City Stakeholders Research Articles

Social Networks within the City: Remaking the City through Movement and Collecting Materials in Johannesburg, South Africa

This study examines the dynamics of networks among informal recyclers in Fietas, Johannesburg, South Africa, focussing on how these networks embody their struggle for the "Right to the City." By observing informal recycling activities across various Johannesburg suburbs, the study highlights how recycling not only provides livelihoods for the unemployed but also allows marginalised groups to assert their presence and rights within the cityscape. Building upon Adama's (2012) analysis of urban livelihoods and social networks, this research explores the interactions and spatial practices of informal recyclers in Johannesburg. Informal recyclers develop connections with city stakeholders that demonstrate interdependencies crucial for their survival and claiming space within the city. These networks are vital for accessing resources such as recyclable waste, which provides essential needs like food and shelter. These everyday practices underscore the importance of social connections in building networks that sustain livelihoods and assert a right to belong in the city. The nature of these networks varies by location, policies, and social relations. Some are shaped by power dynamics and monopolies, while others reflect interdependence and mutual support. This paper argues that recognising these diverse networks is key to understanding how informal recyclers navigate the urban landscape. In line with Harvey's (2003) "Right to the City," these networks reflect efforts to reshape urban spaces to meet recyclers' needs, despite structural challenges. As Sung (2021) shows, hierarchies and power dynamics influence access to resources, highlighting the contested nature of urban life for informal recyclers.

Peningkatan Literasi Teknologi IoT untuk Mendukung Implementasi Smart City di Masyarakat Perkotaan

The implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology in the smart city concept has become an important innovation that plays a major role in improving the quality of life of urban communities. IoT enables the integration of various interconnected devices and systems to optimize the management of city resources such as energy, transportation and security. This research aims to encourage the influence of IoT technology on the implementation of smart cities in several cities in Indonesia. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, this research collects data through interviews with city stakeholders as well as secondary data analysis from related reports and publications. The research results show that the application of IoT in smart cities has a significant impact on increasing operational efficiency, better environmental management, and improving public services. However, this research also found a number of challenges, such as limited infrastructure, data security problems, and low digital literacy among the public. In conclusion, although IoT has great potential in accelerating the implementation of smart cities, policies are needed that support and increase society's capacity to reach the full potential of this technology.

Urban Agriculture’s ‘Invisible’ Short Food Value Chain: How Small-scale Farming Contributes to Johannesburg Food Security

AbstractUrbanisation into poverty in cities of the global South gives impetus to urban agriculture (UA) as a strategy to improve food security for low-income residents. This study disputes that UA is a trivial sector by arguing through the invisible short food value chain lens that it contributes to food security in local communities. The study adopted the extended case method that immersed researchers for more than a year to understand the practices of 11 farming entities and 20 of their customers in Johannesburg. Open-ended interview guides were administered to key informants from the city, provincial government, and non-governmental organisations. Findings show that UA increases food availability in local communities through the short food value chain. However, the local economy is undocumented and invisible to city stakeholders, negatively affecting their land use planning decisions for the sector. Though stakeholder consensus on UA is still lacking, the City of Johannesburg recognised UA’s potential and allocated both temporary and permanent land access arrangements for farming. Small-scale farmers lack the capacity to supply formal institutions, which can be overcome by intermediaries, such as civil society facilitation. The limitations of UA manifest in its inability to attract labour and keep records which inhibits its potential and support at the city level.

The Aborted Project for the European Games in the 1960s and 1970s

Creating the European Games was a project that raised numerous cultural, sporting, Olympic and, above all, European questions. In 1965, during the Franco-German sports colloquium in Baden-Baden, Maurice Herzog introduced the idea of organizing the first European Games. The idea was met with great enthusiasm and quickly embraced by local stakeholders in the border cities of Mulhouse (France), Basel (Switzerland), and Freiburg (West Germany). A tripartite study group was set up to prepare a European Olympic bid for the Games in either 1970 or 1974. This Rhineland candidacy was built on local residents’ embedded sense of belonging to the region, with cross-border cooperation being a centuries-old tradition for them. According to the study group, these initial European-level games would bring together the ideals of Olympism’s father, Pierre de Coubertin, and those of the father of Europe, Jean Monnet. They also served to strengthen the postwar pro-European dynamic. Despite this, the project failed to garner unanimous support following opposition from the powerful International Association of Athletics Federations that was only willing to consider a form of preliminary games designed for the young.

A novel framework for waste management in smart city transformation with industry 4.0 technologies

Most of the developed and developing nations focus on the transformation of city livelihood through the development of smart cities. Waste management in smart cities is a critical concern for policymakers and smart city administration. The fourth industrial transformation (hereafter Industry 4.0) helps to improve waste management practices in smart cities to improve the sustainability of the city. This paper tries to develop a roadmap for industry 4.0 technologies relevant to managing waste in smart cities. This paper proposes a novel framework for analyzing the deployment enablers of Industry 4.0 technologies, implementation barriers, current best practices, and opportunities for digital technologies (EBPO) for smart city transformation. The proposed EBPO conceptual framework is analyzed in the context of studies conducted in developed and developing countries. The EBPO presents the unique linkages among the technological advancements for managing waste in smart cities. The present research is an early attempt to explore the relevance of industry 4.0 technologies in the smart waste management context for improving environmental sustainability. The keyword and theme mapping analysis proposes three major waste management clusters in smart cities. This paper provides insight for improving EBPO elements for smart cities’ waste management. The policy and theoretical implications are presented for smart city stakeholders. The paper also highlights the different dimensions of the EBPO framework.

