Smart Cities Mission Research Articles

Inclusive Growth in Smart Cities: Addressing Socio-Economic Inequalities in India

Smart cities are crucial for achieving urban development goals, as they provide a framework for creating sustainable environments. However, each country has its own unique approach to implementing smart cities, tailored to their specific ecosystems. In the case of India, a vast subcontinent with approximately 17% of the global population, improving the delivery of its Smart City Mission (SCM) is essential. This article explores the current state of India's smart city mission and examines the factors that contribute to its progress and challenges. By addressing these issues, India can enhance its sustainability and continuously strive to create a better climate for urban development.

Towards (net) zero emissions in the stationary energy sector: A city perspective

Cities are loci of intense consumption of energy and resources and thus hotspots of greenhouse gas emissions with global environmental impacts. While increasingly recognised as a crucial part of the solution, little is known on what cities are concretely setting up and achieving in the context of climate mitigation. In this paper, we examine the roadmap of 362 ambitious cities that expressed their interest in the 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission of the European Commission. We focus on the role of the built environment as a source of emissions and even more as a multiplier of positive impacts and opportunities. We analyse i) the contribution to the overall Scope 1 and 2 emissions, ii) current policies and policy instruments in the stationary energy domain as compared to those cities will deploy to become climate neutral by 2030, and iii) current key measures against interventions that could scale up in the future. The insights gathered through this study can inform scientists on key technical and technological gaps, inspire other cities on the journey to (net) zero emissions, and support policymakers, practitioners, and the public in the creation of an enabling environment for climate-neutral strategies and technologies in the urban domain.

Let's hear it from the cities: On the role of renewable energy in reaching climate neutrality in urban Europe

Renewable energy sources have emerged globally as a key lever to ensure energy security and to promote climate mitigation. Cities need to exploit this energy transition, but how they are building their strategies and actions is undetermined. A new dataset, collected through the European 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, offers unique insights on the 362 cities which expressed the ambition to reach climate neutrality by 2030. Insights include their level of preparedness, ambition, capacity and the risks envisaged in the pursuit of zero-emission and greener futures. This study focuses in particular on the role of renewable energy across high greenhouse gas emitting sectors in cities (e.g. buildings, mobility, waste and industry). It analyses i) the status quo for renewable energy generation, consumption, and policymaking, ii) the key measures to enhance and upscale renewable energy deployment in the near future, and iii) how policies and relevant instruments will evolve to curb emissions and accelerate the energy transition. The insights that emerge from the analysis are discussed in relation to existing evidence, to inform future research strands and forms of assistance for cities. Overall, for cities to deliver on large renewable projects, efforts need to be intensified, barriers need to be lifted and multi-governance approaches must be operationalised.

The Making of Smart Citizenry: Decoding ‘Smart Citizen’

Ayona Datta (2017) highlights how the digital turn in the post-colonial cities in India has allowed the coercive power of state to control and discipline citizenry by making them actively engage in governance; while the active citizenry is just a smokescreen, a proxy to provide the larger legitimacy to the smart city project and rather the citizenry is paternalised and handheld through the emerging technologies of government. She argues, in the process, the emergence of alternative citizenry is cast and their reflections need to be gauged from the perspective of subaltern and others who defy the digital turn and its wider network. In this backdrop, the article examines the discursive construction of ‘smart citizenry’ under India’s Smart Cities Mission. Drawing on the discourse analysis of 100 smart city proposals, the article contends that the Mission creates a false binary of active and passive citizenship with implications on the citizenship rights. It is further argued that that the Mission has a very narrow understanding of active citizenship, limited to just giving tacit consent to smart city projects. This is depicted in proposals calling for smart, active, duty-bearing, responsible citizenry lack of which risk jeopardize the success of smart cities.

SMART CITIES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF DEFINITIONS

This research has been done alongside the objective of set up a clear definition of smart cities that could possibly utilized globally. Despite a lot of material on smart cities that are accessible, there is no defined, widely used set of terminology that would assist in accurately defining a "Smart City".Around 115 current smart cities definitions were analysed and examined by utilizing as a guideline the themes and attributes of smart cities. These definitions have been acquired from numerous sources such as user-centric definitions, company/corporate profiles, national and international organizations (United Nations, ITU, Indian Smart Cities Mission, etc.), government initiatives, academia & research communities, standards development organizations, and trade associations. A list of thirty important terms that need to be included in a standardized definition was determined, and important indicators and categories were also established. Finally, to conclude on the basis of the given analyses, a suggested definition for the “smart city” was given by the following:An innovative city is known as a "smart city" if it adopts ICTs (“information and communication technologies”) including innovative methods to enhance wellbeing, the effectiveness of urban services and environment, while simultaneously fulfilling the social, environmental, and economic requirements of both the present as well as the future generations.This derived definition is such a definition which can be generalized for any smart city with basic fundamentals terms mentioned in it and can be adopted widely throughout the world.

