According to the 2021 Global Smart City Index, Dubai has been ranked the 39th among the top 50 smart cities in the world with a population of over three million people.

The study, led by easyparkgroup.com, studied data from several thousand cities to unveil which global cities are using technology to create a more sustainable and liveable present and future for their citizens.

It showed the UK capital of London ranked as the most intelligent and future-proof city with a population of over three million people, followed by the US cities of New York and San Francisco.

Dubai, ranking 39, beat other major cities involving Rome (40), Shanghai (41), and St Petersburg (47).

The study started by evaluating several thousand cities around the world and looked at those smart cities that are leading the way in implementing the use of new technologies.

The researchers used a number of factors that determine how technologically advanced and sustainable a city is, and scored the locations accordingly.

To do this, they retrieved data from sources such as the World Bank, the Economist, the International Monetary Fund and the Lancet.

To evaluate how innovative each location is, researchers considered four key areas.

Firstly, the “digital life” of each city was studied by assessing how widely technology has been adopted by the population, the government and within the healthcare sector.

Researchers also focused on “mobility innovation,” looking at how innovative parking solutions are within each city, the overall traffic management system including public transport, and how clean transport in the city is.

Following this, the study considered each city’s “business tech infrastructure.”

To do this, the level of business innovation, prevalence of ePayments and quality of internet connectivity in each location was measured.

Finally, the “environmental sustainability” of each city was evaluated by analyzing green energy usage, the number of green buildings, the waste management system and the overall climate change response and planning.

Dubai ranked 49 out of 50 for the use of green energy, 17 out of the 50 best ranking cities for citizens adopting new technologies and 13 out of 50 for parking innovation.

“It is interesting to see patterns in terms of development forming within continents,” said Johan Birgersson, CEO of EasyPark Group. “Whilst metropolitan areas in Europe score well across the various size categories, the study shows that Scandinavian cities all rank particularly highly”

He continued, “It is evident that these countries are at the cutting edge of adopting new technologies.”

“Many governments are also stepping up their responses to climate change, and it is clear that many solutions begin in major cities before filtering out to the rest of the country.”

“While cities continue to expand and envelope more of their surrounding areas, mobility is taking on an increasingly important role in people’s day to day lives. Many of the highest scoring cities score well for high electric car usage and low CO2 emissions rates.”

“Whilst the world faces challenges relating to climate change, it is clear that some of the most technologically advanced cities around the world have already adopted innovative services and solutions to optimize traffic flow and ease mobility, to make the city more liveable.”