Any change in the lifestyle of the population in cities causes a huge challenge for local governments, as they have to create favorable living conditions for the urban population. For this reason, the development of smart cities, the redevelopment of brownfield areas, turning the urban space into a smart and sustainable territory with a high standard of living and a high quality of the work environment as well as the gains of the population from living in a city are increasingly discussed. Accordingly, the conception of smart cities has become increasingly popular in Latvia, and it is being successfully practised in several cities such as Jelgava, Valmiera and Ventspils, providing more comfortable, safer and more modern daily life to their residents.
In Latvia, the concept of smart cities has become known quite recently and has been little researched in the context of smart urban development, whereas in Europe smart city conceptions have been researched for a long period. In the opinion of the authors, it is therefore important to examine, based on development indicators, whether cities of national significance in Latvia tend towards smart development, and what solutions have been implemented and what best practices have been introduced in European cities and the cities in Latvia.
The research results give insight into smart development trends in the cities of national significance of Latvia.