Sustainable Development Of Smart Cities Research Articles

Amalgamation of Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Development of Smart City Environment: A Review

The concept of smart city evolved with the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in various sub-systems and processes in urban environment. The development of the smart cities is the best possible solution to major urban issues. It contributes towards economic and social development of the residents. It aims to provide the cordial environment in the domains of healthcare, education, transportation, power generation and dissipation, security, living, industry, etc., to the inhabitants to make their lives comfortable. Sustainability of these services is another major objective in a smart city framework. Along with the true realization of the idea of a smart city, advanced computational and communication technologies are contributing hugely towards its sustainable development. Communication technologies act as backbone to ensure connectivity at the various levels in a smart city framework. Novel smart city solutions for different application domains are designed and deployed by the industry using advanced computational technologies like IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Big Data and Cloud Computing. In this work, authors discuss the concept of smart city, its architecture and sustainability. Different operational domains in a smart city ecosystem are elaborated. The cyber physical aspect of the smart cities is discussed in brief. The role of various computational and communication technologies in the sustainable development of smart cities is presented. Limiting factors in the deployment of various advanced technologies in different smart city domains are highlighted. Security issues associated with the technological sustainable development of different smart city services along with existing solutions are discussed. The article is concluded by highlighting the future research directions.

Scientific and practical foundations and business processes for the sustainable development of Smart City

The article investigates scientific and practical issues of transport logistics; the conceptual and methodological mechanisms of formation of the “Smart City” strategy are considered and its main business processes are interpreted; the author’s description of the Internet of Things as a high-tech network of deterministic mechanisms, logistic algorithms, business processes and technical and technological devices, interconnected with each other and with the external socio-economic environment is presented; the international experience of the formation and functioning of transport and logistics business processes of “smart cities” was critically rethought; reducing costs, ensuring socio-economic growth and sustainability, while improving the quality of services and the life of citizens, are justified as fundamental tasks of smart city projects; studied the socio-economic objectives of the Smart City of St. Petersburg project, in particular, the formation of a list of measures to optimize business processes, the creation of an external economic environment that would facilitate the attraction of non-budgetary funding sources for the implementation of projects, the development of a methodology for monitoring indicators of socio-economic development and territorial planning of St. Petersburg; identified the main socio-economic advantages of the introduction of smart parking in relation to the infrastructures of smart cities and their residents; empirically confirmed the effectiveness of the implementation of an intelligent parking management system based on the “Internet of Things” technology in the social and economic conditions of St. Petersburg; the characteristic of transport and logistics advantages of the strategy “Smart city of St. Petersburg” is provided.

Using a mobile eye-tracking technology to explore pedestrians’ gaze distribution on street space

The paper deals with the question of smart sustainable city development on the example of public city street space study using a modern mobile eye-tracking technology. The article presents a methodology to obtain data on the distribution of human gaze on dynamic and static objects located on urban streets as well as computer technologies that are used for the acquisition and processing of data. With the help of these technologies, it is possible to study people’s behavior in dynamic environments and to obtain results describing the nature of the pedestrians’ perception of their surrounding space. The results of a survey on urban streets in Berlin using a mobile eye tracking system are shown in this paper. Based on the results of the study, a list of objects that catch people’s attention and a numerical description of the gaze distribution are presented.

Sustainable development of smart cities in the context of the implementation of the tire recycling program

At the present moment of society's development, the concept of Smart City development is attracting more and more attention. According to this approach, urban space should be implemented from the position of improving the quality of life of citizens. As part of the development of a smart city, rational and economical use of resources is assumed. This attitude to resources allows not only to save resources but also to improve the quality of life of the population, particularly by improving the environmental situation in the regions. In the world practice of developing cities, the recycling processes are becoming more and more relevant. On the one hand, this saves material and energy resources. On the other hand, these measures help to improve the quality of the environment in the regions. Recently, two concepts have become a trend in the development of urban economy in world practice. One of them is the concept of a smart city, the other is the concept of sustainable urban development. Despite a number of differences, both approaches to city management imply a focus on environmental friendliness. Implementing strategies of development of Russian cities in the framework of the concept of sustainable development and within the concept of smart cities aims to improve the environmental situation in the country. Therefore, the aim of the research was to improve the environmental potential of Russian regions through the use of modern Russian and foreign research, in particular through the tire recycling program. For Russia, one of the key environmental problems is the problem of recycling car tires. Despite the emergence of new eco-friendly ways of recycling tire waste, it is becoming more acute every year. This is understandable, because the number of cars increases every year. Currently, decommissioned tires are a source of environmental pollution in most of the Russian regions. However, this source of pollution is a long-term source. This is due to the fact that worn tires are practically not susceptible to natural decomposition, and, as a result, require increasing space for their storage and disposal. The article provides an analysis of the dynamics and prospects of car tire recycling in the framework of the concept of sustainable development of smart cities. A comparative analysis of the state of this issue in Russian and foreign practice is presented. In addition, according to statistic analysis, the article provides a forecast analysis of the increase in waste in the form of tires and an analysis of the regulatory framework governing the recycling process.

