The main interest of this paper is to analyze the gap between an existing city and its future vision set in the strategy, with a focus on the transition path towards becoming a Smart City. For the analyses, we used the example of Tallinn, a middle-sized European capital city acknowledged in innovation reports as a good example of a Smart City development. This is a qualitative case study with data based on the Tallinn 2035 strategy document and on the interviews conducted with city officials. We mapped the current situation in regard to the four Smart City strategies dichotomies framework in order to understand if and how the future vision of Tallinn differs from the present. The results indicate that the current direction deviates in several ways from the future vision set in the strategy, and that to be able to move towards the vision, strategic changes are needed. With this paper we hope to add some insights to the literature about the knowledge gap between Smart City theory and implementation from the perspective of a present situation versus long-term strategy.

This paper investigates on long-term challenges faced by local governments. Using empirical evidence from Estonia, this paper aims to help fill a research gap in that there is a lack of a systematic approach on how to analyze common urban challenges via direct involvement of local governments. In terms of conceptual framework, a unique combination of public value theory and mission-oriented innovation is proposed. The data is collected via questionnaire, interviews and workshops involving up to 35 local governments. It is important that instead of current problems relating only to one city, this study focuses on finding shared, long-term challenges and, from them, generates a list of top 10 challenges. This provides valuable input to initiating new research and innovation projects in the key, smart city domains (e.g., energy, mobility, built environment, governance and data).

This paper focuses on a question of how to make innovative digital smart city solutions available for the very small, small and medium-size municipalities. The paper introduces as one potential approach, for reaching this goal, a Smart City (SC) idea competition and piloting initiative carried out in Estonia, involving very small towns, small cities and medium-sized cities. The article describes the process of identifying urban challenges and ranking them in collaboration with the representatives of municipalities, crowdsourcing innovative solutions to the identified most pressing problems through open international smart city (SC) idea competition and the selection of the winning piloting ideas. The results of the SC idea competition are analysed in the context of mission-oriented-innovation (MOI) and public value (PV) theory framework, in order to evaluate the winning SC pilot plans potential to have a positive impact and added PV for the local communities, improving their quality of life and sustainability.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are valuable instruments for climate adaptation and resilience. Existing research on urban NBS barriers focuses mostly on structural and technical elements, while co-creation and local knowledge are regularly cited as critical for successful implementation. Even when barriers are easy to identify, a divide between ambition and reality generates procedural and knowledge gaps. This paper addresses this challenge through a case study of the Horizon Europe project URBREATH. Narrative inquiry is used to reveal invisible aspects of NBS implementation as experienced by city officials from Madrid, Cluj-Napoca, Leuven, and Tallinn. Drawing on storytelling workshops with city representatives and the authors’ participatory observation as project members, the paper shows that urban NBS are not only technical solutions, but also socio-cultural elements narrated through affective processes. We ask: what do city officials’ stories of difficult implementation moments reveal? Collected narratives show the personal commitment required to deliver urban nature-based solutions. Stories reveal that, in these cases, project managers absorbed institutional gaps informally, community participation was unevenly distributed, and hybrid NBS objects did not fit existing departmental categories. In navigating these barriers, narrative work itself operates as a form of governance practice. Narrowing this procedural and knowledge gap, we conclude, requires attention to affective and relational labour alongside procedural fixes.

Autonomous shuttle buses provide a promising solution for the last-mile problem in various contexts. The removal of the human driver facilitates round-the-clock operations as well as transportation in locations that might otherwise be unfeasible for buses operated by a human driver. Trials have been conducted on these buses, and several companies aim to equip their vehicles with full self-driving capabilities. However, removing the human driver introduces several challenges, particularly in handling emergency situations. The absence of the driver, therefore, calls for increased passenger situational awareness, i.e., understanding of the environmental and contextual factors impacting the operations of the bus the passenger is on. It remains unclear to what extent bus manufacturers have considered these issues or integrated them into the design. This research seeks to shed light on the matter by studying the topic both from the industry’s and users’ perspectives.