Sustainability Performance of European Smart Cities: A Novel DEA Approach with Double Frontiers

Abstract

Sustainability is the crux of urban renaissance. Imbibed with utopian technological planning, understanding the convergence between smart development and sustainable practices for city development is necessary. Smart cities have succeeded in bringing high standards of living to its residents. This article evaluates the long-term sustainability performance of 35 leading European smart cities over time from 2015 till 2020 to understand on how these cities address sustainability to make the concept of smart sustainable cities more actionable. A novel Double-Frontier Slack Based Measure Data Envelopment Analysis (DFSBM-DEA) model considering undesirable factors in the technology set is proposed for the assessment. An integrated relative sustainability performance assessment model considering both the optimistic and pessimistic viewpoint simultaneously, in terms of interval efficiency is used to determine the most efficient smart city under 6 various dimensions of sustainable development. These key dimensions include; Energy and Environmental Resource, Governance and Institution, Economic dynamism, Social cohesion and solidarity, Climate Change and, Safety and Security. A productivity progress assessment from a double frontier perspective using a modified Malmquist-DEA model is then used to capture the response of each smart city in terms of their productivity growth towards achieving sustainable development. Results show Dublin (ranked 1st) as the most smart and sustainable European city under all the proposed dimensions of sustainable development from the double-frontier perspective. Along with Dublin lies Oslo, Zurich and Amsterdam as the cities with high aggregate sustainability performance. The results also revealed significant difference in the productivity progress values from the optimistic and pessimistic viewpoint, thus exemplifying the significance for the proposed aggregate productivity progress measurement model. The findings of the present study contribute to knowledge and practice for smart city modellers, decision makers and urban planners, by aiding methodological clarity in assessing sustainable capacity of cities from a double frontier perspective and, in particular, by drawing attention to underlying assumptions about the role of sustainability in smart city development. This research stands as a breakthrough in the field of relative sustainability assessment using non-parametric approaches and a benchmark for global smart cities to shape their development in light of sustainability.