Smart City Planning Research Articles

“Green, but not as green as that”: An analysis of a Brazilian bike-sharing system

According to academics and urban planners, the smart city concept favors technological products and solutions over end users and their adherence to a smart city proposal. The smart city concept is also considered in the cities of Latin America, one of the most urbanized and unequal regions of the world. Smart city implementation in such contexts can provide lessons on urban innovation when resources are scarce and the environments are volatile. Thus, it is possible to verify that one of the most implemented solutions to diminish the increasing urban congestion and its effects on citizens’ quality of life is related to smart urban mobility. This paper sought to evaluate the perception of bike-sharing users in a smart city and analyze the main motivations for using this system. The research analyzed the bike-sharing system of Passo Fundo, a medium-sized city in southern Brazil. Interviews with 526 residents identified three main motivations for using the bike-sharing system: (i) health and the environment, (ii) being social influencer, and (iii) the cyclist lifestyle. The respondents’ overall perception revealed their low satisfaction with the bike-sharing system and with the overall conditions for cycling. This finding calls for a better understanding of the planning and management of smart cities in conjunction with citizen’s perception and their effects on the city smartness. The research provides contributions regarding understanding the interconnected aspects of bike-sharing systems in the developing countries context. From a smart city perspective, we conclude that success within the domain of smart mobility can be achieved by observing the three factors revealed by the analysis. According to our results, meeting these criteria through public policies would increase bike-sharing, creating a green behavior trend.

Heritage in post-war period challenges and solutions

The aim of the study is to define what role can geographic information systems (GIS) play in protecting cultural and historic properties in the cities, that have been affected and damaged as a result of conflicts. It presents the approaches and methods for record and assess condition, as well as to identify priorities in reconstruction of the properties of cultural and historical heritage that were significantly damaged. The focus of the present paper is on the development of an Information technology enabled participatory planning framework for guiding reconstruction process towards the planning of smart cities. The studies are based on a retrospective analysis of the territory, which can be used to identify the boundaries of the city, which have historical and cultural significance. Systematic approach and cartography method are used to determine the location of the historic center of Homs city in Syria and historical heritage objects within, which is necessary to assess their value and to face all the challenges and prevent further damages, that was caused by the military conflict. The study of post conflict reconstruction of historic cities, shown the necessity of using special urban planning technologies for the restoration process in the territories with historical and cultural significance.

Geodesign: Applications towards Smarter Planning and Urban Design Solutions

Geodesign: Applications towards Smarter Planning and Urban Design Solutions Dr. Nadia Amoroso, Adele Pierre, Dr. Leif Olson, Grant Pearsell, Devin Lavigne Abstract As world population becomes increasingly urban (World Health Organization, 2017), the need for smart city planning becomes crucial. Cities continue to increase in size and density, and with the accompanying infrastructure of buildings, roads, transportation tunnels and subways, the amount of permeable surface that is able to absorb storm water decreases (Hunt & Watkiss, 2011). As urban densification combines with increases in storm frequency and intensity, municipalities need to find new ways of managing storm water. Solutions require collaboration across planning disciplines and input from an informed public. Geodesign approaches and technologies can assist in making wiser design decisions. Geodesign refers to geographic design or using geographic data to aid design. This design approach supports the rapid iteration and application of new planning strategies and urban design ideas by integrating the site‟s data with computer software such as a GIS (Geographic Information System). The formalization of geodesign was developed and fostered by Jack Dangermond, founder and president of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). ESRI is a leading global provider of GIS software technology, offering new geode sign technologies to help achieve better planning outcomes. This paper defines the concept of geode sign and demonstrates its application for achieving sustainable landscapes and cities. The paper focuses on two key projects that serve to show planners and urban designers how to make wiser design decisions based on geo-data. It reviews the project goals, methods and results to achieve data-driven design solutions using a geodesign process and technology. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jaes.v8n2a2

Urban Changes in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Era and Digital Twin Based Smart City Planning Model

The purpose of this study is to present conceptual directions for digital urban planning models that can be used to plan and operate smart cities, accommodating the effects of urban change that the fourth industrial revolution will bring. The effect of the fourth industrial revolution through the maximization of connectivity will be on the multi-product mass production, the emergence of mixed land use and urban innovation district, and the expansion of direct democracy. In addition, urbanization and urban problems will spread around the world. Applying the traditional planning system to planning for future cities has reached the limit. As the potential to overcome these limitations, digital twin based smart city planning model(hereafter, DSP) was presented by combining maximized connectivity, the data hub and operating system of the smart city, and real-time information collection, analysis, and forecasting capabilities of a digital twin. DSP could be used to anticipate and devise alternatives to the effects of cyber attacks, heavy rains, urban development, public transportation, quarantine, and product improvement. DSP could be platforms for administrators, urban planners, and citizens to use creativity to improve the quality of life and discover economic opportunities. It will also serve as a platform for direct democracy for civic participation.

