Agile Governance for Smart Cities: A Framework for Sustainable Public Infrastructure

Daniel Kweku Assumang, Jeremiah Matthews, Olawale Luqman Ajani, Taiwo Oluwatosin Olotu and Samuel Yaw Larbi
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Daniel Kweku Assumang: College of Professional Studies, Roux Institute, Northeastern University, United States.
Jeremiah Matthews: Department of Civil Construction and Environmental Engineering, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA.
Olawale Luqman Ajani: Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Pavia, Italy.
Taiwo Oluwatosin Olotu: Department of Plaster School of Business, University of Cumberlands, USA.
Samuel Yaw Larbi: College of Professional Studies, Roux Institute, Northeastern University, USA.

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Abstract: The increasing complexity of 21st-century urban development has spurred a global move towards smart city initiatives associated with improving the quality of urban life, economic efficiency, and environmental sustainability. Smart city projects are, by their nature, interdisciplinary, have a multiplicity of stakeholders, evolve rapidly in technology, and must be sustainable over the long term, which all create specific challenges to their management. Regarding the methodology, a comprehensive review of scholarly journals and credible online materials is conducted. Key findings from the reviewed journals and materials on the agile governance framework for smart cities are presented thematically. In this review, a comprehensive, agile framework for smart city project governance is proposed, which is geared towards dynamic smart city project environments, particularly sustainable public infrastructure projects. The framework integrates principles of agile project management, collaborative governance, and metrics to address well-known pitfalls in smart city initiatives, including bureaucratic inertia, fragmented decision-making, and inactive citizen participation. The proposed model focuses on iterative planning, adaptive policy in mechanisms, stakeholder co-creation, and performance evaluation in a continuous model using real-time data analytics. The applicability of the framework is validated by studying case studies of leading smart cities and extracting best practices from these. One of the examined case studies on the implementation of a smart city project was the Jogja Smart City project. Furthermore, the study investigates the part played by digital tools such as IoT, big data, and AI in improving transparency, accountability, and the responsiveness of smart city project governance. The results indicate that an agile governance approach contributes to improving project operation efficiency and innovation capacity, as well as the social and environmental resilience of public infrastructure projects. A model for practical and scalable intelligent and agile urban governance that facilitates sustainable urban transformation is the key contribution of this review. The paper recommends that governments and all concerned stakeholders in city and urban development need to integrate the concept of agile governance in smart city projects for sustainable public infrastructure.

Date: 2025-07-30
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Published in Journal of Economics, Management and Trade, 2025, 31 (8), pp.99-119

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05193829

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