Smart City Projects Research Articles

An Efficient IoT-based Ubiquitous Networking Service for Smart Cities Using Machine Learning Based Regression Algorithm

In recent days, the smart city project has been emerging concept all over the world. In this process, the proper communication between the sensors and the smart devices, and identification of optimal path between sensors and mutation sensors in large geographical area is very difficult. The main objective has been considered to overcome the drawbacks as mentioned above. The proposed algorithm is efficient to provide integrated communication of IoT-based ubiquitous networking (UBN) devices to improve in large geographically distributed area. The data storage capacity and accuracy of sensors and smart devices are enhanced using the proposed algorithm. The communication latency and data pre-processing of IoT-based UBN nodes deployed in smart cities are reduced. The proposed algorithm also analyses the performance of IoT-based UBN nodes by considering geographical testbeds that represent a smart city scenario. The analysis and comparison are carried out by considering the heuristic parameters. The proposed algorithm will also optimize the communication latency and data pre-processing time by analyzing various sensitivity levels by considering the heuristic parameters in different probability of nodes in smart cities. The proposed IoT-based UBN computing devices improve the objective function due to proper integrated communication between the sensors using a machine learning based regression algorithm. The proposed algorithm also identifies the probability sensitivity of optimal path between smart devices in a smart city thereby enhancing the connectivity of mutated sensor nodes. The proposed algorithm also enhances the probability of smart device connectivity to improve the accuracy, flexibility and large geographical coverage using machine learning based regression algorithm.

Stages and Challenges in Implementation of Smart City Project, Udaipur

Stages and Challenges in Implementation of Smart City Project, Udaipur

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.

Risk Identification and Assessment in 24x7 Water Supply Scheme for DMA under Smart City project

Abstract: The objective of this thesis is to propose a decision support tool for contractors to assess the likelihood of risks in water supply system projects before the execution stage. The approach combines fuzzy logic with the relative importance index (RII) method to quantify the probability of these risks. By conducting a comprehensive literature review and expert interviews, a total of 51 distinct risk factors were identified and categorized into seven groups. The RII method was employed to determine the relative importance of each risk factor, and the ranking of both the factors and groups was established based on their level of importance. The case study results facilitated a discussion on the most influential factors and groups that require attention in terms of risk probability. The outcomes were deemed satisfactory and appropriate for the purpose of this thesis.

Real-World Analysis of Smart City Integrated Services using High-Speed Network Technologies

Abstract: Services for smart cities are required to improve productivity, sustainability, and quality of life. They can maximise resource usage, enhance public safety, accelerate economic growth, and promote civic engagement. In the past, cities relied on unreliable and limited-range radio and wired telephone networks. The capabilities of networked city services have significantly increased with the development of technologies like Ethernet and passive optical network (PON). These technologies enable real-time data collecting and analysis by delivering higher data transfer speeds and greater coverage areas. PON connections offer higher bandwidth, greater reliability, and longer lifetimes; 50 Gigabit-PON has the capacity to support different commercial services with notable performance to meet service requirements; and Ethernet networks have lower deployment costs as well as greater flexibility in terms of adding or removing devices. The various use-case scenarios of high-speed network technologies are evaluated. The technology ultimately chosen will be determined by the specific requirements and objectives of the smart city project.

The Smart City – Does the Individual Matter?

ABSTRACT Early smart city projects tended to be technology-driven, conceiving of the citizen as a data provider. New citizen-centered projects have emerged that challenge the role of the individual in these second-generation smart cities. While some works describe the political role that individuals play in these cities, they only indirectly address the place of technology in determining the participation of the individual in these projects. In this article, we draw on the work done on another technical system—cyberspace—to address the relationship between individuals and technology in the smart city and its consequences. Adapting a typology initially developed for cyberspace and using examples of the City of Montréal, we identify three potential categories of the individual’s role within the smart city: (1) Active role (involved individual), (2) Passive role (synchronized individual), and (3) Victim (disadvantaged individual). We show that the individual is a misinformed figure, despite attempts to focus smart development on citizens. Moreover, we posit that the individual cannot have a real political role as long as the political vision of the city does not precede the technical dimension.