A policy framework for city eligibility analysis: TISM and fuzzy MICMAC-weighted approach to select a city for smart city transformation in India

The increasing rate of urban population and deteriorating conditions of physical, institutional, social, and economic infrastructure in cities are demanding smarter ways to improve public utilities and services in India. Smart city development promotes an established, interconnected, and sustainable urban system. The Indian government has launched “100 Smart Cities Mission” for planned urbanization in the country. The “100 cities” have been selected from a two-round city challenge competition. However, some controversial viewpoints have made questionable remarks over the selection process. For the effective planning of smart cities, an exhaustive analysis is essential to find the existing critical infrastructure, key resources, and development trends. The purpose of this study is to aid city planners and decision-makers to determine city eligibility in a multidimensional way and to develop evaluation criteria for city selection process to meet the goal of smart city mission. This article proposes a weighted criteria model to assess the city selection eligibility. The factors are identified from the literature studies. Total interpretive structure modeling is used to analyze the complex interrelationships among the factors and to develop a selection hierarchy. The fuzzy MICMAC process is used to classify the factors based on driving power and dependence. The stabilized driving power is applied to calculate the corresponding weights for each factor. In study findings, the most driving, linkage and dependent factors are identified for analyzing city selection eligibility. The policy-makers, government officials, and decisions-makers would get benefitted from the study outcomes to select top “N” number of cities for Smart Cities Mission.

Analytical Modelling of Power Efficient Reliable Operation of Data Fusion in Wireless Sensor Network

Irrespective of inclusion of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) in majority of the research proposition for smart city planning, it is still shrouded with some significant issues. A closer look into problems in WSN shows that energy parameter is the origination point of majority of the other problems in resource-constrained sensors as well as it significant minimizes the reliability in standard sensory operation in adverse environment. Therefore, this manuscript presents a novel analytical model that is meant for establishing a well balance between energy efficiency over multi-path data forwarding and reliable operation with improved network performance. The complete process is emphasized during data fusion stage to ensure data quality too. A simulation study has been carried out using benchmarked test-bed of MEMSIC nodes to find that proposed system offers good energy conservation process during data fusion operation as well as it also ensure good reliable operation in comparison to existing system.

Implementation of Efficient B2G and V2G in Practical Cases

In this paper, building to grid (B2G) and vehicle to grid (V2G) have been defined with clear and practical understanding. Both of them are new generation technologies which are the essential part of smart city living and crowd energy clustering. Firstly, an in-detailed overview has been provided with an introduction to B2G and V2G followed by a historical overview and theoretical analysis in respect to smart city planning. Next, a review is conducted on current and previous smart living research, which deals with B2G and V2G. Efficient B2G and V2G implementations in practical cases then have been discussed. Lastly, both of these technical prospects have been analyzed in crowd energy diagram.

TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF URBAN HEAT ISLAND USING LANDSAT SATELLITE DATA: TWO INDIAN CASE STUDIES

Abstract. Urban environment is examined through time series Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) and OLI/TIRS (Operational Land Imager & Thermal Infrared Sensor) sensor images. A continuous surface of Land Surface Temperature (LST) can be extracted from Landsat thermal bands. Similarly different band combinations and ratios will give spatial pattern of land cover categories. Among these, building and vegetation indices are used to characterize the spatiotemporal pattern of elevated temperature zones in cities. This excess heat concentration creates thermal hotspots which are known as Urban Heat Islands (UHI). Parameters of land cover are then related to LST to detect the influence of urbanization on intensity and extent of heat islands, by pixel based quantitative analysis. This paper focuses on two megacities of India and their surrounding districts for identifying the critical UHI areas. The purpose of this paper is to create a database for reconstruction in old cities and planning of new smart cities. Results suggest that urban sprawl and substitution of rural areas with impervious surface plays significant role in microclimate, causing formation of new thermal hotspots. The analysis of urban thermal environment and its dynamics is to provide a scientific basis for future strategy building.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Machine learning in explaining nonprofit organizations’ participation: a driving factors analysis approach

The construction of smart cities requires the participation of nonprofit organizations, but there are still some problems in the analysis of driving factors of participation. Based on this, using the structural equation model as the research method, a public satisfaction relationship model, based on the machine learning, for nonprofit organizations participating in the construction planning of smart cities was constructed in this study. At the same time, corresponding assumptions are set, and data are collected through questionnaires. Afterward, the Likert tenth scale was used to score questionnaire questions, and deep learning was conducted in conjunction with the model. The research shows that the model established in this study has good analytical results and has certain practical effects. It can provide suggestions for optimization and can provide theoretical references for subsequent research.

