Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Sustainable Cities and Society journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scs Evaluating sustainability and innovation of mobility patterns in Spanish cities. Analysis by size and urban typology Iria Lopez-Carreiro ⁎ , Andres Monzon Transport Research Centre (TRANSyT), Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Calle Profesor Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Smart city Smart mobility Sustainability Innovation Urban typology ABSTRACT The development of sustainable transport networks is of particular interest in the field of smart cities, and many promising initiatives have been proposed over the years. However, there is still little agreement as to the ap- propriate definition of smart urban mobility. What is really meant by ‘smart’? The paper examines this question and assesses the notion of smart urban mobility as a combination of sustainability and innovation. This approach offers a comprehensive and practical framework for benchmarking cities in accordance with the smartness of their transportation systems. The methodology is based on the identification of quantitative indicators that evaluate urban mobility through a synthetic parameter known as the Smart Mobility Index. Although this Index can be applied to any city worldwide, the research focuses on the Spanish context, with a selection of six cases of different sizes and urban typologies. The results highlight the features that most influence the smartness of a city’s mobility, and can be used to design the appropriate transport policies. Finally, the cities are ranked according to the performance of their smart transportation systems. 1. Introduction In recent decades, the concept of Smart City has become increasingly popular in the international scientific literature. To understand this innovative notion it is essential to recognise the significant role played by cities worldwide (Mori & Christodoulou, 2012). Society is undergoing an urban renaissance. According to the United Nations Population Fund, over 54% of the world’s population lived in urban areas in 2014, and this proportion is expected to increase to 66% by 2050. In Europe, 75% of the population currently lives in urban areas, with a predicted rise to 80% by 2050 (United Nations, 2014). As a result, most resources today are consumed in cities worldwide. Cities consume 75% of the total generated energy, and are responsible for 80% of the greenhouse effect (United Nations, 2014). John Wilmoth, Director of UN DESA’s Population Division, declares that “managing urban areas has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century” (United Nations, 2014). In this scenario of rampant urbanisation, an innovative vision of the city arises to tackle the emerging difficulties of urban living: the Smart City. The concept is so complex and multi- disciplinary that no single interpretation has yet been agreed (Angelidou, 2015; Caragliu, de Bo, & Njkamp, 2011; Castelnovo, Misuraca, & Savoldelli, 2015; Chourabi et al., 2012; Garau, Masala, & Pinna 2016; Hajduk, 2016; Hollands, 2008; Marsal-Llacuna, Colomer-Llinàs, & Meléndez-Frigola, 2015; Walravens, 2015; Wall & Stravlopoulos, 2016). The Smart City initially focused on applying new ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) to modern infrastructures in cities. However, this perspective soon attracted criticism for being too techni- cally oriented (Albino, Berardi, & Dangelico, 2015). Albino et al. (2015) report 23 different definitions for the concept of Smart City in the litera- ture between 2000 and 2014, and note that “there are terms analogous to ‘smart cities’ which add to the cacophony of terms relating to this phe- nomenon” (Albino et al., 2015). These authors sustain that the concept extends beyond the mere application of technologies to cities, and now also recognises community needs. Kramers, Höjer, Lövehagen, and Wangel (2014) and various European (CEN-CENELEC-ETSI, 2015) and international (ITU, 2016) standardisation bodies propose the term Smart Sustainable City instead of Smart City. According to this approach, the role of ICT is conceived not as an end in itself (Marsal-Llacuna & Segal, 2016), but as an enabling tool to foster sustainable urban development (Bifulco, Tregua, Amitrano, & D’Auria, 2016). Consequently, any evaluation of a Smart City performance should not only consider the efficiency of smart and technological strategies, but also their contribution to the urban sustainability goals in the social, environmental and economic dimensions of the city (Ahvenniemi, Huovila, Pinto-Seppä, & Airaksinen, 2017). In- novation – understood as a technological driver of urban smartness – is therefore linked to sustainability. In other words, managing technological innovation for sustainability is a key aspect towards the smart develop- ment of urban areas. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.01.029 Received 12 September 2017; Received in revised form 10 January 2018; Accepted 16 January 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: iria.lopez@caminos.upm.es, iria.lopez.carreiro@gmail.com (I. Lopez-Carreiro), andres.monzon@upm.es (A. Monzon). Sustainable Cities and Society 38 (2018) 684–696 2210-6707/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T