Smart Cities and Associated Risks: Technical v/s Non-technical Perspective

The new era of smart city is accompanied by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and many other technologies to improve the quality of life for the citizen of the modern city, that in turn, has brought immense opportunities as well as challenges for government and organizations. These challenges often introduce risks with smart city services on which citizens are heavily reliant. The connotation of smart city services introduces risks not only with the technology but also with non-technical aspects like process and management where a human element is involved. However, there are only limited attempts to investigate risk in the context of process and management while the literature of technology-oriented risks is relatively comprehensive. This paper aims to reveal the significance of technical versus non-technical elements in smart city services, and how to integrate both views with the help of Enterprise Architecture (EA) for addressing the impact of risks. On the basis of this review, this paper argues that for an effective risk assessment process, it is vital to consider both technical and non-technical components together which would lead to improved governance strategies for risk mitigation approach.