A generic internet of things architecture for controlling electrical energy consumption in smart homes

The Internet of Things (IoT) is progressively developing since it was first introduced at the beginning of the 21 st century. The IoT becomes more prominent due to the enormous data generated by the IoT devices called the Big Data. Further, the application of Big Data is widely adopted in many areas such as smart home and city planning, efficient system design, etc. However, during the developing stages of IoT, the researchers have many challenges that need to be addressed before standardizing IoT for general use. These challenges include co-existences of many communication technologies such as Bluetooth, ZigBee, WIFI, and so on. The effect of such technologies on the communication becomes more when these technologies exist in shot communication range. Similarly, other challenges include processing of huge amount of data generated by the IoT devices in real-time. Therefore, in order to address these challenges, we come up with a proposed scheme that enable a generic communication architecture among the IoT devices with less interference. Further, the proposed architecture consists of four main steps i.e. 1) a system to discover and identify electrical appliances in a smart home or smart building, 2) deployment of sensors, 3) applying proposed load balancing on appliances and sensors, and 4) processing the data obtained from these sensors for better usage of home and electrical appliances. The proposed scheme is tested on real electronic appliances and the energy consumption is recorded using the proposed Electronic Device Sleep Scheduling Algorithm (EDSA). Furthermore, the EDSA is responsible for controlling the activities of the sensors while it is active, sleep, and idle modes. The results show that the proposed architecture perform better in a heterogeneous environment compare to simple Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based technologies. The data is also processed using Hadoop Ecosystem is to maximize the efficiency and minimize the time required to process the data in real-time.

Stakeholders' stake and relation to smartness in smart city development: Insights from a Swedish city planning project

Many of today's city planning projects aim to realize smart city ambitions. In order to plan and build a smart city district, where ICT is integrated in critical infrastructure and used to control and govern city functions in innovative ways, new ways of working in city planning are needed. The purpose of this article is to develop a framework that takes into account stakeholders and smartness dimensions in city planning. We have studied a city district development in Sweden where a new planning approach was implemented. The developed framework was used to analyze the complexity of this city planning process. By defining which smartness dimension each stakeholder primarily focus on and analyzing the consequences of this, the framework pinpoints each stakeholder's contribution and/or hindrance to the process and outcome. A recommendation from this study is that new stakeholder groups are important to involve in smart city planning, but this also adds complexity that must be acknowledged when setting up this kind of projects. The developed framework can be useful when organizing and staffing city planning processes as well as when evaluating project outcomes.

Development of Information Evaluation System for Smart City Planning Using Geoinformatics Techniques

Urbanization is a continuous process, which transforms the traditional setup into the modern era. Uneven population growth over the next 3 decades is expected in cities. In this context, the new technology-based solutions are desirable, which can provide more efficient and robust approaches for urban infrastructure planning. Keeping these visions, the smart city concept is evolving in the developing countries like India, which appears a new paradigm of systematic intelligent urban infrastructure planning in the city. This research work comprises of grids-based, eight different land use and infrastructure-related information evaluation systems namely urban settlements information evaluation system, water resource information evaluation system, urban green space information evaluation system, intelligent transportation information evaluation system, basic infrastructure information evaluation system, power distribution information evaluation system, telecommunication mast information evaluation system and city surveillance information evaluation system for the development of smart city priority zones in the Bhopal city, capital of Madhya Pradesh, India. The LISS IV and Cartosat 1 sensor digital Image data along with ancillary data were used. The GPS survey was carried out to confirm ground realities, and digital intelligent map was prepared for various utilities after integration of thematic layers. The geostatistical analysis and weights-based methods were used for the creation of information evaluation system for city planning. The investigation of results have shown that various parameters related to smart city planning can be analyzed in a more efficient manner by dividing the area into an appropriate size grid. The spatial integration of information evaluation systems were carried out and areas were divided into low-, medium- and high-priority zones. These prominent categories such as high-priority zones covered the 14% of the study area, similarly medium-priority zones covered the 34% of the study area and low-priority zones covered the 52% of the study area. This research work investigations are very useful for the formulation of new strategic plans, in order to achieve better land use and infrastructure features utilization for the smart city planning.

