## 2 Smart City Applications  
Smart City applications span an enormous set of domains, ranging from internal applications used by city staff to manage local tax data, to applications helping citizens engage with civic infrastructure up to real-time applications controlling traffic flows within the city. Recent technology trends such as cloud technologies or IoT are driving new services and applications [4] and while it is impossible to list all these applications--and their ICT requirements--we can usefully categorise Smart City applications into the following broad categories:  
* Smart Governance: Applications in the smart governance category aim to improve public services, citizen engagement, and administrative efficiency. It is a critical focus of all cities, with leading cities employing sophisticated ICT solutions. Some key application areas include, E-government services [5], Citizen engagement [6], and Predictive maintenance of public infrastructure [7]. * Smart Economy: Applications in the Smart economy sector focus on fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainable economic growth in cities. These range from Smart tourism applications that drive inward revenue to a city region [8], through digital marketplaces for local businesses aimed at growing the local economy [9], and even up-to-smart grids for energy management in cities that own or manage their own energy infrastructure [10]. * Smart Mobility: Smart mobility focuses on improving transportation systems and traffic management in urban areas with applications ranging from Intelligent traffic management systems [11] through bike and car-sharing services [12] to real-time public transportation information [13]. While many transportation services are aimed at improving travel times and reducing congestion, increasingly cities are looking to improve sustainability and target NetZero commitments [14]. * Smart Environment: Smart environment applications focus on sustainable resource management and environmental protection. Common services include Smart waste management systems [15], Smart lighting systems, and Air quality monitoring networks [16]. As with other categories, this category crosscuts many other initiatives and services, such as mobility and transportation. * Smart Living: The Smart living category of applications covers a broad range with a general aim to improve quality of life, health, and safety in urban areas. Some core application areas are Smart home automation systems [17], Telemedicine and e-health services [18], and Public safety and emergency response systems [19]. However,applications such as Smart education platforms [20] and Cultural and entertainment services also fall into this category. * A final notable category is Smart People which focuses on developing human capital, fostering creativity, and promoting social inclusion. This category includes examples such as Digital literacy programs, Social innovation platforms, and Inclusive technology solutions for diverse populations [21] often focused on engaging users and stakeholders in designing and deploying new services [22]. In conclusion, Smart City applications cover a wide range of technologies and services that touch on every level of the technology stack being developed and deployed in Smart Cities. To facilitate innovation across the entire spectrum of technology deployments requires that Smart City technology providers build platforms that also range across the entire spectrum, from the far-edge devices that are embedded in city infrastructure, through the near edge gateways, to the on-premise computing infrastructure deployed internally by cities, and up to the cloud services running on commercial server farms used by many cities. By leveraging the strengths of each layer--IoT for data collection, edge for low-latency processing, and cloud for complex analytics and storage--cities can create more efficient, responsive, and sustainable urban systems.