Being a Smart City is not the Goal, but What is? A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Smart City Strategies in 13 Cities in Flanders, Belgium

The Smart Flanders program was initiated by the Flemish Government (Belgium) at the start of 2017. The goal of the program is to support the 13 so-called center cities in the Region (by and large the biggest cities) and a representation of the Flemish Community in the Brussels Region with defining and implementing a common open data policy. As part of the program, a “maturity check” was performed, evaluating the cities on a number of quantitative and qualitative parameters. This exercise included finding a common and workable vision on what it means to be smart, from the perspective of these cities.