CRITIC-FCE Based Evaluation of Residents’ Sense of Safety: Evidence from Smart Communities in China

As a crucial aspect of smart city construction, the concept of the smart community has emerged, aiming to enhance residents’ sense of safety. While much research focuses on technological innovations and infrastructure development within smart communities, few studies evaluate these communities from the residents’ perspective, especially when it comes to their sense of safety. Therefore, this paper seeks to establish a system of evaluation indicators to measure residents’ sense of safety in smart communities. Based on identified evaluation indicators, an evaluation framework was constructed using a comprehensive the CRITIC-FCE method to assess residents’ sense of safety in smart communities. This study selected five smart communities in Shenzhen City to validate the framework’s feasibility. The results revealed that “cultural activities for the elderly” carried the highest weight, while “intelligent access control” had the lowest. Additionally, among the five communities, Baolong Community scored the highest, while Nanyuan Community scored the lowest. This research proposes several strategies for improving residents’ sense of safety in smart communities. Finally, this study enriches the academic framework and provides valuable guidance for future research on residents’ sense of safety in smart communities.