Smart city initiatives and disaster resilience of cities through spatial planning in Pune city, India

Cities are attracting populations at alarming rate. Cities provide the need of populations in every way from livelihoods to livability. In doing so it is exhausting its resources resulting in increasing threats of risk. An initiative like Smart City Mission is aiming to enhance the capacities of the cities to increase livability and quality of life for its population and decrease threats of risk. This study examines the impact of smart city initiatives on resilience to earthquakes and floods through a spatial planning perspective for the city of Pune in State of Maharashtra through series of structured interviews with key stakeholders. The findings suggest that smart city initiative is still in its primary stage and requires assimilation with the development strategy to contribute to the resilience of the city. The study further proposes the need to integrate the smart city initiative with all the current and future developmental projects.

A STUDY ON SELF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WITH REVENUE GENERATION MODELLING IN SMART CITIES

Government of India plans to implement Smart City Program for next 5 years (FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-20) to transform 100 Indian Cities to Smart Cities. "100 Smart Cities Mission" was launchedby Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 June 2015. Cities are engines of growth for the economy of every nation, including India. With increasing urbanization, by 2030, it is anticipated that 40% of Indians would live in urban regions, which will also account for 75% of the country's Economy. Smart Cities Mission is an effort by the Government of India to drive India into the age of advancement through economic growth. Smart City has been envisioned as 24/7 activity based, thriving and energetic place where people will live work and play. An innovative city that ideally involve the urban planners to develop and transform the entire urban ecosystem with integration of information and communication technologies to improve quality of life.

Estimation of Air Pollutants Along with Meteorological Parameters and Study of Their Impact on Human Health

The research studies have shown that air pollution has been well thought-out as the main warning to health globally. It requests the participation of researchers from time to time to address and revive the problem sincerely. In India concentration of air pollutants has become a serious issue. In most Indian cities, the level of air pollutants is above the prescribed level as per the CPCB. Gwalior City of Madhya Pradesh (India) is at the entrance of speedy urbanisation and industrialisation which causes the worsening air quality of the city. As per the reports of 2015, Gwalior is listed among the top polluted city in India. To address this problem an investigation of air pollutant concentration was carried out at three stations in Gwalior. In this study SO2, NO2 and RSPM and SPM were collected over three stations categorised as residential, industrial and commercial and estimation was done by chemical methods. Meteorological parameters like temperature and relative humidity were also recorded during the sampling period. Seasonal variations of these pollutants have been analysed and noted. From the study, the concentrations of the pollutants were observed to be high in summer and winter than in monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. In this study, it was noticed that the RSPM and SPM levels at all selected sites exceed the prescribed limits. While the level of gaseous SO2 and NO2 are observed to remain under prescribed limits. The main objective of this study was to know the quality of air in Gwalior and study its health impacts as the city has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities that can be developed into a smart city under PM Narendra Modi’s flagship Smart Cities Mission.

Assessment of groundwater quality in Ranchi district, Jharkhand, India, using water evaluation indices and multivariate statistics.

Groundwater is the most abundant liquid freshwater on earth. Rapid urbanization in developing nations (like India) has led to increased groundwater withdrawal, adversely affecting the physicochemical characteristics. Ranchi district, Jharkhand, is a part of the smart city mission development plan of the government of India. Hence, to ensure safe and clean drinking water, it is necessary to assess groundwater quality and devise development plans. Seventeen physicochemical properties and metal(loid)s contents were analyzed to determine the groundwater quality. Various pollution indices such as water quality index (WQI), metal evaluation index (MI), heavy metal pollution index (HPI), and modified degree of contamination (mCd) are evaluated using arithmetic weighted value index and presented in a map using Arc GIS inverse distance weighting interpolation method. Chemometric analyses such as correlation, principal component, and cluster analysis were done to identify the source and determine the pollution state. A multiple linear regression model is employed to predict the impact of heavy metal and metalloid concentration on the WQI of the region. WQI shows that groundwater quality in Khelari (100.95) and Bundu (92.52) regions are highly degraded, whereas MI and HPI suggest that Ormanjhi (MI = 53.98) and Rahe (HPI = 109.20) are highly affected by metal contamination. The mCd suggests that Ormanjhi (97.15) has the highest degree of contamination. The contaminant sources were natural (geogenic processes) and anthropogenic (mining and industrial emissions). The high metal(loid)s concentration may soon result in groundwater quality degradation in the metal-affected regions.

