Smart Cities Are Not Enough: Cities Need Resilience Systems

For years, cities have invested in smart sensors, dashboards, platforms and digital services.

But as urban shocks cascade across water, energy, transport, digital infrastructure and social systems, smart cities are not enough: cities need to evolve these tools into resilience systems that connect essential services, data, and institutions to anticipate disruption, co-ordinate action and protect people.

From smart projects to resilience capacity

A smart city project often starts with a single technology: a device, a dataset, an application or a pilot. A resilience system starts from a public urban development problem: keeping water available, restoring mobility, supporting vulnerable residents, or coordinating departments during a crisis.

A dashboard may show what is happening. A resilience system helps decide what to do, who should act and which services must be protected first.

Water is one of the clearest examples, because supply systems are vital for territorial resilience.

To protect these, Eau 17 in Charente-Maritime, France launched its “Water of the Future” initiative, a 2050 foresight exercise examining resources, raw water quality, demand, tourism, agriculture, land-use planning and infrastructure capacity.

Eau 17 involved water stakeholders, elected officials, inter-municipal authorities, operators and institutional partners to turn long-term analysis into an operational roadmap – involving all parties, not just the water company.

This foresight work then shaped technology choices. Rather than deploying digital tools for their own sake, Eau 17 identified clear operational needs: consolidating asset and financial data, using incident and quality data to prioritise network renewal, targeting smart metering for seasonal consumers such as campsites, mobilising resource expertise, and monitoring quality risks.

As Hortense Bret, Director General of Eau 17, puts it: “Foresight only has value if it helps bring the actors of a territory on board. Our objective was not only to produce a 2050 scenario, but to make risks understandable, share responsibilities and help elected officials integrate water into their planning decisions.”

The lesson goes beyond one territory. Digital tools can reduce losses, guide investment and help officials visualise risks, but the starting point remains the public decision: what must be protected, where should investment go, and which uses need to change?

Resilience depends on connecting and protecting essential services

The same logic applies across other essential urban systems. Cities are made of interdependent systems, yet these systems are often managed separately: energy, transport, buildings, health, emergency response, digital infrastructure and social services.

A power outage can affect traffic signals, telecommunications, healthcare facilities and water pumping systems. A flood can affect roads, schools, housing and emergency access. A cyberattack can move from administrative systems to public service delivery.

Angers Loire Métropole offers another useful example. Its “Territoire intelligent” programme supports resource efficiency and operational resilience, with up to 70% energy savings on streetlighting and a control centre able to remotely manage 70 000 public assets, from traffic lights to watering and heating systems.

Its climate adaptation plan also identifies heat, housing quality, working conditions, drought and runoff flooding as vulnerabilities, including risks for fragile people.

Angers also illustrates the other side of connected infrastructure. A major 2021 cyberattack disrupted municipal digital services and affected the smart territory rollout. While there is no verified evidence that it directly disabled physical infrastructure, it shows why cybersecurity and continuity planning must be built into smart city programmes from the start.

As Denis Thuriot, Mayor of Nevers and President of Nevers Agglomération, argues: “A smart and adaptive city is not only a city that withstands crises.

It is a city that prepares its residents, protects its essential services and turns constraints into a collective project. Local authorities must explain, involve and build trust, because adaptation can only succeed if citizens feel involved in the solutions.”

Resilience must be inclusive by design

Resilience is also a test of inclusion. Shocks do not affect all residents equally. Older people, children, people with disabilities, outdoor workers and poorly insulated households are often more exposed and have fewer options to adapt.

Technology can help when it is linked to operational decisions and support services. Cities can use registries, spatial analysis and service data to identify residents needing support during heatwaves, locate accessible cooling spaces, adapt public transport or prioritise outreach.

The point is not to collect more data, but to connect operational tools, vulnerability analysis and public action so investments and support reach those most exposed.

From smart city pilots to shared resilience capabilities

For policymakers, the priority is to move from isolated smart city pilots to shared resilience capabilities. Cities should map dependencies between essential services, create frameworks for responsible data sharing, embed cybersecurity and continuity planning into critical systems, invest in skills and operating models, and include vulnerable communities from the beginning.

National governments can support common standards, finance long-term resilience, help smaller cities access expertise, and encourage collaboration between local authorities, utilities, research organisations and technology providers.

The next generation of smart cities will be powered by AI. But its success will not be judged by the number of sensors or dashboards created.

It will be judged by whether they help cities keep essential services working under pressure, protect the residents most at risk and recover faster from disruptions.

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To read related OECD content, check out Smart Cities and Inclusive Growth and The OECD Programme on Smart Cities and Inclusive Growth.