The academic literature contains an increasing quantity of references to Smart Heritage. These references are at the intersection of the smart city and heritage disciplines and primarily within informative, interpretative, and governance applications. The literature indicates the future expansion of the Smart Heritage discourse into additional applications as researchers apply smart technology to more complex cultural environments. The Smart Heritage discourse signals an advancement in the literature beyond Digital Heritage and Virtual Heritage discourses as Smart Heritage pivots on the active curatorship of heritage experiences by automated and autonomous technologies, rather than technology as a passive digital tool for human-curated experiences. The article comprehensively reviews the emergent Smart Heritage discourse for the first time in the academic literature, and then offers a contemporary definition that considers the literature to date. The review and definition draw on literature across the contributing disciplines to understand the discourse’s development and current state. The article finds that Smart Heritage is an independent discourse that intertwines the autonomous and automatic capabilities and innovation of smart technologies with the contextual and subjective interpretation of the past. Smart Heritage is likely the future vanguard for research between the technology and heritage disciplines.

Smart Heritage leverages the past to transform cities into smart cities. It bridges a theoretical framework between the existing smart cities and heritage discourses and can benefit both the smart and heritage of aspirations of cities. The recent increase in the preparation of smart city policies by local governments in Australia provides an opportunity to examine how the recent generation of smart city strategic documents implement Smart Heritage. This paper will investigate how three local government smart city policies in Australia; City Futures Strategy by Logan City Council, Lake Mac Smart City Smart Council: Digital Economy Strategy 2016-2020 by Lake Macquarie City Council, and Smart, Connected Brisbane by Brisbane City Council; implement Smart Heritage. It will also briefly discuss the areas in the policies where further implementation of Smart Heritage can support the smart city ambitions of the cities. The main findings are the policies subtly implement Smart Heritage, and it is most present in high-level definitions and objectives. There is a need to develop Smart Heritage lower-level provisions and initiatives as there is a lack of these across the policies. Nevertheless, there is ample theoretical overlap between Smart Heritage and the policies to further implement Smart Heritage within the existing policy frameworks.

Local governments are responding to rising complexities in service delivery, governance, and civic stewardship with novel interdisciplinary discourses that converge previously separate disciplines. Smart Heritage, the novel convergence of smart city and heritage disciplines, is one interdisciplinary discourse that local governments utilise to address these demands. To successfully deliver Smart Heritage, local governments must understand how the interdisciplinary relationships, influence, and aspirations function within their organisation. However, due to the novelty of Smart Heritage, no academic research exists on these matters, particularly within local government contexts. Therefore, this article reports how relationships, influence, and strategic aspirations between the smart city and heritage discipline intersect as Smart Heritage. It draws on interviews with smart city and heritage advisors from three local governments in Australia. It finds a case-by-case working relationship between the disciplines, which indicates an emergent-yet-tenuous Smart Heritage discourse. Moreover, the interdisciplinary relationships influence broader considerations from the advisors than their single discipline. These considerations produce innovative aspirations for local governments on heritage and smart city matters. This finding establishes the first foundational understanding of Smart Heritage within local government.

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