Smart city planning and the challenges of informality in India

Smart city initiatives are mushrooming across the Global South, yet their implications for urban informality – a distinct challenge of planning in the cities of the Global South – remain overlooked. Using the Indian case as a focus and drawing upon empirical studies in three cities of Bhubaneswar, Pune, and Chennai, which are among the first 20 smart cities prioritised for implementation in the Smart Cities Mission, we show how informality challenges the understanding of the smart city. We analyse how this phenomenon is framed in smart city planning, focusing on the three domains of affordable housing, infrastructure services, and citizen engagement. We argue that using informality as a lens of critical analysis offers a new perspective on the ‘Southern theory’ of smart cities. In doing so, we highlight the disregard of informality at the cost of socio-spatial division – as a significant challenge for smart city development in India.

An optimal control strategy for emergency vehicle priority system in smart cities using edge computing and IOT sensors

Smart city mission is a concept which improves economic growth and quality of life of people by using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Smart cities collect data from various Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and manage the resources and provide service to the public. Emergency Vehicle Priority/Pre-emption (EVP) is one of the major IoT components in smart cities which saves many lives by giving right of way green signal to the Emergency Vehicles (EVs) such as ambulances and fire engines. The existing EVP system gives green signal to the EVs immediate by stopping the conflicting movements. The sudden stoppage of normal traffic as well as the sequence change generates confusion to the road users and drivers. This needs an optimal control strategy which gives green signal to EVs as well as it should not affect the normal traffic flow. This paper proposes an optimal control strategy for EVP using edge computing and IoT sensor for smart cities. The experiment was conducted using a GPS based IoT sensor which keeps on sending the Location Information (LI) to the edge server. The edge server computes the optimum timings based on the proposed control strategy algorithm and clears the emergency vehicles. Waiting time of other road vehicles before and after implementing the system have been studied at a traffic junction at Thiruvananthapuram, India. The comparison result shows that the average waiting time of vehicles on the other road is reduced by 73.23% in the proposed system when compared with the existing system. Since, edge computing has been deployed the latency in communication has been reduced less than 100 ms. So, the proposed solution reduces the waiting time of other road vehicles and reduces the latency in communication simultaneously.

Analysis of Spatial and Temporal Variation of Noise Level at Intersections of a Mid-Sized City in India

This study aims to determine spatial and temporal noise variation and acoustical climate at intersections. Data monitoring comprises measurement of peak and off-peak hour variations at 19 intersections between February 2020 to September 2021 in Kanpur, India. Kanpur was proposed as a smart city in 2015 under National Smart Cities Mission. This work has been part of a National Level Project "IMPRINT" to document ambient noise levels for a Tier 2 city with highly heterogeneous traffic. Noise variations are primarily influenced by traffic flow, geometric characteristics, classified volume, and honking events. Frequent stoppage of vehicles for boarding and alighting of passengers also significantly affect noise levels. The results suggest that spatial variation of noise is larger (more than15 dBA) than temporal variation (less than 5 dBA). Noise risk zones are identified based on noise level alongside intersections. Zones are classified as safe, tolerable, low risk, moderate risk, high risk, and extremely high risk zones. Noise level crosses tolerable limit at most study locations, and some locations fall in high-risk zones. The study has highlighted influence of different parameters on spatial and temporal noise variation at intersections and remedial action plans for traffic noise abatement.

Smart Cities Mission: Promises & Performance: The Environmental Sustainability of Smart Cities in India

Smart cities are becoming the ideal solution for urban settlements to address the issues and challenges of the future. India also adopted various missions and agendas to be a part of this sustainable journey. The Smart Cities Mission, adopted in light of this development, is one of the largest missions concerning urban development. The mission has been ongoing for the past six years in the country, but the citizens are likely unaware of its progress.The study examines the disparity between 'on-paper and 'on-ground reality' in four of the one hundred Smart Cities proposed by the mission.

Overcoming Exclusion in Urban Governance: A Critical Assessment of India's Smart Cities Mission

Overcoming Exclusion in Urban Governance: A Critical Assessment of India's Smart Cities Mission

Restoring the Urban Ecosystem

While India marches ahead to record the world's highest urbanization rate of 60% by 2050, the Government of India is relentlessly trying to commensurate this transition. The ambitious Smart Cities Mission intends to transform 100 cities into smart cities by retrofitting and redeveloping infrastructure to upgrade living conditions with application of technologically smart solutions to manage the basic urban services. The paper studies the extant of inclusion of restoration and conservation of urban ecosystems into the mission and suggests scope of integration of several urban development schemes, their resources, collective expertise, and engagement of various stakeholders to achieve a common goal.