A Cloud-Based Data Storage and Visualization Tool for Smart City IoT: Flood Warning as an Example Application

Collecting, storing, and providing access to Internet of Things (IoT) data are fundamental tasks to many smart city projects. However, developing and integrating IoT systems is still a significant barrier to entry. In this work, we share insights on the development of cloud data storage and visualization tools for IoT smart city applications using flood warning as an example application. The developed system incorporates scalable, autonomous, and inexpensive features that allow users to monitor real-time environmental conditions, and to create threshold-based alert notifications. Built in Amazon Web Services (AWS), the system leverages serverless technology for sensor data backup, a relational database for data management, and a graphical user interface (GUI) for data visualizations and alerts. A RESTful API allows for easy integration with web-based development environments, such as Jupyter notebooks, for advanced data analysis. The system can ingest data from LoRaWAN sensors deployed using The Things Network (TTN). A cost analysis can support users’ planning and decision-making when deploying the system for different use cases. A proof-of-concept demonstration of the system was built with river and weather sensors deployed in a flood prone suburban watershed in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Obliged smart freedom: The Singaporean experience of advanced neoliberal-developmental governance

Despite criticism, the smart city solutionist rhetoric has gained popularity and investment across the world. In response, this paper interrogates the notion of neutrality in smart city projects and investigates the resulting rationales of the smart brand as a technology of control. The paper develops Nikolas Rose’s argument that a central tenet of liberal governance is to create, and then obligate, a desirable form of freedom, through a framework of economic maximisation, self-responsibility and autonomy. This framework is applied to the Singaporean Smart Nation as a neoliberal-developmental state to consider how the Smart City can be understood as a governance technique. The research is undertaken through a mixed method analysis to unpick the discursive frameworks shaping how individuals navigate the smart city. This approach identifies one of the many ways realities have become governable, to provide a relational perspective through the juxtaposition of government and citizen experiences. Data is drawn from three key government documents, an online survey of Singaporean residents ( n = 255), and key informant interviews ( n = 9). The results demonstrate the potential of the digital environment of Singapore to oblige freedom to engender a compliant population. In addition, the Singaporean case highlights the need for contextualised analysis of smart city projects to explore the governance potential, especially beyond the western perspective.

Interpreting digital governance at the municipal level: Evidence from smart city projects in Belgium

This article adopts an interpretive approach to investigate how local policy-makers portray and justify their own visions of digital governance initiatives at the municipal level. Our investigation focuses on smart city projects submitted by various Belgian municipalities in the framework of the ‘Intelligent Territory’ call for proposals initiated in 2019 by the Walloon Region. We use Boltanski and Thévenot’s theory of orders of worth and combine quantitative and qualitative content analysis to categorize the different justifications elaborated by municipal governments. The empirical results point to the polysemic nature of the smart city concept and highlight the diversity of opportunities offered by smart city policies according to municipal policy-makers. Overall, our study contributes to the understanding of the varieties of interpretations underpinning the construction of digital governance initiatives. It therefore supports the argument according to which there is no one-size-fits-all approach to smart city policies as local policy-makers may attribute different meanings to them and may formulate place-based ICTs solutions to what they perceive as the most pressing problems of their territories. Points for practitioners Smart city projects can be used by governing authorities as instruments to achieve a variety of policy goals Examples of policy goals are to boost local economic development, to improve the effectiveness of municipal service provision, to strengthen social bonds across local community members, to promote the ecological preservation of urban environments and to improve the collaboration between citizens and public administrations Local governments can adaptively use smart technologies as instruments to overcome multiple place-based environmental, social and economic problems Local governments should frame smart urban technologies as means to solve different societal problems and achieve different policy goals – rather than an end per se

Developing Capabilities in Smart City Ecosystems: A multi-level approach

Smart city projects require complex coordination of resources, but research on how capabilities form at the city-ecosystem level remains scarce. This article develops a multi-level approach to capability development in smart city ecosystems through an empirical study of London’s city data. We analyse the London case to discover how two ecosystem-level capabilities – data provisioning and data insights – developed through global, configural and shared aggregation processes. We find that the emergence process changes as the smart city ecosystem develops, requiring different coordination and resource mobilisation mechanisms at various stages. We contribute to the capability development and smart city literatures by focusing on ecosystem-level capabilities linked to collective city-level outcomes rather than the capabilities of the leading city authority. Insights from the study are of value to city authorities considering how to scale up and organise smart city initiatives in support of urban development goals.

