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Despite growing interest in smart sustainable city models, empirical evidence on progress, public perceptions and major adoption obstacles remains sparse. This study aims to assess the readiness of the world’s largest urban agglomerations, including megacities and metacities, to transition towards smarter and more sustainable models, while also exploring the primary challenges and obstacles to this transformation.

Drawing from pragmatism as a theoretical standpoint, a mixed methodology utilizing an online survey as an instrument of exploration was employed to investigate the perspectives of 400 residents of large urban centers globally regarding their city’s readiness to transition towards a smart sustainable city model.

Participants prioritize sustainability over intelligence, focusing on quality of life, environmental benefits and resource efficiency in smart sustainable city initiatives. Key considerations include sustainable urban planning, resource management and smart buildings. Challenges persist in energy management, waste reduction, economic development and education. While policies support sustainability, gaps remain in education, political will, funding, collaboration and technology infrastructure. The study highlights a global trend towards smarter, more sustainable cities and a strong correlation between participants' prioritization of sustainability and their commitment to sustainable practices.

By exploring residents’ viewpoints, priorities and aspirations, this research provides empirical evidence for decision-makers, urbanists and others involved in shaping future cities.

This research contributes to urban studies by exploring the emerging trend towards smart sustainable cities, aligning with perspectives from futurists and urban theorists. Future research should focus on predictive analysis and enhancing collaboration across government, private sector and civil society to accelerate this transformative process.

The damage humans caused to the environment post the industrial revolution fostered developing sustainability-rating systems – a number of evaluation instruments that focus on various factors to evaluate buildings and small-scale urban developments. Nevertheless, no buildings are certified in Bahrain, the environmentally challenged country in the Arabian Gulf. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study assesses 11 sustainability-rating systems: LEED, Green Globes, BREEAM, DGNB, SBTool, WELL, CASBEE, Green Star, HQE, GSAS and the Pearl Rating System (PRS). These were selected because of their international applicability, popularity and importance. The study adopts a system of criteria using a comparative review and cross-comparisons to draw conclusions on the compliance of the selected systems to the Bahraini context and assesses the need and importance of a customised sustainability-rating tool.

The study concluded that LEED is the most comprehensive, international and versatile sustainability-rating system. It is also the most popular. Nevertheless, the PRS is the most relevant to the Bahraini context and is the easiest to access.

This paper provides a deep understanding of sustainability-rating tools and introduces a methodology of comparison that can be used as a reference when choosing between tools.