Abstract:
Brazilian cities have developed while facing numerous urban problems such as the growth of informal settlements, deficiencies in the areas of education, healthcare, public safety, housing, and the sustainable management of natural resources. These issues have compelled governments to seek innovative solutions. As a response, they began incorporating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into their urban processes to improve management and the quality of services provided. Within this context, Salvador — the fifth largest city by population — has moved away from traditional management models and has undergone a transformation into a smart city, ranking as the 10th smartest city in Brazil according to the 2024 Connected Smart Cities Ranking. Given the inherent complexity of the urban environment in the capital of Bahia, it becomes essential to evaluate its transformation process into a smart city, considering that the effective implementation of such projects requires the articulation of three fundamental dimensions — policy, management, and technology — whose performance is decisive for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the adopted strategies. For this purpose, it is necessary to evaluate Salvador using a model that considers these perspectives, with the Framework of Smart City Innovation by Nam and Pardo (2011) being the only one that fits this role. Thus, the objective of this research is to assess how the strategies of Policy, Management, and Technology proposed by Nam and Pardo’s (2011) Framework of Smart City Innovation, and implemented by the Municipal Government of Salvador, have contributed to the transformation of the city into a smart city. The methodological approach of this study is qualitative in nature, employing data collection techniques such as observation of websites, platforms and applications, analysis of documents, and monitoring of news published on the official pages of the Municipal Government. For data analysis, Content Analysis was applied, following the methodology proposed by Bardin (2011). The results revealed a critical issue regarding Civic Participation, which occurs predominantly in person, thus limiting the engagement of part of the population, especially those who face mobility challenges or time constraints. Another relevant aspect is that Salvador is not among the 100 best-ranked cities in the fields of education, public safety, and healthcare, according to the same ranking that places it among the ten smartest cities in Brazil. Furthermore, the technology implemented in the city has played a fundamental role in the modernization of public services; however, there are still challenges to be overcome in order to consolidate a truly intelligent and efficient management model. It is concluded that, although there are weaknesses in the smart city strategies implemented in the capital of Bahia by the Municipal Government, the city has succeeded in innovating in the dimensions of Policy, Management, and Technology, in alignment with the vision of Nam and Pardo (2011), whose concept of a smart city is based on the capacity to innovate in these perspectives.
