From smart to smarter cities

Leveraging integration, data and enablement for sustainable and resilient urban transformations
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Cities are reaching a crisis point. City populations are growing.1 Citizen satisfaction with government services is weakening.2

And net zero deadlines are looming. Cities recognize that their traditional approaches to city planning, development, management and renewal will not get them to their goals in time.

They must become smarter, more integrated, data-driven and enabling.

As the world faces multiple interrelated challenges, it is in City Halls, on city streets and in city business districts that humanity’s destiny will be decided.

Richard Threlfall

Global Head, Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare (IGH)

KPMG International

From smart to smarter cities explores how a focus on becoming more integrated, data-driven and enabling can help city decision-makers, infrastructure leaders and private companies accelerate their smart city agendas.

In this report, professionals from KPMG’s global network join with experienced industry and city leaders to unpack these three priorities – integrated, data-driven and enabling – across the lens of the six key challenges facing cities today:

  1. Urban planning, infrastructure and technology
  2. Data and privacy
  3. Transportation and mobility
  1. Sustainability and social equity
  2. Governance and oversight
  3. Funding and financing

Get real-life examples and new inspiration from KPMG International’s From smart to smarter cities.

In the fast-paced and ever-expanding canvas of urban life, cities must reimagine their existence through a lens of inclusivity and innovation. From smart to smarter cities explains how.

Sarah Varghese

Head of Cities Advisory

KPMG International

sarah-varghese

This report is aimed at city decision-makers, policy makers, infrastructure leaders and private companies who share the view that cities must move quickly from smart to smarter to help humanity solve today’s most pressing challenges.

Find out how the world’s leading cities are becoming more integrated, data-driven and enabling in KPMG International’s From smart to smarter cities.


World Cities Report 2022, UN Habitat, 2022

Embrace your digital citizen: Citizen Experience Excellence 2023-2024, KPMG LLP, 2024

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Our people

Richard Threlfall

Global Head of Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare (IGH)

KPMG International

Sarah Varghese
Sarah Varghese

Head of Cities Advisory

KPMG in Saudi Arabia

Eric Wolfe

Partner, National Cities Lead

KPMG in Canada


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