Identifying the Key Drivers of Smart City Development by Using the Combination of Meta-Synthesis and EDAS

Urban management in the current decade is associated with many political, social, economic, environmental, legislative and technological complications and challenges. The smart city concept as a new framework for urban management can help reduce many challenges and problems of urban management. In the process of developing a smart city, the intertwined relationships between the influencing elements are greatly intensified. Therefore, to evaluate and measure the changes in these factors and their potential secondary effects on each other, the use of advanced dynamic systems is mandatory. To realize the development of a smart city, it is necessary to use futuristic tools to create justified and desirable futures with the participation of all key stakeholders. In this research, to identify and prioritize the drivers of smart city management in the framework of strategic foresight, the combination of Meta-Synthesis and Edas methods have been used. Methodologically, a combination of different methods has been used to collect data and information. By using the literature review summarized by Meta-Synthesis method, the key factors of smart city management have been identified. Based on this, all the information and data obtained from the previous step have been collected in the treasury and subsequently, the frequency table of the factors affecting the management of the smart city has been identified. In the last step, the outputs of the Meta-Synthesis method were used for ranking and identifying key drivers by using the  Edas method. Finally, in this research, the researcher has presented a step-by-step process to identify the drivers of smart city development and has extracted 9 final drivers with the greatest impact on smart city management.