Fractured smart cities: Missing links in India’s smart city mission

The postscripts of smart cities have been written before its prelude. Inserting smart technologies in infrastructure to improve urban environments, smart cities emphasize data-driven approaches and evidence-based planning. While it asks for production of new vocabularies, new ways of thinking, and proposes new methodologies, smart cities have trivialized baseline surveys. The insignificance to baseline survey hides the existing and functioning cities and leads to appropriation of “smart in the box” technologies. The omission of baseline survey fails to revamp planning and governance techniques as well as management and delivery of urban services. India’s Smart City Mission runs through a similar fate. Despite changes in vision and approach towards urban improvement, Smart City Mission suffers from methodological apathy and produces fractured smart cities. In doing so, the paper explores how the idea of normative smart city shrouds urban complexities and heterogeneities and proposes solutions without comprehending the functional and existing cities. Drawing on cases of urban water and solid waste management in Smart City Dharamshala, this paper discusses how fissures in normative and functional smart cities are continually produced through broken, incomplete, and erroneous data that, ultimately, fails in creating robust and resilient cities.

Economic Value of Major Lakes in Coimbatore City

Lakes are recognized as freshwater resources in rural and urban areas. In the last few decades, lakes situated vicinity of cities are rapidly degraded due to lack of maintenance and economic development. Lakes areas were encroached, converted into buildings and house plots because and people were not aware of the intrinsic value of lakes. Coimbatore is one of the tier II cities in India, it has several lakes in and around the city limits. In 2016, Coimbatore is one of the city selected under the smart city mission. Under the Smart City mission, Coimbatore city municipal corporation restores the water bodies. But, lakes around household activities and lake visitor’s activities affect the lake quality and ecosystem. The main reason was the people were not aware about the intrinsic value of lakes. Therefore, this study estimates the total economic value of ecosystem services derived from major lakes in Coimbatore city. The total hectare of major 9 lakes was647.61 ha and its ecosystem services value was 608.36 crores/year. Kurichi lake has the highest catchment area, its ecosystem services value was 127 crores per year. The monetary value of lakes makes awareness about the significance of lakes ecosystem services and people are co-operate with lakes restoration activities.

Challenges of consultant-led planning in India’s smart cities mission

The growing involvement of private-sector consultants in urban planning has been critiqued as a potential problem, mainly due to doubts over their ethical position. India’s Smart Cities Mission which aims to equip 100 cities with smart technologies, relies on private consultants both to plan the interventions and to implement them. With the planning phase now complete, and implementation in its early stages, this study examines the proposals generated by the consultants. The study deploys natural language processing computational techniques to compare a large corpus of text extracted from the proposal documents to a framework of common planning terms. The analysis yields insights regarding the consultants’ “styles,” and the evolution of the proposals over four rounds of selection. Findings suggest that some consultants show better results than others, but as many as a third of the reports prepared for the mission have low scores on the study’s metrics. In addition, a close reading of the program design helps understand the institutional context within which consultants are embedded. The paper concludes with recommendations for closer scrutiny of the consultants’ work within the mission.

Styles of decarbonization

ABSTRACT What characterizes the relations amongst actors engaged in decarbonization? I posit that no single characteristic can satisfactorily explain the heterogeneous politics of reducing emissions and propose the concept of styles as the patterned ways in which actors relate to each other to decarbonize. Based on qualitative fieldwork, I compare two projects for a national policy mandating the use of low-carbon technologies – India’s Smart Cities Mission – and find variation in their styles. In Rajkot, local state, business, and policy elites with a variety of interests converged to impose decarbonization on a site used by herders as pasture. In Davanagere, local industry, workers, state bureaucrats, and experts independently bargained over a plan that accommodated livelihoods in a puffed rice manufacturing district. I theorize styles as a systematic heuristic to capture variation in the politics of reducing emissions and identify surprising coalitions for decarbonization.

Analysing multilevel governance dynamics in India: exercising hierarchy through the Smart Cities Mission

ABSTRACT This paper provides a theoretically informed empirical analysis of how Narendra Modi’s claim of ‘more governance, less government’ is felt in practice in India. It does so through a qualitative case study of the Smart Cities Mission and its implementation in four cities, applying multilevel governance theorizing. It finds centralizing dynamics at play through the use of ‘special purpose vehicles’, which bypass local-level institutions. The paper highlights how multilevel governance dynamics can be shaped through institutional design, a point overlooked in the literature. It also raises questions about the risks of such arrangements for long-term, democratic development.