures several other contributions by Dr. Gupta that stem from her PhD research:

Gupta, K. and Hall, R. P. (2020) Understanding the What, Why, and How of Becoming a Smart City: Experiences from Kakinada and Kanpur. Smart Cities 3(2), 232-247.
Gupta, K., Zhang, W., and Hall, R. P. (2020) Risk priorities and their co-occurrences in smart city project implementation: Evidence from India’s Smart Cities Mission (SCM). Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 1–15.
“The Indian perspective of smart cities.” Paper presented by Khushboo Gupta at the 2017 Smart City Symposium Prague (SCSP).
“Measuring Smart Cities in India.” Poster presentation by Khushboo Gupta at the 2016 Smart Cities Summit, June 13-15, 2016, Austin, Texas.

Abstract

With an increasing number of smart city initiatives in developed as well as developing nations, smart cities are seen as a catalyst for improving the quality of life for city residents. However, the current understanding of the risks that may hamper the successful implementation of smart city projects remains limited. This research examines the risk landscape for implementing smart city projects in two Indian cities, Kakinada and Kanpur, by interviewing 20 professionals from industry and local government who were closely associated with implementing smart city projects. Seven risks are identified—namely resource management and partnership, institutional, scheduling and execution, social, financial, political, and technology—using thematic analysis. Further, the interrelationships between the risks are modelled using causal mapping techniques. The results suggest different risk priorities among the two types of professionals interviewed. Further, a number of risks were found to be closely connected. These findings suggest that risk mitigation strategies need to take a comprehensive view towards all risks and their interconnections instead of managing each risk in isolation.