Smart Urban Governance Research Articles

Multipurpose territorial cadastre and collaborative participation as tools for smart urban governance: An analysis considering the pandemic’s effect in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, Brazil

The society lives in a dynamic, complex and contradictory urban system, seeking to reach a balance between urban development and environmental preservation. For this purpose, there is a need to perform an efficient urban management integrated with the information and communication technologies. From this integration, emerges the smart cities concept, which is composed of smart governance strategies and actions. In this sense, the present article aims to understand and discuss the contributions, potentials and public values of the multipurpose territorial cadastre and the collaborative participation as tools for smart governance. In order to validate the theoretical essay, a case study was performed to analyze urban governance in the São Paulo metropolitan region, Brazil, according to the use of information and geoinformation resources applied to cities’ management, pre- and post-pandemics. The results have shown that some practices of municipal governments have already been established aligned with the dimensions of smart governance. However, mainly, as for spatial activation in the use of geoinformation, as well as in the use of multipurpose territorial cadastre, it still has much to move forward and, therefore, to qualify with public value the strategies and actions of governance that a smart city requires.

Harnessing Local Dynamics for Upgrading Informal Settlements: The Ezbit Hegazi Experience with the ALEXU-CoE-SUG

Informal settlements pose multifaceted challenges to urban development, necessitating a reconsideration of traditional upgrading approaches. This study examines the integration of the street-led approach within the Ezbit Hegazi informal settlement, leveraging the Alexandria University Centre of Excellence for Smart Urban Governance’s (ALEXU-CoE-SUG’s) innovative framework. It highlights the centrality of ‘Demand for Good Governance’ (DFGG) practices in bridging the gap between governmental (supply-side) and community (demand-side) objectives, fostering a collaborative urban upgrading process. Through an in-depth case study analysis, this paper reveals the potential of aligning governmental agendas with local aspirations, emphasizing the importance of local dynamics in sustainable urban development. The findings indicate that integrating bottom-up community engagement with top-down institutional support can lead to more effective and sustainable urban regeneration. The study concludes that a combined approach, leveraging both grassroots initiatives and formal governance structures, is crucial for the successful upgrading of informal settlements. The findings contribute to the urban studies literature by providing insights into the synergies between supply and demand perspectives in the context of informal settlement upgrading, offering implications for policy and practice in similar urban settings globally.

Governing in the digital age: The emergence of dynamic smart urban governance modes

There is growing concern that implementing effective governance constitutes a significant element in cities becoming ‘smart’ due to its multidisciplinarity, complexity of urban challenges and multi-stakeholder involvement. It is assumed that in smart city initiatives, new governance modes arise through the interplay of technological artefacts and political and social factors, viewed through a sociotechnical perspective. We also argue that traditional urban governance modes help explain emerging modes and the nature of citizen-government interactions. Thus, a combination of the sociotechnical view with the modes of urban governance as a theoretical approach was used to understand the dynamics of emerging governance modes in smart city initiatives. Two cases were studied using a longitudinal qualitative case study and temporal bracketing analysis for an in-depth understanding. Our findings evidenced that the configuration of the elements, governance mode, information and communication technology (ICT) and types of citizen-government interaction varies from one initiative to another and changes over time, across multiple sociotechnical networks in practice, which leads to emerging new governance modes. We highlight that a new understanding of smart urban governance for sustainable development in the digital age needs to be developed as a dynamic process. Moreover, we identified two emerging governance modes and proposed a dynamic approach to investigate smart urban governance in other contexts.

Creative Futuring for More-Than-Human Worlds: Exhibitions as Sites to Ponder Environmental Governance

Abstract The article presents the Smart Urban Governance for More-than-Human Future(s) anthology, comprising six speculative creative works. It draws on techniques of futuring as a methodology to explore how creative practice as an act of futuring and exhibitions as sites to ponder environmenta governance can empower more-than-human futures. Reporting on participatory observations and semistructured interviews with the exhibition audience the article posits that creative futuring can empower futures by developing awareness that environmental governance can facilitate nonhuman agencies that conserve and repair the ecological world.

