# A Comprehensive Survey on the Societal Aspects of Smart Cities
## 1 Introduction  
The idea of a city where technology is an integral part of the city's infrastructure to gather information to better control its environment and improve the conditions of its inhabitants can be traced back to seventeenth-century utopian fiction [1]. This closely relates to the modern concept of smart cities, which can be traced to the mid-twentieth century [2]. Although there is of yet no true consensus on the concept of smart cities, it is widely accepted that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are essential. Sensors are used to gather data, and devices communicate through a network to generate information about the city. This information can then be managed to promote the sustainable economic growth of the cities and to improve their services. A broad range of projects developed and implemented the concept of smart cities. SmartSantander, located in Spain, has deployed a large IoT infrastructure to support various services to the city and its inhabitants (e.g., environmental monitoring, traffic management, or participatory sensing), allowing them to generate sensing data and report city issues. Moreover, the available infrastructure has been opened to third parties, allowing them to experiment with new ideas and services in a real-world environment, which might be expanded to other cities [3]. London is considered one of the leading smart cities in Europe due to its implementation of smart technologies to support a wide range of inhabitants needs, such as mobility (e.g., traffic management, public transport, smart parking, or bicycle sharing systems), city infrastructure and environment (e.g., smart grids for water and energy, smart wastemanagement, or pollution monitoring systems), and security (e.g., smart illumination or incident detection systems using microphones and CCTV cameras). This is achieved through extensive data collection and collation systems, which can be used to gain a better understanding of urban issues and solve them efficiently [4]. However, the most important aspect is that the London smart city actively encourages citizen participation at almost every level, from sensing to consultation to collaboration. This allows citizens to be active participants in their communities and improves communication between citizens and their governance [4,5]. A much more recent project, launched in October 2023 is the NYC Smart City Testbed Program. It serves as a platform for developers to test their projects in the real-life conditions of New York City. As one of the largest cities in the world and the largest in the United States, New York has a strong presence in smart city research [6] and has already implemented different smart solutions (e.g., waste management, lighting, or public transportation) [7]. Other established smart cities' implementations in the United States are the Chicago smart city, which presents a sensing network spread across the city that monitors various types of data in real-time (e.g., temperature, traffic, or sound intensity), and the San Francisco smart city, that municipal data (e.g., urban planning, crime, or housing) is available through the DataSF portal [8]. Data openness is considered crucial, although the city's governance needed to make significant efforts to guarantee the data maintenance [9]. Many Asian countries are also investing in smart cities. China has several cities, such as Nanjing, which aim to create an efficient transportation system, and the Sino-Singapore Nanjing Eco-Hi-Tech Island. Hangzhou has implemented the City Brain system to manage the city's traffic system, which has already shown many benefits [10]. Beijing has introduced a virtual card for its citizens, which holds their personal information, provides improved transportation options, as well as means to address the city's poor air quality. Hong Kong has invested in digital governance with the Next Generation Gov Cloud and Big Data Analytics Platform, and more [10,11].