Using Conceptual Modeling to Support Innovation Challenges in Smart Cities

The digital transformation of cities towards Smart Cities proposes many opportunities, e.g., related to services, security, waste and energy management, and infrastructure management. These opportunities come with manifold innovation challenges, not only from a technological perspective but also for public authorities and citizens. The paper at hand introduces conceptual modeling as a means towards handling the complexity of Smart City planning, management, and operation. This paper presents multiple scenarios, indicating possibilities of bridging between the challenges of Smart Cities on the one hand and the opportunities of applying conceptual modeling on the other. Evaluation results and experience gained from two years of teaching such scenarios at the Next-generation Enterprise Modeling Summer School (NEMO) indicate a strong positive impact on student's motivation and learning success. The aim of this paper is therefore to emphasize on the benefits of adopting conceptual modeling in Smart Cities by exemplifying possible application scenarios.