Smart-city Development Model: The Case of Ülemiste City

In contemporary world, people’s and companies’ expectations of the city environment have changed. Attention is increasingly being paid to the wide variety of aspects in city life, starting from effective and creative solutions for talents, public places, energy, water, and waste disposal. To meet these demands, real-estate developers have focused on opportunities provided by the smart cities concept. However, smart cities can be managed only when they are measured. This paper utilizes bibliometric analysis, based on the most well-known indexes for smart cities, to develop a measurement model for developers, which should adequately provide evidence-based support for city development and appropriately consider context-specific factors. This research focuses on the privately owned Ülemiste City (ÜC), a suburb of the Estonian capital Tallinn with more than 500 companies and 13,000 employees. ÜC’s economic indicators, such as turnover, average salary, and exports, have increased year on year. ÜC is strongly oriented toward wellbeing and the engagement of talents and tech-rich companies. As a result, a unique Northern-European-specific smart city measurement model is constructed that is used by developers on a daily basis.