Reparative futures of smart urban governance: A speculative design approach for multispecies justice

In recent years, urban governance within smart city contexts has increasingly turned towards processes and practices of “futuring” to guide city visions and planning. Particularly with the increased focus on sustainability within smart urban governance, these futuring practices often rely on environmental monitoring technologies to guide reparative actions for environmental harms and promote multispecies justice. Yet, these futuring practices often overlook or are disconnected from the past where these environmental harms and injustices were sustained. Little attention has been paid to how smart urban governance might consider both past and future to better account for multispecies justice. This paper introduces a speculative design methodology within a reparative futures framework as it explores multispecies justice in smart urban governance. It reports on a methodological study conducted in Brisbane, Australia, in which participants—including policymakers, environmental lawyers, scientists, urban planners, and climate activists—undertook a speculative futuring design process intending to address past harms faced by multiple species and to repair relations within a more-than-human world. Direct engagement with the past in futuring practices helps us reflect on how smart urban governance might take accountability and institute better reparative actions to materialise multispecies justice.

From legislation to obligation: Re-thinking smart urban governance for multispecies justice

Given the rise in Australia's biodiversity and habitat loss, in this paper we explore how smart urban governance—might move beyond its more anthropocentric focus on citizens, civic institutions, and the urban environment to address multispecies justice. Situated in Brisbane, Australia, our research contributes new knowledge (co)produced with stakeholders who identify four anthropocentric barriers within smart urban governance: (1) property ownership, (2) green spaces, (3) lobbying and donations, and (4) lack of environmental integration. Next, we position multispecies justice in Brisbane's smart urban governance as a shift from ownership to stewardship and from legislation to obligation: challenging human-centred urban typologies, and technological and institutional tools. In conclusion, we reflect on what stakes matter for Urban Governance to embrace the transition towards multispecies justice.

Initiating the Implementation of Meaningful Public Participation in Forming Regulations in Urban Areas: From the Perspective of Smart Urban Governance

Initiating the Implementation of Meaningful Public Participation in Forming Regulations in Urban Areas: From the Perspective of Smart Urban Governance

Smart City Policy: Strategy and Implementation to Realize Smart Urban Governance in Indonesia

This paper elaborates on policies, strategies, and implementation of Smart Cities in Indonesia. Due to regulatory, strategy, and implementation problems for Smart City, there are still differences in understanding and strategy in its implementation. Smart urban governance is part of a smart city, so one strategy to implement smart urban governance is a smart city policy in Indonesia. There is a fragmentation of inconsistent approaches, policies, implementations, and strategies in practice. This research will develop arguments, analyze published articles and regulations, and map them out. The research method used was a qualitative approach. The data sources used were articles from Scopus which found 213 articles using the keywords smart city policies and smart urban governance and regulations, which were then processed using VOSviewer and Nvivo 12 Plus software. This study indicated that to implement smart urban governance in Indonesia, strategies such as the first need to be supported by the central government to make a policy regarding smart cities, including smart urban governance, followed by smart city policies in the towns in Indonesia. Second, there are technological developments that support the implementation of smart cities. Third, there are institutional and human resource factors, but these are still obstacles to implementing smart cities in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the urban issues developed in Indonesia are mega-urban in the big island, urban management and financing, housing for lower-income, sustainable urban infrastructure, and resilient disaster mitigation and management.

Digital Twin Simulation Tools, Spatial Cognition Algorithms, and Multi-Sensor Fusion Technology in Sustainable Urban Governance Networks

Relevant research has investigated how predictive modeling algorithms, deep-learning-based sensing technologies, and big urban data configure immersive hyperconnected virtual spaces in digital twin cities: digital twin modeling tools, monitoring and sensing technologies, and Internet-of-Things-based decision support systems articulate big-data-driven urban geopolitics. This systematic review aims to inspect the recently published literature on digital twin simulation tools, spatial cognition algorithms, and multi-sensor fusion technology in sustainable urban governance networks. We integrate research developing on how blockchain-based digital twins, smart infrastructure sensors, and real-time Internet of Things data assist urban computing technologies. The research problems are whether: data-driven smart sustainable urbanism requires visual recognition tools, monitoring and sensing technologies, and simulation-based digital twins; deep-learning-based sensing technologies, spatial cognition algorithms, and environment perception mechanisms configure digital twin cities; and digital twin simulation modeling, deep-learning-based sensing technologies, and urban data fusion optimize Internet-of-Things-based smart city environments. Our analyses particularly prove that virtual navigation tools, geospatial mapping technologies, and Internet of Things connected sensors enable smart urban governance. Digital twin simulation, data visualization tools, and ambient sound recognition software configure sustainable urban governance networks. Virtual simulation algorithms, deep learning neural network architectures, and cyber-physical cognitive systems articulate networked smart cities. Throughout January and March 2023, a quantitative literature review was carried out across the ProQuest, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, with search terms comprising “sustainable urban governance networks” + “digital twin simulation tools”, “spatial cognition algorithms”, and “multi-sensor fusion technology”. A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) flow diagram was generated using a Shiny App. AXIS (Appraisal tool for Cross-Sectional Studies), Dedoose, MMAT (Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool), and the Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR) were used to assess the quality of the identified scholarly sources. Dimensions and VOSviewer were employed for bibliometric mapping through spatial and data layout algorithms. The findings gathered from our analyses clarify that Internet-of-Things-based smart city environments integrate 3D virtual simulation technology, intelligent sensing devices, and digital twin modeling.