From the “smart city” to the “smart metropolis”? Building resilience in the urban periphery

The “smart city” has risen to global prominence over the past two decades as an urban planning and development strategy. As a broad but contested toolkit of technological services and policy interventions aimed at improving the efficacy and efficiency of urban systems, the “smart city” is subject to several pressing critiques. This paper acknowledges these concerns, but recognizes the potential of “urban intelligence” to enhance the resiliency of metropolitan areas. As such, we focus on an under-researched dimension of smart city urbanism: its application in peripheral urban areas. The paper introduces a threefold typology of: (a) geographic (spatial); (b) hard (material); and (c) soft (social) urban peripherality. Second, it reviews the concept of urban resilience and considers how its central characteristics can inform the objectives and implementation of “smart city” infrastructures and planning. Six European smart city plans are assessed via a qualitative content analysis, to identify the target of smart city actions; the characteristics of urban resilience mobilized; and the spatial focus of planned interventions. The comparative analysis reveals a variegated set of smart-city approaches. Notably, “smart” actions aimed at enhancing social innovation are the most common type of intervention, while overall there remains a strong tendency for smart urbanism to focus on the urban core. We conclude by calling for a research agenda addressing smartness in, of, and for, peripheral urban spaces and communities.

Smart City Planning from an Evolutionary Perspective

ABSTRACTIn the theory of urban development, the evolutionary perspective is becoming dominant. Cities are understood as complex systems shaped by bottom-up processes with outcomes that are hard to foresee and plan for. This perspective is strengthened by the current turn towards smart cities and the intensive use of digital technologies to optimize urban ecosystems. This paper extends the evolutionary thinking and emerging dynamics of cities to smart city planning. It is based on recent efforts for a smart city strategy in Thessaloniki that enhances the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the city. Taking advantage of opportunities offered by the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge, the Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities, the World Bank, and the EU Horizon 2020 Program, Thessaloniki shaped a strategy for an inclusive economy, resilient infrastructure, participatory governance, and open data. This process, however, does not have the usual features of planning. It reveals the complex dimension of smart city planning as a synthesis of technologies, user engagement, and windows of opportunity, which are fuzzy at the start of the planning process. The evolutionary features of cities, which until now were ascribed to the working of markets, are now shaping the institutional aspects of planning for smart cities.

Smart City Planning

This article reflects on the challenges for urban planning posed by the emergence of smart cities in network societies. In particular, it reflects on reductionist tendencies in existing smart city planning. Here the concern is with the implications of prior reductions of complexity which have been undertaken by placing primacy in planning on information technology, economical profit, and top-down political government. Rather than pointing urban planning towards a different ordering of these reductions, this article argues in favor of approaches to smart city planning via complexity theory. Specifically, this article argues in favor of approaching smart city plans holistically as topologies of organized complexity. Here, smart city planning is seen as a theory and practice engaging with a complex adaptive urban system which continuously operates on its potential. The actualizations in the face of contingency of such potential are what might have the city evolve over time, its organization, its wholeness, and its continued existence being at stake from moment to moment.

Evaluating spatial service and layout efficiency of municipal Wi-Fi facilities for SmartCity planning: A case study of Wuhan city, China

This paper explores an approach to evaluating spatial service and layout efficiency of municipal Wi-Fi facilities for cyber infrastructure planning in the construction of a smart city. Based on the equilibrium principle that Wi-Fi services supply should meet the spatial demand for recreation, urgency, and security, two evaluation models were built. In the first model, the spatial service efficiency of Wi-Fi facilities is measured by a mean ratio of three types of demand spaces covered by Wi-Fi service. In the other model, spatial layout efficiency of each Wi-Fi facility is calculated by a demand load indicator - the sum of the three types of demand space's ratios of served quantity to the average quantity it should carry, and then assessed by relationship with its adjacent facilities. Corresponding statistical methods and analysis processes were also designed using the function modules found in ArcGIS software. The approach was applied to Wuhan city in 2016. After overlaying influence areas of 688 Wi-Fi facilities with demand spaces of 137 access points for recreation, 1200.99 km roads for urgency, 121.54 km2 regions for security, the results show that there exists a spatial disequilibrium between supply and demand of Wi-Fi service in Wuhan due to lack of comprehensive planning. Specifically, there are 67 points, 700.76 km roads, and 42.59 km2 regions of demand spaces covered by Wi-Fi service, with service efficiencies of 48.91%, 58.35%, and 35.04% respectively and an overall spatial service efficiency of 47.43%. Among all the Wi-Fi facilities, there are 481 carrying saturated demand, 3 straying from the centre of demand space, and 204 redundant. The overall spatial layout efficiency of Wi-Fi facilities is 43.01%. The conclusion is that the dense and massive redundant Wi-Fi facilities should be optimized, especially in the centre areas along the confluence of Yangtze and Han rivers and new Wi-Fi facilities supplemented in other ill-equipped areas. Since many metropolitan cities experience the same problem, this novel approach will find wide application in the future and offer improved evaluation strategies for researchers and policymakers.

