Smart Swedish cities - An explorative study on expected benefits and potential vulnerabilities

Several Swedish cities have started their journey towards becoming a smart city. The need to develop smarter cities is related to for example the challenges urbanisation entails. What constitute a smart city is blurry and there is a lack of a conventional definition. FOI has conducted an interview study, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, on the expected benefits and possible vulnerabilities with smart cities in Sweden. The development of smart cities is still at an early stage where focus primarily is on establishing proper technical infrastructure. State cost savings and efficiencies are expected benefits. The expectation is that the smart cities will provide better situational awareness and decision-making based on data rather than today's more experience-based decisions. Currently, primarily potential technical vulnerabilities dominates. Continuous work with risk- and vulnerability analyses is necessary to have an understanding of vulnerabilities related to smart city developments. Expected change in both working methods and skills may trigger organizational vulnerabilities, the extent of which is currently unclear. Smart cities can also give rise to social and legal vulnerabilities. The resilience of the smart city's solutions in the event of a crisis or war has not been fully mapped, which indicates that the smart city could to some extent be vulnerable from a contingency perspective.