Research trends on smart urban governance in Asia: a bibliometric analysis

PurposeSmart urban governance research has progressed over the past few decades following changes and increasingly complicated city management difficulties. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to use a scoping review and bibliometric analysis to examine all the publications on smart urban governance, especially in Asia.Design/methodology/approachA total of 1,900 smart urban governance articles indexed in the Scopus database was analyzed through scoping review and bibliometric analysis. The articles were analyzed by the number of publications per year, contributing countries, subject areas, authors, cited documents, related issues and cited papers. Furthermore, VOSviewer was used to provide a visual analysis of the co-occurrence of keywords.FindingsThis study indicated that urban smart governance publications continue to increase yearly. Even though the area of analysis is Asia, the USA and China seriously contributed to the analysis. Therefore, the topic of smart urban governance has become a discussion for scholars in the international. From the Scopus database analysis, the top three subject areas are social sciences (28%), environmental science (20%) and medicine (16%). The synthesis using bibliometric analysis by VOSviewer obtained 13 clusters.Research limitations/implicationsThis study only focuses on the Scopus database and one specific topic, using one bibliometric analysis tool. Meanwhile, national and international index databases are not used.Originality/valueThis paper examined publication trends on smart urban governance. This paper provided a comprehensive analysis of topic-specific knowledge areas based on previous studies. Additionally, this paper suggested the direction of the development of smart urban governance in the future.

Residents’ Quality of Life in Smart Cities: A Systematic Literature Review

Despite its popularity in urban studies, the smart city (SC) concept has not focused sufficient attention on citizens’ quality of life (QoL) until relatively recently. The aim of this study is, therefore, to examine the concept of QoL in SCs using a systematic review of 38 recent articles from 2020–2022. This includes definitions and concepts, indicators and domains that are used to measure QoL, and the typical research methods that are used to collect data. The review analyses some of the main themes that emerge from the field of SCQoL which include smart urban governance, sustainability, smart living, participation, and social inclusion. The findings from this SC and QoL research can help city planners to prioritize which domains are the most important or meaningful for citizens and which services to invest in. It has been suggested that smart living is the most important domain of a SC. However, various studies have found that citizens experience SC initiatives holistically and that QoL is quite dependent on context in terms of priorities. Therefore, citizen participation strategies should be tailored and adapted to each respective context. SC governance also needs to be more long-term and strategic with real evidence that citizens are involved in decision making and problem solving and are not just passive recipients.

Historical Trends in Smart City Governance for the Management of Ancient Urban Centers in Iran: A Case Study of Saqqez Municipality

Objective: This study aims to assess the risks and hazards associated with smart city governance in Saqqez Municipality, with a focus on identifying key threats across technological, organizational, and environmental dimensions. Methodology: The research employed a quantitative approach, using a structured questionnaire distributed among experts within Saqqez Municipality. Data were analyzed using statistical methods, including structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess risk factors and their impacts across different dimensions of smart city governance. Findings: The findings, derived from the CLA method, indicate that within the three dimensions analyzed, the organizational dimension of smart urban governance in Saqqez Municipality presents the most significant risks and threats. Within the technological dimension, artificial intelligence (0.85), pattern orientation (0.762), smart sensors (0.753), and cybersecurity (0.748) exhibited the highest factor loadings. In the organizational dimension, data preparation (0.754), electronic processes (0.817), and electronic communication (0.753) were identified as having the highest impact percentages. Conclusion: The research concludes that comprehensive risk management strategies, including the integration of risk management organizations, establishment of a centralized data collection system, ongoing risk assessments, and recruitment of specialized professionals, are essential to enhance the safety, resilience, and sustainability of smart city initiatives in Saqqez Municipality.

