A new smart city index based on urban origin theory

Abstract The development of smart cities has consistently drawn the attention of governments, academia, and citizens, especially amid rapid urbanization. As a result, evaluating smart city performance has become increasingly important in urban studies. Such evaluations are crucial for assessing current initiatives and guiding future development. However, the complexity of smart city components and data limitations have hindered the widespread application of these evaluations. This paper proposes a new smart city evaluation system that relies entirely on open data, exploring the elements of modern smart city development from the foundational needs of urban origins. The approach broadens the applicability of traditional subjective weighting methods by employing word frequency analysis for subjective weight determination. The framework was applied to 50 global cities, revealing that cities with mature smart city development tend to prioritize social development.