Smart City Topics
Evidence-led guides that connect definitions, analysis and documented projects across the atlas.
A topic guide explains one subject across cities — what the technology actually is, what the documented record supports, and the questions to ask before buying it. For the complete computed sets — every failure, every evidence grade, every operator — see the track record; for a reading order through hand-picked entries, take a curated tour.
Getting around
How people and vehicles move — the biggest slice of the atlas, from adaptive signals to driverless metros.
🚌
Public transport
265 documented projects · 145 cities · 1976–2026 · 51 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 27 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🚦
Traffic management
162 documented projects · 109 cities · 1975–2026 · 34 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 13 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
💷
Congestion pricing
20 documented projects · 17 cities · 1976–2025 · 9 graded independent or peer-reviewed
Read the guide →
🎫
Smart ticketing
117 documented projects · 91 cities · 1997–2026 · 21 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 11 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🚲
Cycling
55 documented projects · 47 cities · 2007–2024 · 4 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 7 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🅿️
Smart parking
46 documented projects · 41 cities · 2009–2026 · 2 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 5 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🛴
Shared mobility
72 documented projects · 58 cities · 2003–2026 · 8 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 13 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🚗
Autonomous vehicles
81 documented projects · 54 cities · 1981–2026 · 7 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 12 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🔋
EV & charging
28 documented projects · 25 cities · 2007–2024 · 3 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 4 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🚁
Drones & air mobility
16 documented projects · 16 cities · 2015–2025 · 2 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 1 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
Water, energy and waste
The networked utilities: what a city pumps, powers, lights and collects.
💧
Water
128 documented projects · 104 cities · 1975–2026 · 24 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 9 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🔌
Smart grid & energy
98 documented projects · 70 cities · 1981–2026 · 12 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 9 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
☀️
Solar & PV
37 documented projects · 31 cities · 2000–2023 · 6 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 6 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
⚗️
Hydrogen
3 documented projects · 3 cities · 2018–2024
Read the guide →
💡
Smart lighting
44 documented projects · 44 cities · 2009–2026 · 4 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 5 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🗑️
Waste & recycling
38 documented projects · 36 cities · 1992–2026 · 5 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 3 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
♻️
Circular economy
21 documented projects · 20 cities · 1992–2024 · 4 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 2 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
Climate, health and the street
Where cities measure their environment — and what a reading is allowed to trigger.
🌊
Flood resilience
61 documented projects · 55 cities · 1975–2026 · 9 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 2 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🌡️
Heat & cooling
32 documented projects · 27 cities · 2006–2025 · 5 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 1 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🌫️
Air quality
91 documented projects · 66 cities · 1951–2025 · 42 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 6 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🏥
Health & care
39 documented projects · 31 cities · 1986–2025 · 18 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 4 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🏞️
Public space
35 documented projects · 26 cities · 2009–2025 · 6 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 7 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
The data layer
The plumbing behind everything else: sensor networks, registers and models — and the districts where cities test the whole stack at once.
📡
Sensors & IoT
569 documented projects · 193 cities · 1951–2026 · 117 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 48 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
📻
LoRaWAN
19 documented projects · 16 cities · 2016–2026 · 3 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 1 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
📶
Connectivity & 5G
67 documented projects · 55 cities · 1994–2026 · 8 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 7 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
📊
Open data
246 documented projects · 102 cities · 1951–2026 · 55 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 21 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🪞
Digital twin
34 documented projects · 28 cities · 2005–2026 · 2 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 1 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🗺️
GIS & cadastre
70 documented projects · 60 cities · 1990–2026 · 9 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 4 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🤖
Artificial intelligence
123 documented projects · 76 cities · 1984–2026 · 23 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 12 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🏘️
Smart districts
39 documented projects · 30 cities · 2000–2026 · 9 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 8 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
Government, participation and watching
Digital government, who takes part in it — and who is allowed to check the cameras.
🪪
Digital government
253 documented projects · 135 cities · 1989–2026 · 46 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 20 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🗳️
Citizen participation
96 documented projects · 72 cities · 1989–2026 · 24 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 12 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🔒
Privacy & personal data
100 documented projects · 76 cities · 1995–2026 · 23 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 12 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
🛡️
Safety & security
178 documented projects · 110 cities · 1976–2026 · 40 graded independent or peer-reviewed · 21 failed or scaled back
Read the guide →
The six categories
A topic is a thread that runs across the atlas, and a project can carry several. A category is the one domain each project belongs to, so these six cover the corpus exactly once.
