Citizens’ Understanding of Smart City Development: The Case of St. Petersburg, Russia

The paper assesses a model for a smart city development based on the citizens’ survey results. A survey of 600 Saint Petersburg citizens was conducted to reveal citizens’ understanding in three areas: (1) conceptual understanding of smart cities; (2) priority areas for smart city development (3) citizens’ attitudes, positive and negative expectations and risks. Correlation matrices were built based on citizens’ perceptions of the risk and were separated into technological, management and social categories. Of the ten selected indicators, six belong to the social group, one to the technological group and three to the management group. Findings suggest that (1) social aspects are especially important in smart city initiatives (2) conceptual understanding of smart city is still scarce; (3) awareness on priorities and risks associated to developments at the local government level is more pronounced.