Unveiling age-friendliness in smart cities: A heterogeneity analysis perspective based on the IAHP-CRITIC-IFCE approach

Smart cities for the elderly are crucial for advancing inclusive smart cities amidst urbanization and population ageing. While the age-friendliness of smart cities is increasingly emphasized, differences across various fields of age-friendliness in smart cities remain unclear. In the context of smart city construction gradually shifting to a people-centered approach, it is also urgent to carry out refined assessment and heterogeneous analysis of the perceptions and needs of different groups of citizens. This paper delves into the evaluation of age-friendliness in smart cities (AFSC). And the heterogeneity of age-friendliness of various fields of services in smart cities is explored, as well as the AFSC deviation in perceptions between elderly people and non-elderly people. First, the main fields and evaluation indicators of AFSC are identified. Then, the AFSC evaluation model is established which is combining the improved Analytic Hierarchy Process (IAHP), the CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) and improved Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation method (IFCE). Finally, a case study is conducted in Nanjing, China. The results show that the AFSC of Nanjing has a score of 61.41, which indicating a favorable level. Furthermore, heterogeneity analyses showed that there are significant variations in age-friendliness across different fields within the city: smart life and consumption, smart recreation and entertainment, smart transportation and mobility have a favorable level of AFSC, while the other fields are deficient. The overall AFSC score for non-elderly citizens is significantly higher than that of elderly citizens, and elderly citizen’ perceptions of AFSC vary according to elements of their personal physical condition and elements of their personal socio-economic status. In addition, the study proposes differentiated enhancement of AFSC in all fields, accurate enhancement of AFSC by identifying specific elderly citizens, and integrated enhancement of AFSC by adopting multi-dimensional measures. This study reveals age-friendliness in different fields of smart cities, clarifies the perceived heterogeneity of age-friendliness of smart cities among different groups of citizens, and enriches the intersection research of smart cities and age-friendly cities.