More-than-human smart urban governance: A research agenda

Environmental change is giving rise to more-than-human thinking/practice about cities. At the same time, ‘smart’ thinking/practice about cities driven by technocratic approaches, have been critiqued for reinforcing human exceptionalism. That is, nonhuman nature in cities is increasingly perceived and governed via digital technologies that rarely account for limits to human perception. Here, we offer an alternative and address how digital technologies and politics can potentially be reconfigured to care for the more-than-human world within cities. In this paper, we critically review technocratic approaches to smart urban governance and explore the more-than-human turn across the triad of cities, digital technologies and data, and politics. We outline the contours of a new more-than-human approach to smart urban governance.

A CASE STUDY OF 3D OWNERSHIP RIGHTS REGISTRATION AS A BASIS OF SMART URBAN GOVERNANCE

Abstract. The Land Administration System (LAS) is of strategic importance to any country. Effective modern LAS should facilitate land management as an important instrument for the implementation of land policy contributing to comprehensive and sustainable land governance. The infrastructure needed to support increasingly complex requirements or urban space management based on three-dimensional register of rights would bring substantial improvement, especially for management of complex 3D situations. Modern cities are increasingly deploying different types of infrastructure under/on/above ground. The Republic of Croatia decided to establish the Register of Buildings, a transitional register combining data about buildings from existing registers towards the 3D cadastre. The transformation from 2D to 3D LAS should follow international standards, firstly the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM): ISO 19152:2012 but also other ISO and OGC standards. This study analyses the possible re-use of cadastral 3D datasets in smart urban governance procedures, the case of public purpose property valuation. To our opinion the establishment of a 3D LAS should facilitate and enable efficient and sustainable management of urban spaces.The prototype of 3D LAS, based on LADM conceptual model and its extensions, should enable efficient integration of 3D ownership rights register with the data from other domains - other key registers, taxation, and valuation data (property market data) and other sources of linked data. In this paper, the case study is used to assess the current practice of registration of buildings and their particular parts and analyse the differences between different implementation of 3D partitioned parts.

DEVELOPMENT OF A COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM FOR INTELLIGENT TERRITORIAL MAPPING OF THE CITY OF ORAN

Abstract. In developing countries, sustainable development and territorial intelligence are of greater interest to public authorities and citizens. In Algeria, the combination of resources with technological innovation goes in the direction of building a productive territorial intelligence. This translates into a process aiming at developing a systemic approach of the territory in order to analyse its physical, social and economic dimensions in order to exchange the different points of view of the different actors and to make the policies more coherent. In this contribution, we have focused the research on studies related to decisional computing and participatory mapping initiatives through Voluntary Geographic Information (VGI), citizen-generated content or crowdsourcing, are now being used as a new instrument for information gathering and two-way exchange between the various entities in the urban environment, ranging from ordinary citizens to leading actors. Mapping and urban planning thus becomes smarter, in particular through the updating of data, reporting information on needs in terms of public services (roads, streetlights, signs, rubbish, etc.), alerts in the event of emergencies. The objective of our work is to provide an interactive solution, ensuring the collaboration of actors for the visualization of urban geospatial data on Oran city (western Algeria), but also, for mapping and reporting street problems for fixing them by the local authorities. The ‘WILAYATI’ platform, under development, will allow citizens to participate in improving their environment, and will be a challenge for the government in terms of intelligent territorial mapping and smart urban governance in Algeria.

