Abstract
Cities are formidable drivers of economic, social and cultural development but face a rising multitude of challenges: urban sprawl, transportation problems and climate change to mention but a few. Evolving concepts such as smart cities, sustainable communities and low carbon cities have been employed to formulate initiatives to tackle these challenges. Smart cities appear to address efficiency in reducing time, cost, and energy in delivering services-smart transportation, intelligent buildings, and green infrastructure with a view to reaching low carbon city development and eventually sustainability. This article attempts to construct a general framework for smart cities. First, the overall smart city system is depicted. Second, the dynamics of urban sector drivers in smart and low carbon cities are elucidated. Third, the performance of smart cities is measured in relation to low carbon development. By applying the smart city framework to the cities of Vienna, London, New York and Tokyo, the model proved robust and flexible. The investigation is concluded with policies to realign city plan and development policies.
Highlights
The rising demand for living in cities is likely to accentuate sustainability challenges, climate change and resource allocation
Cities seek innovation and efficiency in reducing time, cost, and energy in delivering services: smart transportation, intelligent buildings, and smart infrastructure that would lead to low carbon city development
Smart city initiatives seek to overcome the limitations of traditional urban development that manages infrastructure systems in silos and leverage the pervasive character of data and services offered by digital technologies, such as cloud computing, the internet of things, open and big data
Summary
The rising demand for living in cities is likely to accentuate sustainability challenges, climate change and resource allocation. Cities seek innovation and efficiency in reducing time, cost, and energy in delivering services: smart transportation, intelligent buildings, and smart infrastructure that would lead to low carbon city development. 80% of the world’s gross domestic product is created in cities; urban citizens earn on average three times the income of their rural counterparts; and people living in larger cities tend to have smaller energy footprints and require fewer infrastructures, consume less resources, and have higher productivity levels. There are several urbanization models that incorporate digital technologies to address some of the urbanization and sustainability challenges. Smart city initiatives seek to overcome the limitations of traditional urban development that manages infrastructure systems in silos and leverage the pervasive character of data and services offered by digital technologies, such as cloud computing, the internet of things, open and big data. Challenges arise from discourses of technologies and policies, failure to tackle urban sustainability challenges, and governance framework
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