Cities of today face a digital transformation process, leading to a new reality where urban space is taking advantage of information and communication technologies and data science to answer present and future challenges, namely to become more efficient in services and infrastructures management in order to deliver increased quality of life to the people who live, work or visit the city, and addressing at the same time the problems of climate change. This new reality is leveraged by big data produced by the cities internet of everything (as interconnected systems, sensors and people), information management and data science capabilities, which allow us to measure and describe what happens, predict what can happen, and prescribe what could be the course of actions bringing policy making to a fact-based environment, which had never been possible before. In this work we will address the opportunities and challenges of this paradigm shift that is leading to the city as a platform reality that support what we can call the algorithmic city where it is up to us to decide if this will be a dystopic or utopic future for the citizen.

Balancing technological evolution, protection of the environment and social communities well-being has never been a simple task. However, while everything changes at an incredible fast-pace, public authorities, private entities and even civil society must accompany that movement. It is, therefore, crucial that primarily public officials and legislators build their activities on solid information, especially in places where a harsh climatic condition, sparse population distribution and longer distances make public involvement more difficult. The European high north is an example of a region where the recent phenomena of big data, certainly represents challenges because of its yet to fully developed infrastructure, but also opportunities for improving, people’s lives, and enhancing sustainable development, through smart mechanisms. In fact, digitalisation and new technologies can cause negative and/or positive consequences in the life of certain communities, depending on the means and purposes they are used for. This article intends to demonstrate how an adaptive, in other words smart governance approach (digitalized governance approach) – based on open, flexible and participatory tools – could improve the life of human beings in the territories of the European High North (EHN), preparing the  region and its inhabitants for the challenges of sustainable development.