Smart Cities at the forefront: managing the development of greenfield cities

Smart cities initiatives usually differ between various urban contexts in relation to the driving forces, the investment requirements and the stakeholders involved. The management of smartization processes can be based on two different development models called greenfield (created from scratch) and brownfield (existing city). In this paper we have focused our attention on the first model with a focus on their essential elements, especially those related to the projects starting point, governance, financial models, and technological solutions. Firstly, we have collect the main differences and classification criteria of two models explain in literature; secondly, we make an overview of all new smart cities projects pointing out their geographical distribution, technological solutions’ provider involved, source of funding. Finally, we have analysed three relevant examples of greenfield cities created smart with the fundamental support of information and communication technology (ICT) providers, in order to underline the linkages between new smart cities and technologies, and to identify the projects’ objectives, and implications. The results show that making a smart city from scratch and managing this development project is a challenge filled by obstacles as well as opportunities of various types: financial, social, environmental.