Any city can achieve a smart transition to resilience and sustainability by balancing economic growth with social development and environmental protection when its people work together to achieve common goals. Through participatory processes, citizen engagement, and constructive dialogues, stakeholders can unlock environmental, social, and economic benefits for the communities.

This generates valuable new ideas that are based on local knowledge and expertise, fosters systemic innovation, creates collective environmental intelligence, and results in increased community acceptance and support for any solutions implemented. Furthermore, effective and meaningful participation ensures that solutions are designed and implemented in a socially equitable manner that respects the rights of communities and will lead to resilience and sustainability.

Participatory open governance and integrated smart city strategies help citizens become more informed, involved, and connected than ever before. It is very important to gradually and carefully increase community awareness of the benefits of climate change adaptation through and from the Smart City approach, as visions for these issues can only be effectively realised through long-term planning and active participation.