Emerging technological innovation in Gaza Strip municipalities: an entrepreneurial approach

To boost corporate efficiency in both the public and private sectors, innovation is fundamental. Efficient technological transfer and the role of public–private sector collaboration play a major role in the modern growth of knowledge-based economies. As a public service organization, municipalities normally coordinate with all partners to draw up strategies and use them in communities. A new vision is needed for the Gaza Strip municipalities, where all public and private stakeholders work together to co-design and co-develop new cutting-edge products and services aimed at generating shared value through entrepreneurial behavior. However, concrete examples of smart city projects revealed that municipalities often do not have the necessary capabilities as well as innovative approaches to collaborate with start-ups and other stakeholders’ ecosystems. So, this paper aims to analyze innovation in the municipal sector shedding light on the barriers and challenges that municipalities in the Gaza Strip face in smart city development. This study uses primary data gathered from various stakeholders through focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and webinars to conclude how the Gaza Strip municipalities can work to address challenges in the smart city context; and to explore how to promote an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation to support the adoption of new hi-tech technologies in the municipal sector. The Gaza Strip municipalities need to offer the necessary conditions for entrepreneurial talents who can bring their creative mindset, and technological experiences to the table, making it possible to build the best teams to solve any challenge. The research also concluded that Open Innovation Platforms can be seen as an important tool for enabling start-ups and researchers to develop innovative Hi-Tech solutions.

Public Policy Management in Determining the Feasibility of the Smart City Project in Malang, Indonesia

Public Policy Management in Determining the Feasibility of the Smart City Project in Malang, Indonesia

Smart cities and cumulative effects on fundamental rights

Considering the rise of numerous smart city projects that impact fundamental rights in modern cities, this paper calls for the need to assess their cumulative effects on fundamental rights of city dwellers.

Innovative Business Models for the Future Smart City

This paper examines how to outline and adopt innovative business models for the Smart Cities of the future. Smart Cities are intelligent and efficient communities and ecosystems employing digital technologies to respond a growing waste of resources, unsustainable environmental impact, and inefficiency in traditional processes. Considering the greatest benefits of Smart Cities on economies, societies, and environment, many countries have now introduced national Smart City projects in order to transform life, improve business operations and market competitiveness. However, despite growing interests towards Smart Cities, it remains still difficult to adopt this paradigm due to digital transformation, interaction strategies, social and cultural problems. Therefore, this paper aims to break down the barriers to these problems and support the literature and management to understand how to implement profitable business models for Smart Cities of the future. Specifically, we identify four main areas characterizing Smart Cities (i.e., Smart Mobility, Smart Living, Smart Energy, and Smart Public Ecosystems) where digital technologies have shown greater progress with large savings. For each area, multiple case studies have been discussed and Business Model Canvases have been developed for generalizing effective methodological approaches toward efficient implementation of Smart City paradigm. Results are threefold. As for digital transformation problems, we show how digital technologies (e.g., Cloud, IoT, Big Data and AI) are applied profitably through innovative business models; as for interaction strategies problems we indicate how to organize innovative ecosystems involving public and private actors to promote Smart Cities; as for social and cultural problems we delineate change management and communication practices useful to instill in all stakeholders a culture towards the Smart City. With these findings the paper aims at enriching scientific knowledge about the Smart City Paradigm by means of a business model perspective and to offer public administrations insightful guidelines for the transition toward Smart Cities.

A Study on the Establishment of a Sustainable Smart City Project Evaluation System Based on Proptech Technology Demand

This study establishes a system to evaluate smart city projects based on the demand for proptech. This tailored evaluation method can be used for projects in each region in the future. The evaluation system was established by dividing the topic into three sectors: proptech, smart city living lab, and smart city project planning. This study established an evaluation system through selected evaluation items, and calculated the importance of each item through this. The importance is determined by the recognition results of experts and practitioners related to smart city projects. The analysis showed that the evaluation field was 0.609, 0.420, and 0.410 for proptech, smart city living lab and smart city project planning, respectively. Lastly, this study proposed a customized evaluation system with a focus on providing methodological applications and alternatives and verifying their utilization.

