Balancing modernisation with cultural heritage preservation remains a core challenge in integrating smart technologies into historic cities. This study conducts a systematic literature review and qualitative content analysis of 42 peer-reviewed articles across the fields of urban planning, smart technologies, heritage conservation, and place making to address this issue. Through thematic coding using MAXQDA (2020), it identifies recurring themes and patterns that inform the development of a conceptual framework. The findings reveal that cultural heritage sites contribute to smart city planning by reinforcing place-based identity, enabling participatory governance, and supporting culturally sustainable innovation. The study also addresses a critical gap in existing smart city frameworks, which often fail to systematically incorporate cultural values and local identity in their planning logic. The proposed framework integrates cultural heritage with smart city development through place making and provides structured guidance for policymakers and urban planners by outlining four key areas—digital infrastructure, community participation, spatial design, and heritage preservation—while also acknowledging the challenges of applying it across diverse socio-cultural and technological contexts.

The image of a city represents the sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that people have of that city. Mostly, city images are assessed through direct or indirect interviews and cognitive mapping exercises. Such methods consume more time and effort and are limited to a small number of people. However, recently, people tend to use social media to express their thoughts and experiences of a place. Taking this into consideration, this paper attempts to explore city images through social media big data, considering Colombo, Sri Lanka, as the testbed. The aim of the study is to examine the image of a city through Lynchian elements—i.e., landmarks, paths, nodes, edges, and districts—by using community sentiments expressed and images posted on social media platforms. For that, this study conducted various analyses—i.e., descriptive, image processing, sentiment, popularity, and geo-coded social media analyses. The study findings revealed that: (a) the community sentiments toward the same landmarks, paths, nodes, edges, and districts change over time; (b) decisions related to locating landmarks, paths, nodes, edges, and districts have a significant impact on community cognition in perceiving cities; and (c) geo-coded social media data analytics is an invaluable approach to capture the image of a city. The study informs urban authorities in their placemaking efforts by introducing a novel methodological approach to capture an image of a city.

This study examines the role of cultural heritage sites as facilitators of place making within the evolving paradigm of smart city development. As cities worldwide adopt data-driven models of governance, integrating cultural identity and heritage becomes increasingly critical. This research addresses the conceptual and practical gap in understanding how heritage can support inclusive, sustainable, and meaningful urban transformation in smart city contexts. To do so, it selects Geelong in Australia as a case study. The study then employs a qualitative methodology drawing on semi-structured interviews with experts and professionals across urban planning, architecture, sustainability, and heritage management. Thematic analysis derived five key themes: heritage as an identity anchor, digital technologies enhancing cultural narratives, community engagement, adaptive reuse, and economic-policy integration. Findings highlight that heritage sites are dynamic assets that foster community identity, historical continuity, and digital storytelling. Digital tools enhance the visibility and accessibility of heritage, while adaptive reuse strategies align cultural preservation with environmental sustainability and economic growth. The resulting conceptual and assessment framework positions heritage both as a cultural and functional urban asset, offering actionable insights for planners, policymakers, and designers aiming to create smart cities that are not only technologically advanced but also socially inclusive and culturally grounded.

Recreation of the past—of historical buildings—sits at the intersection of the spatio-temporal manifestation of cultural memories, socio-cultural meanings, values, and identity remolds, and refines the existing understanding and sense of place. Digital technologies have become a popular tool in recreation of the past by creating a new body of knowledge and historical discourse based on identifying the gaps within our written histories. Designers and policymakers around the world have been exploring various tools and technologies, such as diachronic modeling, yet there is a gap in evidence-based understanding regarding the actual functioning and success of applications for placemaking. This paper, therefore, sets out to scrutinize the role of digital technologies in facilitating digital placemaking. To do so, it investigates the potential of a new “digital heritage” narrative in the revival of the lost architectural narrative of the Dennys Lascelles wool store, Geelong. The proposed paper aims to investigate the potential of a new “digital heritage” narrative and storytelling as a means towards a digital placemaking framework. While exploring the new and unique capabilities provided by the digital narrative in capturing, simulating, and disseminating lost heritage, it will further imbue a sense of place by connecting the everyday city dweller.

This study examines the role of cultural heritage sites as facilitators of place-making within the evolving paradigm of smart city development. As cities worldwide adopt data-driven models of governance, integrating cultural identity and heritage becomes increasingly critical. This research addresses the conceptual and practical gap in understanding how heritage can support inclusive, sustainable, and meaningful urban transformation in smart city contexts. To do so, it selects Geelong in Australia as a case study. The study then employs a qualitative methodology drawing on semi-structured interviews with experts and professionals across urban planning, architecture, sustainability, and heritage management. Thematic analysis derived five key themes: heritage as an identity anchor, digital technologies enhancing cultural narratives, community engagement, adaptive reuse, and economic-policy integration. Findings highlight that heritage sites are dynamic assets that foster community identity, historical continuity, and digital storytelling. Digital tools enhance the visibility and accessibility of herit-age, while adaptive reuse strategies align cultural preservation with environmental sustainability and economic growth. The resulting conceptual and assessment frame-work positions heritage both as a cultural and functional urban asset, offering actionable insights for planners, policymakers, and designers aiming to create smart cities that are not only technologically advanced but also socially inclusive and culturally grounded.

Integrating smart technologies into historic cities presents a challenge, as they must balance modernisation with cultural heritage preservation. This study explores the intersection of urban cultural heritage and smart city development through a multidisciplinary literature review encompassing urban planning, smart technologies, heritage conservation, and place making. Using qualitative content analysis, key themes and patterns were identified to construct a conceptual framework. The findings reveal that cultural heritage sites play an active role in smart city planning by reinforcing historical identity and promoting urban sustainability. Additionally, the study highlights a gap in smart city frameworks, which often overlook cultural heritage preservation. The proposed framework offers insights for local governments and urban planners to develop culturally responsive smart cities while acknowledging the challenges of cross-city data comparisons due to varying contexts.