The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in compulsion and encouragement of actions that have enabled changes to occur globally that have then been adapted to current conditions. For their highly dense populations, it is difficult to control the spread of the virus in cities. As a result, activities that draw large crowds together so that people can access public services are inevitable. Several cities that have been declared as smart cities in Indonesia have made a breakthrough by making use of information and communication technology (ICT)-based applications. This can be of great help for societies during pandemics. ICT has been able to help citizens perform various activities from home with the help of applications. This study aims to identify various applications that support the implementation of the concept of a smart city. This applies particularly to those applications that are based on ICT that can tackle the unique conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and make recommendations regarding future developments. The data collected for this study were analyzed using secondary sources obtained from various clusters of literature, the internet, and social media. In addition, primary data was gathered from discussion forums. This paper employs a qualitative approach with qualitative descriptive data analysis techniques and hierarchical cluster analysis. Qualitative descriptive analysis was utilized to explore the conditions of smart cities, the regional conditions of the pandemic, and smart city applications more generally. The results show that during the COVID-19 pandemic, cities and regions, including the 100 smart cities in Indonesia, have developed many innovative solutions through ICT-based applications that can help people maintain an active social life and access public services. In the future, when everything is allegedly back to normal, cities need to implement the use of various ICT-based applications to increase efficiency in their planning and management. Therefore, it has become increasingly necessary to improve people’s digital literacy and to develop a type of ICT infrastructure that enables more people to access the internet.

Pandemi COVID-19 telah berdampak pada perubahan rencana pembangunan yang membutuhkan respon cepat untuk tantangan pandemi. Penanganan pandemi yang lamban akan menyebabkan semakin banyak kerugian yang ditimbulkan pada perkotaan. Solusi atas respon cepat dapat diakomodir melalui smart city. Kota Denpasar telah mengimplementasikan smart city dengan baik bahkan sebelum adanya pandemi. Adapun tujuan penelitian ini untuk mengidentifikasi peran dan program smart city Kota Denpasar saat pandemi dalam upaya menciptakan ketangguhan. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dan kuantitaif (mix method). Variabel dan indikator dalam penelitian ini mengacu pada dimensi smart city oleh kominfo. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa peran smart city di Kota Denpasar telah baik dalam penerapan inovasi dan teknologi dalam menciptakan Kota Denpasar tangguh pandemi. Smart city tanpa dukungan inovasi maka tidak akan dapat merespon permasalahan yang sedang dihadapi oleh kotanya. Kota Denpasar menempatkan inovasi dalam program yang telah dirumuskan. Terdapat 23 program smart city yang berjalan selama awal tahun 2020 hingga pertengahan tahun 2022. Program tersebut berorientasi pada kemudahan layanan publik, bantuan sosial, perbaikan infrastruktur hingga peningkatan ekonomi masyarkat lokal.