Chapter 12 - Urban scale climate change adaptation through smart technologies

Abstract

Climate change as an existential crisis represents the greatest challenge for humankind that needs serious attention and consideration. Innovative and cutting-edge technologies foster the process of decision-making by collecting data to create comprehensive feedback. As smart technologies have already enhanced the well-being of societies through various ways, their great potential in the fight against climate change has been discussed vastly among scholars. Nevertheless, the need for clarification of modern technologies’ role in adapting and mitigation of climate change in urban infrastructures is still crucial as the stage of knowledge is not comprehensive enough. It is important to highlight the fact that the implementations of frontier technologies can address this challenge and develop sustainable urban infrastructures, which is otherwise impossible to achieve due to the limitations of conventional technologies. On the other hand, since cities are the most affected environmental by, and most influential factor for climate change, focusing on the role of smart solutions and technologies in urban infrastructures looks vital. To this end, this chapter by employing the descriptive analytical method, explores the current trends of modern technologies and their peripheral applications applied in urban infrastructures to address climate change. In this respect, the key effective areas of frontier technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, 5G, and Digital Twin will be discussed. Results indicate that frontier technologies have an essential role in tackling the climate change issues by providing environmental resilience, sustainability, and in general, smartness for urban infrastructures. However, despite all the positive impacts of these technologies’ implementation in achieving climate actions, it should be noted that they could also act as a double-edged sword that could cause unintended environmental consequences that may result in detriment of the environment. Therefore, these possible adverse impacts of using these technologies must be considered before their implementations.