Toward smart and sustainable traffic solutions: a case study of the geography of transitions in urban logistics

City logistics as a research field offers a wide range of potential solutions and technologies for advancing toward modern and sustainable mobility. As societies demand environments that are more ecological and cities tackle the effects of growing e-commerce, innovative tools to regulate urban economic traffic become increasingly important. Based on the theoretical approach of the multi-level perspective, this case study combines findings from city-logistics research with evolutionary economics to gain a deeper understanding of the development of smart sustainable cities. The study strengthens the view on the geography of a transition with a focus on the interplay of changed practices, involved actors, and pathways. The analysis is based on qualitative social research, including interviews with various stakeholders. It examines the implementation of an app-based technology to regulate economic transport and delivery traffic in Barcelona. The municipal administration introduced the innovation in the Urban Mobility Plan and quickly integrated it across the city. The commitment of a software developer resulted in an enhanced version of the technology by a startup company. The development of the original innovation thus led to geographic diffusion of the upgraded technology through processing actors’ feedback and targeting new markets outside the city.

The Impact of Cultural Aspects on Building the Smart City Approach: Managing Diversity in Europe (London), North America (New York) and Asia (Singapore)

One of the main motives for creating this article was to explore the importance of cultural aspects in building smart city approaches. The aim of this article was to obtain answers to three research questions, the answers to which made it possible to identify the elements of multiculturalism that affect the development of smart cities, to find out how multiculturalism affects smart cities and how to manage diversity. The ambition was to create and organize the most important findings into a comprehensive framework. To achieve this goal, secondary analysis methods were used by examining the literature and case studies of best practices from Europe, North America, and Asia. The choice of case studies was conditioned by the placement of smart cities in four global indices (smart city index, Arcadis, IESE and global power index), the existence of a multicultural strategy and elements of successful diversity management, including positive effects and possible limitations. In addition, methods of analysis, comparison and summarization were used. Effective diversity management acts as an accelerator of the sustainable development of smart cities. The results of the analysis of the case studies serve as a basis for recommendations and the creation of a proposed general model, whose task is to simplify the adoption of intelligent concepts, which creates space for the specification of local or cultural conditions of the country. Testing the model in practice is the subject of the following research activities of the authors.

End‐users’ requirements underpinned by IoT layered architecture to the development of smart sustainable cities

It has been claimed that the adoption of a smart and sustainable city concept is one of the most effective ways to eliminate the risk of unsustainable living. Since the sixties, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was transformed from a country of traditional settlements to a modern urban setting. However, this development has been based on conventional methods of city construction and building practices. Therefore, the main aim of this primary research is to establish the fundamental aspects of developing a sustainable and smart city framework that can be applied to most Saudi Arabian cities and societies. A qualitative research methodology is adopted to determine end-user requirements, with more than 500 well-informed participants from 17 different cities. Subsequently, the main contributions here can be summaries as follows: (a) evaluating public willingness regarding smart sustainable city movements, (b) establishing requirements for a sustainable and smart city framework based on end-user perspectives, (c) providing a decision makers with a robust generic framework of sustainable development across Saudi Arabian cites, and (d) an Internet of Thing (IoT) architecture for SSC Adoption and implementation along with an integrated socio-organizational, financial, and technical generic framework for smart sustainable city adoption in the Saudi Arabian context.

