Smart Cities Enabling Effective Response in Battling Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Covid-19 has subsequently given rise to a pandemic in early 2020. This virus is new and highly contagious; unfortunately, there is no specific medication to treat the virus. Thus, it has become an obligation for all countries in the world to take drastic measures to protect and ensure safety of their citizens. Moreover, technology has played an important role to help the government to implement measures and customize services effectively to contain the virus. Some of these measures include artificial intelligence or “AI”, Internet of things, “IoT” and Clouds. Countries adopting the smart cities concept were predominately prepared with a technology platform, thus they were effective to react promptly and spontaneously to the threat. This paper discusses success stories of four countries from the Australia-Asia region which up to now have successfully contained the virus. From the literature review analysis, besides technology, other factors have contributed to fight the pandemic battle. These factors are core factors in the process of combating the virus and are related to managerial leadership, leadership, accountability, collaboration, and effective communication. These factors play an important role along with smart cities technologies in the battle to fight against Covid-19.