Emerging Trends and Knowledge Structures of Smart Urban Governance

The concept of smart cities peaked in 2015, bringing an increased influx of ‘smart’ devices in the form of the Internet of Things (IoT) and sensors in cities. As a result, interest in smart urban governance has become more prevalent in administrative, organisational, and political circles. This is sustained by both local and global demands for an increased contribution to the goals of sustainability through urban governance processes in response to climate change urgencies. Cities generate up to 70% of global emissions, and in light of societal pressures for more inclusivity and democratic processes, the need for sound urban governance is merited. Further knowledge on the theme of smart urban governance is required to better understand the trends and knowledge structures and better assist policy design. Therefore, this study was undertaken to understand and map the evolution of the concept of smart urban governance through a bibliometric analysis and science mapping techniques using VOSviewer. In total, 1897 articles were retrieved from the Web of Science database over 5 decades, from 1968 to 2021, and divided into three subperiods, namely 1978 to 2015, 2016 to 2019, and 2020 to early 2022. Results indicate that the overall emerging themes across the three periods highlight the need for citizen participation in urban policies, especially in relation to smart cities, and for sustained innovation for e-participation, e-governance, and policy frameworks. The results of this study can aid both researchers exploring the concept of urban governance and policy makers rendering more inclusive urban policies, especially those hosting technological and digital domains.

More-than-human city-region foresight: multispecies entanglements in regional governance and planning

ABSTRACT Real-time data from urban and rural regions is increasingly being used by policymakers to achieve environmental sustainability goals within smart cities. At the same time, smart urban governance has been criticized for its technocratic and human-centric approach that sacrifices long-term planning for the here-and-now and overlooks the more-than-human in sustainability-related city-region foresight strategies. By reviewing two city-region foresight strategies employed in Australia – namely, the Atlas of Living Australia and Greenprints – this paper argues for the merits of including foresight strategies that account for multispecies entanglements. The paper mobilizes more-than-human perspectives to propose multispecies foresight for better urban and regional sustainability outcomes.

Is smart urban governance possible in developing countries? Constraints, resources, innovative tools and strategies

Until recently, we were talking about urban management, local management and territorial management. We are now talking about smart city or intelligent city, terms that have become fashionable in specialized literature and even in everyday language to such an extent that those who ignore them could consider themselves overtaken by the passage of time. But what does the term "smart city" actually mean? Smart city is a city equipped with the tools enabling it to observe, learn and react from the data collected. To observe itself, the smart city needs a large set of various sensors and materials. To this definition, some prefer to oppose another, which would define the smart city as a city that is more liveable, less polluting and in which the user is given a place. This definition obviously does not exclude neither the fact of the connection and the acquisition of essential information necessarily multiple and numerous, nor the complexity of the internal system of analysis and automated decision-making oriented towards the comfort of the user. Some see the smart city as a process and an approach and not as an end. So what about in developing countries where society is undergoing profound and rapid change? Can we adapt the concept in the implementation of a new governance of the city? Answering these questions is not easy. To get around the difficulty, we will instead offer the concept of a sustainable city where the management of essential information can be made less complex. In this article we will successively deal with the theoretical foundations of the "transition to the smart city" and sustainability, the need for the establishment of a new vision of urban governance and smart governance tools. To illustrate our point, we will present a few simple and didactic examples for the Algerian city of medium importance. Keywords: smart city, sustainability, local governance

Spatiotemporal patterns and mechanisms of street vending from the social sensing perspective: A comparison between law-enforcement reported and residents complain events

Street vending is an important part of the urban informal economy, especially in developing countries. How to control its negative externalities while augmenting its positive roles in the urban socio-economic system poses challenges to urban planning and governance. Existing studies have insufficiently addressed the issue largely due to the lack of high-frequent observation data for street vending events. By introducing socially sensed big data from the smart urban governance platform, as well as records from the “12345” urban problem complaint hotline of Jiangbei District, Ningbo, China, this paper examines and compares the spatiotemporal patterns and occurrence mechanisms of street vending events from both the urban managers' “top-down” and the urban residents' “bottom-up” points of view. Statistical and machine learning models show that the distribution of street vending activities as sensed by the two subjects does not overlap. The former concentrates in central urban areas and work times, while the latter is scattered distributed in everyday life-related places and times. The findings reaffirm the existence of perception bias in social sensing data and show the potential for utilizing such bias to nudge better urban governance practices. Theoretically and empirically, this research has contributed to promoting the people-oriented transformation of urban governance.

The Geopolitics of Smart Urban Governance: 3D Space Mapping Algorithms, Digital Twin Simulation and Virtual Reality Modeling Tools, and Cloud Computing and Image Recognition Technologies

The Geopolitics of Smart Urban Governance: 3D Space Mapping Algorithms, Digital Twin Simulation and Virtual Reality Modeling Tools, and Cloud Computing and Image Recognition Technologies