Performance Evaluation of iBeacon Deployment for Location-Based Services in Physical Learning Spaces

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a wireless network technology used for transmitting data over short distances. BLE maintains a data transmission range comparable to the regular Bluetooth transmission, but consumes less energy and cost. iBeacon technology refers to BLE mobile devices, which allow mobile applications to receive signals from iBeacons in both indoor and outdoor environments. It is commonly used nowadays for positioning, location services, navigation and marketing, for the sustainable development of smart cities. The applications, however, can be further enhanced for use in many disciplines, such as education, health sector, and exhibitions for disseminating information. This study performed a set of robustness and performance tests on BLE-based iBeacons in the teaching and learning environments to evaluate the performance of iBeacon signals for positioning. During robustness testing, positioning accuracy, signal availability and stability were assessed under different environmental conditions, and the findings suggested pedestrian traffic blocking the line of sight between iBeacon and receiver, causing the most signal attenuations and variation in RSSI. In performance testing, a series of tests was conducted to evaluate the deployment of the iBeacons for positioning; leading to recommendations of iBeacon deployment location, density, transmission interval, fingerprint space interval and collection time in physical learning spaces for sustainable eLearning environments.

Application of Financial Cloud in the Sustainable Development of Smart Cities

This article first investigates the status of financial cloud development in smart cities and studies the sustainable development of smart cities. Secondly, it investigates the construction of the evaluation model, using the power of the financial cloud, through exploratory factor analysis, selecting the principal component analysis method to extract the factors, for screening and dimensionality reduction of the indicators, and making hypotheses. We used confirmatory factor analysis to establish the structural equation. The measurement model analyzes and validates the assumptions of the previous stage and finally determines the sustainable development evaluation index system. Then, starting from the scoring coefficient matrix of the exploratory factor analysis of the final model, the variance contribution rate of each common factor is weighted to construct a comprehensive evaluation model to calculate the comprehensive evaluation score. For the comprehensive evaluation score of the sustainable development level of the smart city, SPSS software performs cluster analysis, performs regional clustering, and determines the level of urban development. Finally, by comparing the sustainable development levels of smart cities, the related causes of the gaps are analyzed. Key factors affecting the sustainable development of smart cities are identified, and corresponding countermeasures are proposed.

A method of landfill leachate management using internet of things for sustainable smart city development

An urban local body of our country has planned to establish innovative and affordable method of treating solid waste offsite. Current manual waste segregation method is still a challenge for the environmental sustainability and considering the fact a mechanical waste segregator is designed which can identify the type of waste and separate them using Arduino microcontroller. The separated solid wastes are subjected to landfill and a review on landfill leachate management practice is presented in this paper. Then an enhanced Sequential Leach Bed–HUASB Reactor design is proposed for leachate treatment. The fabricated pilot scale model was functioning in the mesophilic state with pretreated solid waste as feed for ten different organic loading. The routine and real time monitoring of process control is based on plasma that depends on remote and onsite control. The materialization of devices is based on the Internet of Things (IoT) cloud, which is observed to be the emerging trend. By captivating the field data the devices are related to the process of mathematical calculation that plays significant role in transforming to the objects and are used to scrutinize turbidity, suspended solids, dissolved oxygen and COD using sensors, thereby managing the leachate for making Sustainable smart city development.

A Hybrid Indexing Approach for Sustainable Smart Cities Development

It has become crucial to categorize the complete urban planning scenario for architecturally, socially, and economically viable cities due to irresistible population progression. Urban migratory population from rural to urban has encountered towards sustainable urban planning. Being an issue of argument since earlier decades, the sustainability has always been endeavoured towards development of suitable sustainable indicators for Indian scenarios. The introduction of a smart city concept has provided an open space for development of integrated sustainable hybrid index consisting of the social, economic, and environmental aspects of the system. The current note tries to conceptualize the development, evaluation, and implementation of a new hybrid index for sustainable development considering multi-dimensional indicators. This index can be broadly envisioned to implement three key parameters like social, economic, and environmental components, with an ancillary parameter like citizen perception as a fourth parameter to provide a significant role towards sustainable smart cities. These will assist development of sustainable smart cities and contribution of urban constraints towards rising environmental issues to provide a proposition for implementation of hybrid index as a worthy tool for better sustainable smart cities development.

