Smart Cities Strategies in Developing Countries: The Case of Lusail City, Qatar

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a rapid technological development that contributed to improving the quality of life in many aspects. As new technologies come to life, more innovations evolve. Many of these innovations have been effectively translated into large-scale applications, creating an initiative called “Smart Cities”, which aims to make cities more sustainable and reliable to adapt to the increasing needs and challenges associated with the growing urbanization. Some developing countries have adopted these “Smart Cities” initiatives to serve their strategic development visions. Qatar, for example, is a developing country in the Middle East with a comprehensive nation-al vision by 2030 that defines the framework in which national strategies and implementation plans can be developed to make Qatar an advanced society capable of sustaining its development and providing a high standard of living for its people. As the Smart Qatar journey evolves and expands, a comprehensive e-government system and digital infrastructure have been launched along with the initiation of two large Real Estates projects as an insight to Smart Cities, Msheireb Downtown Doha, with $5.5 billion investment, and Lusail City, that was introduced on the momentum of 2022 FIFA World Cup. This paper takes Qatar as an example of developing country and studies how Lusail Smart City strategy contributed to tangible real-life applications that were contextual and relevant to Qatar’s current and future challenges, aspirations and needs as part of its national vision in 2030, in addition to summarizing some lessons that can benefit other developing countries that would take similar steps.

Keywords: Smart Cities, Developing Countries, Smart Communities.

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001015