Digital Crowdsourcing Methods for Community Monitoring of Smart City Services: A Systematic Review

Abstract

In today’s increasingly digital and interconnected world, crowdsourcing is becoming an important tool for monitoring and improving smart city services. Enhanced connectivity enables citizens to contribute local knowledge and real-time information, thereby expanding the capacity for service monitoring and strengthening transparency, accountability, and responsiveness in urban management. However, the evidence base remains fragmented, particularly in low-and middle-income contexts. This paper systematically reviews peer-reviewed literature on crowdsourcing as a form of community-based monitoring of smart city services, focusing on channel design, participation dynamics, data actionability, equity and bias, and institutional response. A PRISMA 2020 aligned protocol guided searches of Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and the ACM Digital Library, complemented by searches of OECD, ITU, UN-Habitat, UNDESA and World Bank repositories. Study quality was appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Twenty-four studies were synthesised, spanning issue-reporting platforms, SMS-based field experiments, volunteered geographic information and collaborative mapping, and passive social media crowdsourcing. Findings show that crowdsourcing increases informational visibility and can improve agency responsiveness. However, service quality gains remain inconsistent where reports are not actionable or institutional capacity is weak. Socio-spatial inequalities and digital divide biases also persist. Therefore, crowdsourcing should be designed as a socio-technical accountability system that integrates low-friction reporting channels, verification mechanisms, institutionalised feedback loops and bias-aware governance.

Keywords: crowdsourcing, smart city services, community-based monitoring, citizen reporting, digital governance, digitalization