Internet of Vehicle Empowered Mobile Media Scenarios: In-Vehicle Infotainment Solutions for the Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

Recently, the commercial potentials and practical values of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) have been witnessed for sustainable development of smart cities in the field of intelligent transportation. Driven by the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), vehicles gradually become mobile living spaces to satisfy diverse demands of occupants, where the media functionalities, scenario scopes, and user engagements can be all expended dramatically. In the era of 5G/B5G, the intelligent connected vehicles are considered as super media because of the improved In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI). In this paper, relying on the advanced communication and intelligent techniques, we investigate the IoV-based vehicle-mounted media scenarios and construct IVI solutions for the MaaS. Firstly, we propose the characteristics of vehicle-mounted media scenarios and present the IVI evolution from the aspects of hearing, vision and multi-sensory media services. Secondly, we point out the main features and limitations of IoV-based IVI in 3G/4G. Finally, exploring the potential of super media, both the linkage display and IVI collaborative modes in vehicle-centric media scenarios are introduced as IVI solutions for the MaaS in 5G-V2X and beyond, which intend to further improve the audio-visual experiences of occupants and observers in urban environments.

Challenges in Sustainable Development of Smart Cities in India

Challenges in Sustainable Development of Smart Cities in India

Challenges for sustainable smart city development: A conceptual framework

AbstractSustainable smart city development experience various challenges, such as legislation and policies, funding, infrastructure, and technological aspects. Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of sustainability concepts in smart cities' development. However, there is scarce research focusing on the challenges faced for the development of sustainable smart cities. This study aimed to develop a conceptual framework that provides critical challenges faced by private and government organisations, and the respective solutions of the challenges for the development of sustainable smart cities. Pakistan has been chosen as a case study that yields a total of 17 respondents from the executive, managerial, and operational levels of private enterprises and government organisations involved in smart city development. This research is a preliminary step towards providing insights and significance of infusing sustainability in the development of smart cities. The proposed conceptual framework can act as a practise guideline for practitioners to prepare themselves for sustainable smart city development.

Social factors of sustainability for a smart city development

Sustainable development of smart cities is based on the consideration of many areas of urban life in which the implementation of modern innovative technologies is taking place. Urban planning is aimed on providing citizens’` life and ensuring their daily needs in comfortable and safe living. The problem is that urban environment and the population must be ready to accept the idea of a smart city in order to organize its greatest efficiency. On the other hand, smart technologies should address both global and local challenges and threats to the urban environment in the wide range from environmental problems caused by climate change to the possibility of easy orientation and service search on city streets. The article proposes an approach to strategic urban planning of the environment based on a socially-oriented smart city model that combines social factors, their reflection in urban environment and defines the set of smart technologies that are in citizens’` demand. On the example of the Monirye district in Tehran, Iran the developed method is applied using analytical methods of SWOT and VMOSA analysis. This application provides a systematic approach for smart cities planning in accordance with the needs of the population and the existing level of development of the urban environment and to determine the strategic directions of its sustainable development in the interests of the population.

A case-based reasoning recommender system for sustainable smart city development

With the deployment of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the needs of data and information sharing within cities, smart city aims to provide value-added services to improve citizens’ quality of life. But, currently city planners/developers are faced with inadequate contextual information on the dimensions of smart city required to achieve a sustainable society. Therefore, in achieving sustainable society, there is need for stakeholders to make strategic decisions on how to implement smart city initiatives. Besides, it is required to specify the smart city dimensions to be adopted in making cities smarter for sustainability attainment. But, only a few methods such as big data, internet of things, cloud computing, etc. have been employed to support smart city attainment. Thus, this study integrates case-based reasoning (CBR) as an artificial intelligence technique to develop a recommender system towards promoting smart city planning. CBR provides suggestions on smart city dimensions to be adopted by city planners/decision-makers in making cities smarter and sustainable. Accordingly, survey data were collected from 115 respondents to evaluate the applicability of the implemented CBR recommender system in relation to how the system provides best practice recommendations and retaining of smart city initiatives. Results from descriptive and exploratory factor analyses suggest that the developed system is applicable in supporting smart city adoption. Besides, findings from this study are expected to provide valuable insights for practitioners to develop more practical strategies and for researchers to better understand smart city dimensions.

