The importance of being "Smart". Cities at the forefront of disaster risk management.

Abstract Aim of this paper is to verify to what extent the 'smart city paradigm' can support urban governments in enabling capacity development over disaster risks management. The paper deals with the issues of smart city... [ view full abstract ]

Abstract

Aim of this paper is to verify to what extent the 'smart city paradigm' can support urban governments in enabling capacity development over disaster risks management.

The paper deals with the issues of smart city and disaster risk management. It discusses and improves on theoretical findings (Eisenhardt, 1989), using empirical evidences, through the technique of content analysis (Krippendorff, 2012) on primary data, meta-data and secondary data (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2003) with a major focus on Japan and ASEAN Region.

The transition to smart urban governance and the adoption of some “smart” applications are of pivotal importance for the success of disaster risk reduction initiatives.

Although further research will provide deeper theoretical reflections and empirical evidences on the subject, the paper highlights those existing correlation between the aforementioned topics, arising in the intersection among 'smart governance', 'collaboration' and 'disaster risk management'.