# Metaverse Meets Smart Cities--Applications, Benefits, and Challenges
## 6 Discussion  
The metaverse is still in its infancy [3; 50]. This is due to the fact that many technologies required for mass adoption have not reached a sufficient performance level up to now [50]. Still, in the context of a smart city, a multitude of applications are envisioned that aim to provide significant benefits for various stakeholders, as presented in Sections 5.1 and 5.2.  
Section 5.3 shows the first attempts to leverage the metaverse in the context of cities and municipalities. Many applications, e.g., digital twins for city infrastructure, virtual tourism, or citizen services, have already been implemented. However, many of these examples are currently under development or somewhat experimental.  
Comparing the envisioned 48 smart city metaverse applications from Table 1 with the already realized smart city metaverse examples from Table 2 shows that only 20 potential applications have been implemented. Metaverse-based digital administration services are included in six of the eleven city metaverse examples, making this application the most implemented, followed by tourism-related applications. While other applications from Table 1, e.g., city planning and simulation, are included in several examples, other fields, such as governance and policymaking, have not been addressed. Fields of application such as healthcare and education seem to not be in the actual focus of city metaverse initiatives, although they are undergoing research and development driven by other parties [51; 52].  
Thus, the expected benefits of metaverse applications in citizen services are apparent. Enabling citizens to access information or submit requests in an interactive, metaverse-enabled manner from anywhere reduces time and effort for citizens and the administration. Similarly, leveraging metaverse-enabled immersive experiences in tourism seems to come with obvious benefits. Independent of location and individual limitations, users can experience the attractions and sights of a city. This might enable new business models and increase the attractiveness of the respective city to tourists. In the city planning and simulation field, which is addressed by some of the example cities in Section 5.3, the expected benefits are, for example, better quality of planning and decision processes due to the possibility of experiencing the outcomes in an immersive way in advance. While these examples from various fields of application have already been explored, other applications are still waiting to be implemented. In order to identify those metaverse applications that are beneficial for a specific city, it is mandatory to gain more experience, collect more data, and understand the specific needs of a city's stakeholders.  
As laid out in Section 5.4, the smart city metaverse comes with challenges that must also be mastered. This is the necessary precondition for an overall beneficial and sustainable metaverse application. Different stakeholders are capable of or responsible for taking preventive measures, depending on the type of challenge or risk. Topics like data protection, security, or fake news, for example, are specifically influenced by the operator of a metaverse platform, whether this is a city itself or a third-party vendor. At the same time, legislation sets the boundaries for platform operators. On the other hand, cities have specific responsibilities when it comes to providing appropriate infrastructure or fighting inequalities, for example, by offering interface devices at low cost to low-income households.  
Figure 2 graphically compares the opportunities and potential with the risks and impacts that can arise and occur when using metaverse applications in the smart city sector. It is essential to balance these two aspects.