Structuring Data Governance Challenges In Smart Cities: Toward A Maturity-Based Assessment Model

Purpose: This paper presents a systematic literature review that maps the landscape of governance challenges and critically examines the frameworks and approaches proposed to address them.

Methods: This review analyzed 97 studies published between 2021 and June 2025. We systematically identified, categorized, and grouped challenges into broader dimensions through thematic analysis and open coding, while examining proposed frameworks for their scope and operationalization potential.

Main results: Privacy and security emerged as the most frequently discussed challenges, with 69 and 54 occurrences respectively, confirming that data protection remains a primary concern in data-driven urban environments. Through open coding, we organized challenges into five key dimensions: Security; Governance; Policies and Processes; Data Management; and Open Data and Accessibility. While multiple frameworks have been proposed, most remain conceptual and lack detailed implementation guidance, performance indicators, or maturity assessment mechanisms. Additionally, the explicit integration of public value, citizen participation, and value co-creation concepts remains limited.

Conclusions: Governance mechanisms are essential for enabling sustainable and trustworthy smart city ecosystems. We argue that future research should advance beyond conceptual frameworks toward actionable maturity models capable of assessing governance capabilities. This transition requires integrating public value creation and citizen engagement to promote inclusive and participatory urban development.