Prof. Lam is leading a team working on a General Research Fund study on Cost-Benefit Analysis for smart city projects, the first of which concerns Car Parking Apps in Hong Kong. He will be exploring this subject with participants in the Lecture.  

A smart city project embraces both direct and indirect benefits and costs. Externalities come into the picture but they are often difficult to quantify. Despite this barrier, policy makers need to carry out Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to decide on the huge investments to make a city smart.  A research is being conducted, focusing on the identification of costs (on a life cycle basis) and benefits associated with smart city project developments.  Through the use of established methods, the aim is to build up a framework for carrying out CBA of smart city projects. The findings will be useful for policy makers of cities.