The potential of integrating blockchain technology into smart sustainable city development

The rise of global urbanisation has led to massive pressures on resources such as food, water, infrastructure, and energy demand to support growing populations. It brings adverse impacts on the liveable condition and economic growth of a country if this problem remains unsolved. Smart city is a potential solution to address the challenges of urbanisation by leveraging the technological breakthrough such as internet of things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data, and cloud computing to facilitate scarce resources planning and management. With numerous connected devices and vast communication networks, it poses a challenges of security threat which cannot be addressed by the conventional cybersecurity solutions. Blockchain offers a solution in securing the huge numbers of connected devices in smart city network. The application of blockchain technology is leading in the banking and financial industry. However, the uses and implementations in smart city have emerged in recent years. The combination of blockchain technology and smart city has offered a great potential for sustainable development. Thus, it is imperative to discuss the potential of these two elements in making the city safer and sustainable. This paper explores how the blockchain technology application can help in managing smart city and achieve sustainability. The findings revealed that there are five key areas of blockchain application in smart city which are smart governance, smart mobility, smart asset, smart utility and smart logistic. A framework for smart sustainable city with blockchain technology is presented as an outcome of this study. It gives a clear overview for the policy makers and regulators of how blockchain supports within smart city framework. It facilitates the transition towards smart and sustainable cities through the use of blockchain.

Triangulum City Dashboard: An Interactive Data Analytic Platform for Visualizing Smart City Performance

Cities are becoming smarter by incorporating hardware technology, software systems, and network infrastructure that provide Information Technology (IT) systems with real-time awareness of the real world. What makes a “smart city” functional is the combined use of advanced infrastructure technologies to deliver its core services to the public in a remarkably efficient manner. City dashboards have drawn increasing interest from both city operators and citizens. Dashboards can gather, visualize, analyze, and inform regional performance to support the sustainable development of smart cities. They provide useful tools for evaluating and facilitating urban infrastructure components and services. This work proposes an interactive web-based data visualization and data analytics toolkit supported by big data aggregation tools. The system proposed is a cloud-based prototype that supports visualization and real-time monitoring of city trends while processing and displaying large data sets on a standard web browser. However, it is capable of supporting online analysis processing by answering analytical queries and producing graphics from multiple resources. The aim of this platform is to improve communication between users and urban service providers and to give citizens an overall view of the city’s state. The conceptual framework and architecture of the proposed platform are explored, highlighting design challenges and providing insight into the development of smart cities. Moreover, results and the potential statistical analysis of important city services offered by the system are introduced. Finally, we present some challenges and opportunities identified through the development of the city data platform.

Approaches, Advances, and Applications in the Sustainable Development of Smart Cities: A Commentary from the Guest Editors

Environmental externalities of the Anthropocene—mainly generated from population growth, rapid urbanization, high private motor vehicle dependency, the deregulated market, mass livestock production, and excessive consumerism—have placed serious concerns for the future of natural ecosystems, which we are a part of. For instance, global climate change—the biggest challenge we have ever faced—is directly impacting wellbeing, and even the existence of humankind, in the long run. During the last two decades, the notion of the smart city—particularly the sustainable development of smart cities—has become a popular topic not only for scholars, particularly in the fields of technology, science, urban and environmental planning, development, and management, but also for urban policymakers and professional practitioners. This was due to digital technologies becoming a powerful enabler in stimulating paradigmatic shifts in urban development-related visions, strategies, implementation, and learning. This paper offers a critical review of the key literature on the issues relating to approaches, advances, and applications in the sustainable development of smart cities. It also introduces contributions from the Special Issue, and speculates on the prospective research directions to place necessary mechanisms to secure a smart and sustainable urban future for all.

A Comprehensive Study of the Use of LoRa in the Development of Smart Cities

The New Urban Agenda (Agenda 2030) adopted at the United Nations Conference related to Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in the year 2016 has the goal of prompting cities to achieve the identified Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030. In this context, cities can experiment strategies of circular economy for the optimization of resources, waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. The data generated by the components of an Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem can contribute in two relevant ways to a smart city model: (1) by the generation of a circular economy and (2) by the creation of intelligence to improve the decision-making processes by citizens or city managers. In this context, it is in our interest to understand the most relevant axes of the research related to IoT, particularly those based on the LoRa technology. LoRa has attracted the interest of researchers because it is an open standard and contributes to the development of sustainable smart cities, since they are linked to the concepts of a circular economy. Additionally, the intention of this work is to identify the technological or practical barriers that hamper the development of solutions, find possible future trends that could exist in the context of smart cities and IoT, and understand how they could be exploited by the industry and academy.