IoT and Big Data Applications in Smart Cities: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Critical Issues

Marieh Talebkhah,Shaiful Jahari Hashim,Aduwati Sali,Mohsen Marjani,Meisam Gordan,Fakhrul Zaman Rokhani

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3070905

Abstract

The notion of smart cities has remained under evolution as its global implementations are challenged by numerous technological, economic, and governmental obstacles. Moreover, the synergy of the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data technologies could result in promising horizons in terms of smart city development which has not been explored yet. Thus, the current research aims to address the essence of smart cities. To this end, first, the concept of smart cities is briefly overviewed; then, their properties and specifications as well as generic architecture, compositions, and real-world implementations are addressed. Furthermore, possible challenges and opportunities in the field of smart cities are described. Numerous issues and challenges such as analytics and using big data in smart cities introduced in this study offers an enhancement in developing applications of the above-mentioned technologies. Hence, this study paves the way for future research on the issues and challenges of big data applications in smart cities.

Highlights

Based on the latest estimation of the United Nations, about 68% of people will reside in urban regions in 2050
The findings suggest maintaining the central locations of transportation experts and the public for determining the suitable objectives and metrics for assessing transportation safety, developing novel approaches to correlate big data to the total population, solving difficult problems with the help of big data, and progressing toward new trends and techniques
The ever-growing increase in connected devices in the cities has resulted in speeding data increment attracting the attention of numerous researchers from diverse fields of study

Summary

Introduction

Based on the latest estimation of the United Nations, about 68% of people will reside in urban regions in 2050. The report indicated a dramatic rise in urban living from 751 million in 1950 to 4.2 billion people in 2018 [1]. Bibri and Krogstie [2] argued that urban zones account for 70% of total natural resource consumptions which had led to environmental contamination, ecosystems destruction, and energy shortage. Limited access to resources is a prominent challenge in the cities development since these cities are invented to decline the cost and unemployment rate with special emphasis on climate changes and potable water supplies. ‘‘Smart city’’ can be employed to improve the environmental, economic, alleviate mobility, safety, governance, and living standards of their residents [4].

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Conclusion