Sustainable Smart Cities: Based on Fuzzy DEMATEL Approach

New urban planning paradigms have provided a new framework based on sustainable cities for urbanization. Nowadays, a smart solution is submitted by day and these solutions make cities radically change the way they are managed today. According to this view, various dimensions can be offered for a sustainable smart city. To determine the smart sustainable city concept, need to define the dimensions of a specific city are smart and sustainable. So, this study aims to analyze the causal relationships of sustainable smart city dimensions. therefore, a fuzzy DEMATEL solution is developed and presented. The population is 42 urban developers who are chosen reasonably. A pairwise matrices questionnaire was made to compare and match each couple of criteria. A group of experts evaluated the correlation between criteria. Then, the linguistic variables were put into triangular fuzzy numbers and then their opinion about the criteria was collected. After that, the crisp total direct relation matrix, the fuzzy, and the normalized matrix of direct relation were calculated. Findings showed that Policy factors affect all six other factors and are influenced by all the other factors except Environmental factors. Governance factors influence all six other factors and are affected by Policy and Business factors. Economic factors affect all the other factors except Governance factors. Environmental factors are affected by four other factors (Policy, Economic, Governance, Inhabitant). The Inhabitant factors have the most interaction (influence/influence) with other criteria and since (D_i-R_i) is negative for Inhabitant factors, so this criterion is a net effect. The Governance factors after Inhabitant factors have the most interaction (impact/influence) with other criteria and since (D_i-R_i) is positive for Governance factors, so this criterion is a net cause. Given that the value (D_i-R_i) is positive, the criteria of Policy factors, Economic factors, and Environmental factors are also net causes. This approach can develop a robust management approach that can be used in different smart city environments.