The Global Smart Cities Summit cum the 4th International Conference on Urban Informatics (GSCS & ICUI 2025), jointly organised by The International Society for Urban Informatics (ISUI) and the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI) of PolyU, was successfully held on the PolyU campus, 5–8 August 2025.
Under the theme of “AI for Future Cities”, the three-day conference brought together over 240 speakers from around the world to share cutting-edge insights and innovations in urban informatics and smart city development, attracting over 600 scholars and industry professionals. It featured keynote speeches by internationally renowned scientists, forums with government and industry leaders, and innovation and technology exhibitions, providing an excellent platform to foster collaborations among government, industry, academia, and research sectors in the field of smart cities.
During the event, SCRI and ISUI also jointly announced the ISUI Smart City Index 2025, developed by a team led by Prof. John Wenzhong SHI, Director of SCRI, Chair Professor of Geographical Information Science and Remote Sensing, and President of ISUI. The Index utilises a human-centric evaluation framework, comprising six dimensions—citizen, environment, social landscape, economy, infrastructure and governance, across 97 indicators. It adopts an inclusive approach applicable to cities across all development stages—from advanced, to developing and emerging economies, and utilises only publicly available data, giving a broader perspective that enables more relevant and effective policy formulation worldwide.
The Index assessed 73 cities worldwide, with the top 10 ranked cities being Stockholm, Washington, D.C., Barcelona, London, Tokyo, Zurich, New York, Hong Kong, Copenhagen, and Oslo. Hong Kong ranked eighth globally and second in Asia, outperforming major regional competitors such as Singapore, as well as key cities in Europe and North America. Notably, Hong Kong excelled in the dimensions of environment, economy, and governance.
