# Multiagency Modeling of Transformation Strategies Towards Sustainable Smart Cities
###### Abstract  
Given the relentless development of intelligent information and communication technology (ICT) systems, a growing need for cities to transform towards smart solutions and, on the other hand, a lack of firm methodological approaches to implement such transformations, the paper contributes to establishing a theory for modeling the transformation of cities towards sustainable, smart cities. The article presents the results of research: a model and a visualization method for supporting cities in elaborating and implementing transformation strategies. The authors' experience is that intelligible, algorithmizable, and easily visualized models are being sought to assist city authorities in making informed decisions regarding the development of their cities. The paper proposes the concepts of the smartness zone and sustainability corridor, which allow one to devise and visualize the process of a city's development and transformation in a simple, coherent, and comprehensible way, and to observe and monitor its development path. It presents a new generic instrument for modeling transformation strategies, which are the tools addressed to municipal authorities, analysts, and developers who can use them in order to design, implement, monitor, and optimize transformation strategies towards smart cities. s 2020 10 853 2020 2  
sometimes said that the precise tool to address this need is ICT, whose relentless development of intelligent systems promises a quick and effortless solution. This is not true, for other material and intangible components are necessary, among which, and of the utmost importance, is a firm multifaceted methodology for determining how to devise and implement such transformations. The methodology for transforming cities into intelligent cities should deliver technical models and solutions based on innovative technologies, new organizational and management models, and new regulations, all leading to sustainable development and growth being supported. In our modeling approach, stress is put on establishing sustainable urban ecosystems aimed at, and for, the inhabitants of cities. The focus is especially on developing facilities of common goods, participatory awareness and attitudes of the dwellers, networking between people [2], more horizontal than vertical organizational structures, social capital, and a large variety of e-solutions, e-services, and e-governance, many of which are based on artificial intelligence, big and open data, machine learning, and the massive use of IoT (Internet of Things) solutions. A smart city is a learning environment capable for generating development scenarios, self-assessment, and adaptation, depending on the changes that occur. While preparing a transformation methodology that was commissioned by The Bureau for Digital Transformation of the Mayor's Office of Warsaw in Poland, the authors of the paper realized that Warsaw's municipal authorities are seeking transparent, intelligible, algorithmizable, and easily visualized models to support informed decisions by regarding the development of the city. The abstract model proposed in this paper introduces the concepts of the smartness zone and sustainability corridor, which allow one to devise and visualize, in both qualitative and quantitative terms, the process of a city's development and transformation in a simple, coherent, and comprehensible way, and to observe and monitor its development path. The paper, however, does not offer any specific solutions for any specific city; rather, it presents a new generic instrument for modeling transformation strategies and for monitoring and optimizing the path to reach the desired level of smartness. The structure of the paper is as follows. In Section 2, the basic assumptions underpinning the proposed model along with a brief survey of selected approaches for defining and tackling the issues of smart cities are presented.