Electronic cities' strategic planning case study: uremia city, Iran

Abstract

Electronic cities result from the implication of information and communication technology (ICT) in the contemporary era. Significant ICT development and internet network expansion as well as the need of urban management to new ideas in managing cities lead us toward a new strategy called "electronic cities". The current study aims at investigating the Electronic Cities' Strategic Planning Case Study: Uremia, Iran. The research method is documentary and survey research population consists of mangers and specialists working in Uremia's urban planning and ICT, obtained from Morgan table. To collect data, Likert spectrum is employed. Findings indicate that the most important challenges in the way of establishing an electronic city include the lack of strategic document for urban development, high number of decision-making centers and administrative extra parallel works among them, the inclination of the urban managers toward traditional methods, low-speed, high-cost internet connection, the lack of infrastructures for ICT, the lack of digital literacy among citizens and so on. With respect to ANOVA results, findings indicate that some of the sub elements play a key role in the establishment of electronic cities. Concerning the inequality of the role of factors effective on the establishment of electronic cities, each factor's sub elements has been ranked through multi-criteria decision making techniques and TOPSIS model. According to the findings, some strategies have been recommended, which need the serious care of urban managers and planners in the metropolitan Uremia.