Evaluating Social Impact of Smart City Technologies and Services: Methods, Challenges, Future Directions

This study examines motivations, definitions, methods and challenges of evaluating the social impacts of smart city technologies and services. It outlines concepts of social impact assessment and discusses how social impact has been included in smart city evaluation frameworks. Thematic analysis is used to investigate how social impact is addressed in eight smart city projects that prioritise human-centred design across a variety of contexts and development phases, from design research and prototyping to completed and speculative projects. These projects are notable for their emphasis on human, organisational and natural stakeholders; inclusion, participation and empowerment; new methods of citizen engagement; and relationships between sustainability and social impact. At the same time, there are gaps in the evaluation of social impact in both the smart city indexes and the eight projects. Based on our analysis, we contend that more coherent, consistent and analytical approaches are needed to build narratives of change and to comprehend impacts before, during and after smart city projects. We propose criteria for social impact evaluation in smart cities and identify new directions for research. This is of interest for smart city developers, researchers, funders and policymakers establishing protocols and frameworks for evaluation, particularly as smart city concepts and complex technologies evolve in the context of equitable and sustainable development.

Smart Governance Toolbox: A Systematic Literature Review

Smart city projects rely upon dynamic and complex multi-stakeholder collaboration. This collaboration can be challenging. In this study, we use an instrumental lens and argue that tools can help public professionals in dealing with smart governance challenges. Building upon smart governance and collaborative governance models, we conceptualize smart governance as a toolbox. Based on our “smart governance toolbox”, we assess the variety of tools available for professionals to initiate and support multi-stakeholder collaboration by reviewing academic and grey literature. This review results in the identification of a broad range of tools that research and practice have developed. However, we also demonstrate that certain parts of the ‘smart governance toolbox’ remain almost empty: there are few tools for assessing the smart collaborative governance context, facilitating the collaborative structure, tackling technology issues, and measuring outcomes of smart city practices. Future design research should focus on developing instruments needed to make the smart governance toolbox complete.

Africa’s Urban Fantasy? The Sustainability Question for Konza Technology City

Konza technology city has been proposed as a flagship project in the ICT sector that would propel the Republic of Kenya to the status of a newly industrializing, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by 2030. It is billed as a sustainable, eco-friendly and smart city. Taking the perspective of the built environment, this paper evaluates the sustainability claims of the project against the sustainable development needs of the African city and its denizens. First, the project’s aim and objectives are laid out followed by a detailing of the project proposals concerning its governance structure, its master plan, its PPP strategy and its smart city prospects. This is followed by an evaluation of the project and the key proposals in the context of sustainable urban development. These include the rationale of the project, the suitability of site, the governance and inclusive development. In the end, a conclusion is reached that Konza’s smart city project proposals are not a set of sustainable solutions in the context of Africa’s urban development needs.

Building Inclusive Smart Cities through Innovation Intermediaries

To be inclusive, smart cities should be built on Industry 4.0 technologies within a quadruple helix model involving governments, academia, industry, and citizens. Innovation intermediaries facilitating collaborative innovation could foster this model of smart city. This paper identifies digital innovation hubs (DIHs) as innovation intermediaries that can help build inclusive smart cities. A screening of DIHs in European and extra-European countries through desk research finds 48 DIHs linked to smart city projects or policies, of which 23 are involved in building inclusive smart cities and mostly addressing the areas of smart environment and government. This paper suggests a framework for boosting their functions as transformation leaders, knowledge brokers, and technical mediators to facilitate the use of Industry 4.0 technologies for building inclusive smart cities.

Open Data Insights from a Smart Bridge Datathon: A Multi-Stakeholder Observation of Smart City Open Data in Practice

“Open Data” efforts are growing, especially in Europe, where open data are seen as a possible ethical driver of innovation. As smart cities continue to develop, it is important to explore how open data will affect the stakeholders of smart public spaces. Making data open and accessible not only has a managerial and technical component but also creates opportunities to shift power dynamics by granting individuals (and entities) access to data they might not otherwise be able to obtain. The scope of those who could access these data is wide, including data-illiterate citizens, burgeoning startups, and foreign militaries. This paper details the process of making data “open” from the MX3D smart bridge in Amsterdam through a “datathon”. The development and outcomes of opening the data and the event itself bring us closer to understanding the complexity of open data access and the extent to which it is useful or empowering for members of the public. While open data research continues to expand, there is still a dearth of studies that qualitatively detail the process and stakeholder concerns for a modern smart city project. This article serves to fill this gap.