Trust in Smart City Systems Report

Smart City Projects are those that integrate information technology (IT) with the management and operation of civic functions, and include operational technology (OT) and public service requirements. The systems upon which Smart City Projects are built can impact virtually every aspect of modern life, including communications, utilities such as water and power, transportation, and government services due to the wide-ranging scope and the amount invested.

Smart city projects are challenging endeavors and can fail or underperform for many reasons, so it is necessary to consider the ways in which each stakeholder will design and in what ways the perspectives are siloed, in order to identify an integrated solution that address the broad scope of smart city projects.

This report is intended as a resource to guide discussions between Smart City decision-makers, designers and implementers during the initial, high-level design of a smart city project and make decisions based on a more complete understanding of the tradeoffs.

The recommendations outlined in this report facilitate an early, important step in the process of developing a smart city system. It is hoped that readers will use the information about key trust characteristics to consider the several ways in which users need to have confidence in a smart city system and ways in which their smart city project can meet them. By incorporating appropriate levels of support for all trust characteristics, projects mitigate many factors that can lead to failure.