In recent years, construction of smart cities has gradually shifted from the information technological project-driven model to a human-centric development model. In 2021, the research on smart cities went in-depth, and planning and construction of smart cities were efficient and coordinated. The integration development of digital scenes and urban physical spaces became increasingly obvious. This study reviews the hot topics on construction and research of smart cities in 2021 from six aspects, including achieving the goals of carbon emissions and carbon neutral driven by smart city construction, spatial governance modernization promotion by digital governance, digital economy development and new drivers of high-quality development, quality life empowering by smart community development, new-style infrastructure promotion by application of intelligent technologies, and urban scenes construction driven by intelligent technology innovation.

digital governance  /  digital economy  /  smart community  /  new-style infrastructure  /  application scene