Optimization of the urban environment digitalization processes

The aim of this study is to improve the tools for selecting projects for digital technologies implementation in the context of a “smart city” concept. The novelty of the work is in the development of approaches to the optimization of the urban environment digitalization. The main features are identified and the conditions for the effective functioning of “smart cities” are analyzed. Among the main components considered during formation of “smart cities”, the following aspects have been highlighted: environmental, social, economic, and institutional. The paper systematizes the main directions of the digital technologies introduction, presents the principles of institutional modeling. It is shown that the level of technological effectiveness and integration of digital platforms depends on a number of areas, the most resource-intensive of which are currently regulations, digital infrastructure, human resources and education, information security. A model for optimizing the selection of priority projects in the framework of digitalization of the urban environment is proposed. This model involves the selection of digitalization projects based on a consideration of their technological effectiveness level, as well as the benefits of their implementation. Within the framework of the model, it was shown that the best options are those projects that minimize transaction costs, and are also relatively cheap to implement. Based on the theoretical model of digitalization, we proposed a matrix of projects in the coordinates of the level of “technological effectiveness (implementation costs)/ benefits from implementation (reduction of transaction costs)”. As a result, using this matrix, we systematized digitalization projects using the example of the city of Yekaterinburg.