A conceptual framework for the alignment of infrastructure assets to citizen requirements within a Smart Cities framework

With the predicted world population growth of 83 million people per year (increasing 1.09% year on year) compounded with a strong trend for migration to urban centres, there is a developing interest by academics, industry and government to the digitalisation of the built environment and its potential impact on private enterprises, public services and the broader context of society. The governments around the world and others are aiming to guide and standardise this process by developing an array of standards to support this digitalisation, most notably on Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Smart Cities Framework. Furthermore, the advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) is creating a highly flexible, dynamic and accessible platform for the exchange capture and of information. There is a risk that this information on the built environment is quickly becoming unmanageable, and the value of that information is quickly becoming lost. This paper presents a smart asset alignment framework that creates an alignment between the information captured at the infrastructure asset level and citizen requirements within a Smart City framework. The framework contributes to the debate on designing and developing Smart City solutions in a way that will deliver value to the citizens.