The multi-centre study 'Smart Eco-Cities for a Green Economy' was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and involved academics from Glasgow Delft & Utrecht in the Netherlands Exeter in England and Grenoble in France and was led by Professor Simon Joss, Professor of Urban Futures at the University of Glasgow. The findings also revealed that the 'smart city' boom of the last decade is linked to improving the running of a city to create a more joined up approach rather than just being all about technological innovation and data. It found that the vast majority of those who made it on to the rankings table were predominantly capital cities or cities listed as 'world cities.' As such, the findings reveal that 'smart city' development is closely linked to a city's global outreach and engagement.Īnd the research also showed that the majority of the 27 who made the rankings had already garnered a global reputation as 'standard bearers of smart city innovation.'

The main findings of the research, which focused in particular on the governance aspects of smart cities, was led by the University of Glasgow and published in the Journal of Urban Technology. The 27 smart cities were then selected for in-depth analysis, based on 346 documents, and characterised in terms of their 'smart city' dimensions. The group of 27 were whittled down from a full list of over 5550 worldwide cities with 100,000 inhabitants or more.

Based on a comprehensive webometric study, in total 27 cities made it onto the list of the world's leading smart cities, led by London, Singapore and Barcelona.

Global cities ranking 2019