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This first chapter of this book tends to bring into understanding the various definitions concepts, evolutions, characteristics and many more on smart cities. These are further explained across the other chapters of the book as to the roles and functionalities of smart cities in this modern world. This chapter starts with an introductory part that briefly describes what cities hold and the idea of inculcating smartness into it. Furthermore, various definitions were explicitly defined across other sections of the introduction. The objective of this book relates the reason and solution the book aims to offer into the construction industry as a system that is not only functional but also sustainable across various professionals of the construction industry. This chapter ends with concluding part that describes the totality of what have been discussed in the course of the chapter. The research book also contains reference for further reading.

Smart cities over the years is fast growing on people. Citizens and stakeholders that were defiant to its adoption are beginning to see the reasons for it. Due to one reason or the other, many of the stakeholders and the citizens were reluctant in seeing the vision in the smart city system. Some of these factors are expressed in the drivers and challenges faced in enhancing from a city to smart city. Along with these, measures and benefits that relate with smart city has helped in social and general awareness of what it represents and what stands to be gained if fully adopted. And this has helped in overall information available on smart city. The concluding part of the chapter gives a summary of the importance in addressing these drivers.

People will continue to migrate from rural to urban areas. This always results in congestion in the civilised part where there is contention for the resources available. Policies have to be made and implemented in order to counter scarcity and redundancy as most urban cities tend to halt in growth when population is beyond controllable size. Smart cities come into the frame by alleviating the present condition of the places to that which is convenient for everybody. Quality of life, meanings of smart cities, quality of life of smart cities citizens are the priorities when implementing smart city concepts into sustainable development.

The decision to bid or not to bid for new projects determines contractors’ propensity for business success or failure. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect the decision of indigenous construction contractors to bid or not to bid in Nigeria.

Analysis was conducted on data from questionnaires received from 64 engineering management employees of leading construction companies which are members of Nigeria’s Federation of Construction Industry. The study identified 41 significant decision factors often considered by Nigerian indigenous contractors before the bid. Mean item scores were obtained for each of the factors. Principal component analysis was used to point out the most significant decision factors.

Results revealed significant orthogonal relationships between the factors. Only 11 of the 41 factors are statistically significant to influence contractors’ decision to bid or not to bid. Most of the significant items were amongst the least rated items by the participants. The post hoc decision factors include consultant’s interpretation of project specifications, previous relationship between the intending bidder and client, availability of other projects at the time of bidding, technological complexity of the project under consideration and prequalification requirements. Others include the propensity for resource price fluctuation, business capacity of partners, amount of own work vs subcontracted work, required rate of return on investment and difficulty in obtaining finance.

The practical implication of these findings are as follows: the orthogonal relationship between the decision factors implies non-linear relationship between the factors and actual decision to bid or not to bid, and that bid success is often not predictable by bid behaviour; many of the bid decision factors rated highest by indigenous contractors seldom impact the contractors’ actual bid decisions; local and international players can adopt the significant decision factors elicited in this study for managing their structures for inter-organizational partnerships.

Evidence suggests project owners could use advance payments to prevent cost escalations. The purpose of this paper is to elicit the relationships between causations of overruns when advance payments are issued to contractors.

In total, 97 responses from a questionnaire survey were analysed. Additional data on 51 projects, completed between 2000 and 2014 under different advance payments regimes, were also obtained and analysed.

Project owners issue advance payments to contractors so as to avoid delays. However, statistical correlation between advance payments and overrun causations are not significant. Although cost overruns were higher in large projects than in small projects, schedule overruns were more in small projects than in large projects. Schedule overruns were caused most significantly by contractors’ site management approaches. Design and documentation issues were identified as the most prevalent cause of cost overruns. Regression models are proposed to elicit overruns when advance payments are issued.

Extant debates on project overruns in construction and project management literature are robust. Nonetheless, the study elicits considerable knowledge gaps regarding the roles of advance payments in fostering project performance.

This pioneering work indexes the relationship between advance payment and project overruns in Nigeria. It is also the first attempt to document the probability distribution of overruns in Nigeria, particularly under specific advance payment regimes.

The theories and models of smart city make up the systemic approach that governs its readiness. This contains the in depth analysis of the concepts of the smart city as it relates to the environment as wells as the energy present. Several theories are modelled into the smart city system to guide its implementation and consideration among the construction professionals in the constitution industry. Subsequently, frameworks are not neglected in terms of their relationship between the outcome of the theories and models propounded and conceptual integration in human, technology and institution. Inferences are made from these theories and models, and thus decision-making are dependent on the visibility envisaged.

When there is a cordial relationship among the members of the smart city team, there are bounds to be achievements and executions of projects within stipulated time of the budget allocated. The partnership in ideas and overall discipline will propel the activities involved in executing smart cities in the world. In identifying not just the definitions of smart city, the developmental aspect of the concept is considered across phases of construction as the industry strives towards elegance and advancement. However, exciting as it comes in benefits and enhancement in the quality of life, several problems have also been identified albeit opportunities are somewhat presented in the challenges when analysed thoroughly from the inception to completion. The interaction within team members across countries will pave way for collaborators into the system.

In discussing the developments attached to smart city in terms of how it affects life and the environment, several factors contribute one way or the other towards the development. Smart city development comes with its advantages that can be experienced within and outside the construction environment, the challenges faced in putting in place smart city are enormous in relation to the nature and type of smart city propounded. These challenges are discussed extensively in information technology (IT) infrastructure, security and privacy, big data management, cost, efficiency, availability and scalability, social adaption and application development. Solutions must be found to these challenges for the construction industry to be able to convince individuals concerned with giving directives and policies regarding city development.

The first chapter of this book has already introduced smart city concepts and definitions; the second part will further explain deeper how smart city comes into being and the frameworks that surround it. Firstly, history of city and smart city gives a detailed analogical insight on the transformation from city into smart one. The rate at which the transformation process is implemented depended mostly on how the citizens of the city understand the implementation of digitalisation concepts through the use of appropriate technologies into running and developing a city. Secondly, there are also further definitions on the subject especially as they related to the construction industry. Characteristics of smart cities are also discussed along with features that can really make a city smart. In conclusion, the chapter is well introduced and provisions were also made at the end in terms of bibliographies that will help in further understanding of the smart city concepts beings introduced.