Approaches, Advances and Applications in Sustainable Development of Smart Cities

Abstract

Over the past decade, digital technologies, as part of the global smart-city agenda, have begun to form the backbone of our cities and to enhance service quality in urban infrastructure. It is widely argued that this approach will create smart cities that are efficient, technologically advanced, green, and socially inclusive. Along with this technocentric viewpoint, the sustainability ideology has had significant impact on the planning and development of smart cities in recent years—recoining the term as ‘sustainable smart cities’. In other words, this envirocentric viewpoint has led to consolidated efforts in the conceptualisation of the sustainable development of (sustainable) smart cities. The marriage of technocentric and envirocentric views is seen as the only way to constitute the 21st century’s ideal city form. It is also argued that, in this way, current and forthcoming severe global ecological, societal, economic, and governance challenges will be adequately addressed. This book aims to contribute to the conceptual- and practical-knowledge pools in order to improve research and practices on sustainable smart cities by offering an informed understanding of the subject to scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners. The book contains contributions offering insight into sustainable smart cities by providing in-depth conceptual analyses, and detailed case-study descriptions and empirical investigations from across the globe. This book comprises a repository of relevant information, material, and knowledge to support research, policy-making, practices, and experience transferability to address the aforementioned challenges. The scope of the book includes the following areas, with a particular focus on the approaches to, and advances and applications in sustainable smart cities: (a) theoretical underpinnings, and analytical and policy frameworks of sustainable smart cities; (b) methodological approaches for the evaluation of sustainable smart cities; (c) technological developments in the techno–enviro-nexus of sustainable smart cities; (d) emerging sustainability solutions and integrated actions from sustainable smart cities; (e) best-practice sustainable-smart-city case investigations from the Global North and South; (f) geodesign and applications concerning the desired urban outcomes of sustainable smart cities; and (g) prospects, implications, and impact concerning the future of sustainable smart cities.