Re-Engineering Public Libraries of Varanasi

The public library has a social mission; to provide various types of information, documents, books and e-services to fulfill information needs of its users. It exists to serve different communities. It works as a local gateway of knowledge which provides a basic condition for lifelong learning, independent decision-making and cultural development of the individual and various social groups. The government of India currently working on a smart city mission to enhances Indian cities1. The government of India has signed MOU with Japan to implement Kyoto city module for the development of Varanasi2. Public library services component appears to be missing in the smart city plan. In this study, 14 libraries were personally visited and data collected. Most of the public libraries are based on conventional services module which are inadequate in the current changing environment. Public library services need to be reengineered and some of the areas which need to be considered for this purpose are identified.

Smart city and quality of life: Citizens’ perception in a Brazilian case study

Abstract Smart cities attract considerable attention from academics and urban planners mainly in the context of urban development policies. Based on technological innovations, smart cities are complex ecosystems that have the potential to improve urban livability, workability and sustainability through a network of people, processes and data. However, according to academics and urban planners the smart city concept favors technological products and solutions over end users and their quality of life. This perspective calls for an integrated analysis approach that considers the smart city as an organic whole, which encompasses objective and subjective quality of life domains (QOL). This paper aimed to evaluate the perception of quality of life in a smart city and to analyze the main elements of citizens’ satisfaction with their home city. The research analyzed the city of Curitiba, in Southern Brazil, claimed to be a livable, green, and inclusive city and one of the ten smartest cities in the world. Interviews with 400 residents identified four main QOL domains: socio-structural relationships, environmental well-being, material well-being and community integration. The respondents’ overall perception revealed their low satisfaction with the main elements that characterize Curitiba as a smart city. This finding calls for a better understanding of the planning and management of smart cities in conjunction with the QOL elements and their effects on citizens. The research provides some contributions to understand the interconnected facets of QOL domains in the Smart Cities context. From a smart city perspective, the research concludes that success within the domain of smart living can be achieved by providing the four factors revealed by the analysis. According to our results, meeting these criteria of success would improve citizen’s quality of life, creating a stronger community within the city. Finally, the study provides relevant information for social researchers and urban planners by identifying factors that influence QOL perceptions and providing elements for political and academic debate.

Modeling the traffic disruption caused by pluvial flash flood on intra‐urban road network

AbstractPluvial flash flood (PFF) can cause serious traffic disruption in big cities. We conducted interdisciplinary research by integrating flood modeling and traffic analysis to reveal the spatiotemporal pattern of the interplay between these two processes. A simplified simulation tool, which is capable of building a road network model, assigning trip paths with the effect of road closures, and evaluating travel delay and vehicle volume redistribution in a given PFF scenario, was developed to capture the traffic disruption in the face of PFF events. Modeling outputs from a case study in the city center of Shanghai showed that the delay of vehicles diverted to dry links or trapped in flooded links may reach 0.5 to 8 times the travel time in no‐flood scenarios. Overall, approximately 1–7% of vehicle volumes on flooded links would be redistributed onto dry links (more likely major arterial roads). However, the vehicle volume variation during each time interval demonstrated evident disparity with the spatiotemporal change of flood inundations. Simulating and mapping the congestion can largely facilitate the identification of vulnerable links. Future research will test the method in other intra‐urban areas and try to bridge the gap between modeling outputs and smart city planning and management.

‘Smart food city’: Conceptual relations between smart city planning, urban food systems and innovation theory

Abstract This paper develops a conceptual link between smart city planning and urban food systems research in terms of governance and innovation. The ‘smart city’ concept is linked to an urban research agenda which seeks to embed advances in technology and data collection into the infrastructures of urban environments. Through this neoliberal framework, market-led and technological solutions to city governance and development are prioritised. The urban food movement has a different trajectory compared to the smart city agenda, comprising a diverse mix of urban food production practices, including community and grassroots-based social innovations, and associated more recently with food security discourses. Recognising these ideological and epistemological differences (between the smart city and the urban food movement) is important for conceptualisations of ‘smart food city’ governance. Based on theoretical reflections, review material and findings from a European project on city-region food systems, the paper argues that smart technology can be an important part of the solution to city food challenges but in combination with social innovations to enable flexible modes of governance that are inclusive, technologically and socially-orientated and linked to specific city-region contexts. Key elements include city regionalism, new organisational structures and connectivities, a circular model of metabolism and social practices.