Information Integration in a Smart City System—A Case Study on Air Pollution Removal by Green Infrastructure through a Vehicle Smart Routing System

Jules Muvuna,Slobodan B Mickovski,Mario Cools,Keith Baker,Wissal Selmi,Ghoreyshi Seyed Mohammad,Tuleen Boutaleb

doi:10.3390/su12125099

Jules Muvuna, Slobodan B Mickovski + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125099

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Abstract

Over the past few years, the ‘‘smart city’’ concept has emerged as a new trend to answer challenging issues related to urban development. Transformation of a city system into a smart system is meant to improve the quality of life for its people and their way of living, its environment, economy, transport, and governance. Due to benefits associated with the concept of the smart city and associated implementation challenges, traditional city systems have been undergoing transformation into smart city systems. However, observed approaches of transformation presented disconnected and fragmented city systems that usually hamper the interaction of city subsystems with the efficient and environmentally friendly urban environment. This work emphasizes the systematic view of a city system and proposes a novel method of smart city system integration. The results of our study show that in a smart city environment, where ecosystem services are valorised, air pollution emitted by vehicles can be removed by taking into consideration information related to air pollution reduction. A case study is presented to demonstrate that, with an integrated system, information outputs on travel decisions are different and more valuable. The case study explores the operability of the system, its limitations, and potential future improvements.

Highlights

Observed rapid urbanisation and projected increases in urban populations in cities around the world motivate city planners and policy makers to consider how to sustainably manage resources in an environment that meets urban population needs
This concept is still criticised as too techno-centric [3] and lacks proper conceptualisation [4], its popularity has not stopped growing with combined objectives of enhancing the quality of life, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development in urban areas, adopting new ways of governance, and concentration on sustainable development and human capital [4]
The smart city concept is mostly built on ICT, and the concept is seen like a winning strategy to achieve urban sustainable development, to meet the need of citizens, and to preserve the environment [9]

Summary

Introduction

Observed rapid urbanisation and projected increases in urban populations in cities around the world motivate city planners and policy makers to consider how to sustainably manage resources in an environment that meets urban population needs. Fuelled by the development of technology, the concept of a “smart city” has taken over as a solution to challenges faced by cities This concept is still criticised as too techno-centric [3] and lacks proper conceptualisation [4], its popularity has not stopped growing with combined objectives of enhancing the quality of life, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development in urban areas, adopting new ways of governance, and concentration on sustainable development and human capital [4]. The smart city concept is mostly built on ICT, and the concept is seen like a winning strategy to achieve urban sustainable development, to meet the need of citizens, and to preserve the environment [9].

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