How do academic smart city centres operate in complex environments? A business model perspective

In recent years, an increasing number of academic smart city centres have emerged globally. These centres play a crucial role in conducting cutting-edge research and proposing innovative solutions for cities; they often operate in a complex multi-purpose, multi-disciplinary, and multi-stakeholder environment, even as they struggle to secure enough resources for their core activities. Despite their important role in smart city projects and initiatives, we lack scientific understandings of how smart city centres generate and deliver value to city stakeholders. As a first step in addressing this gap, we studied seven smart city centres across Europe and North America through in-depth interviews. To complement those interviews, we conducted an online survey and collected responses from a larger sample of centres from several regions around the world. Consequently, we provide a fresh understanding of how these centres orchestrate their operations and capabilities to create and deliver value to smart city stakeholders. Inspired by recent research on business model innovation for non-profit organizations, we argue that academic centres can benefit from using business models to align their operations with their strategies to achieve their goals. Our study contributes to smart city and business model research while providing practical implications for smart city centres.

Constructing climate change: Exploring how cities frame climate change in the Arctic

ABSTRACT Framing climate policy actions to be acceptable by various stakeholders in cities poses a critical task for urban governance. Despite the proliferation of studies on urban climate change governance in the past decades, framing as a mechanism for agenda-setting in local policymaking has received little attention. This paper draws on the literature on climate change discourse to analyze the content of framing and its reasoning in the two municipalities located in the Arctic: Murmansk (Russia) and Tromsø (Norway). Using qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews, document reviews, and discourse analysis, the paper finds that climate change is absent in the political discourse in Murmansk. At the same time, Tromsø authorities recognize climate change as a global and a local problem and incorporate it into local policies. It also identifies three factors that explain the (non)framing of climate change by the municipal authorities: (1) local authority to frame climate issues, (2) local political party branches’ climate preferences, and (3) prior experiences with weather extremes and scientific knowledge. Given that cities in the Arctic are on the front lines of climate change, learning from their framing experiences, other cities across the globe can seize the opportunities for their efforts to address climatic impacts.

Measuring the achievement of the environmental pillar in Sustainable Development Goals – A case study of Tuban Regency, East Java

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become an important concept for urban development. The SDGs contain a set of indicators that are utilized to measure the readiness of the city to attain sustainable living. Despite the presence of detailed and technical indicators, the achievement of those indicators is still challenging. Tuban Regency in Indonesia, for example, has not adopted SDGs into its programs. This paper will measure the achievement of SDGs in Tuban Regency, particularly the environmental indicator pillar which is prone to be deserted in a rapid urban development. The study conducts a secondary data collection and quantitative analysis of the existing documents from each city stakeholder in the regency with. The study findings indicate that only 30.77% of the environmental goals have been attained by the Tuban Regency government, while 41.03% of the goals have not been achieved and 28.21% were not measured. This result indicates that more effort and intervention are believed to be needed to further support the implementation of SDGs.

Exploring diverse interests of collaborators in smart cities: A topic analysis using LDA and BERT

Smart cities have emerged as a promising solution to the problems associated with urbanization. However, research that holistically considers diverse stakeholders in smart cities is scarce. This study utilizes data from four types of collaborators (academia, public sector, industry, and civil society actors) to identify key topics and suggest research areas for developing smart cities. We used latent Dirichlet allocation and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers for topic extraction and analysis. The analysis reveals that sustainability and digital platform have received similar levels of interest from academia, industry, and government, whereas governance, resource, and green space are less frequently mentioned than technology-related topics. Hype cycle analysis, which considers public and media expectations, reveals that smart cities experienced rapid growth from 2015 to 2021, but the growth rate has slowed since 2022. This means that a breakthrough improvement in the current situation is required. Accordingly, we propose resolving the unbalanced distribution of topic interests among collaborators, especially in the areas of governance, environment, economy, and healthcare. We expect that our findings will help researchers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders in understanding which topics are underdeveloped in their fields and taking active measures for the future development of smart cities.

A Data-Driven Design Approach of an Energy Data Exchange Platform

The current digitalization of energy systems, particularly in urban contexts, lags behind the requirements set by urban energy system modelling, energy management, the development of digital twins, and other data-driven services. Additionally, existing energy data lacks standardized formats and coherence, hindering its full utilization. To address this challenge, this paper introduces a use case-driven design approach tailored to reflect the requirements for data integration and privacy set by city stakeholders. The objective is to design a data exchange platform (DEP) capable of serving a diverse range of use cases. This platform will facilitate the integrated utilization of energy data in energy management systems, digital twin applications, and other activities aimed at extracting valuable insights. These efforts are specifically designed to support decision-making processes of public stakeholders, private investors, and service providers. Consequently, the platform holds potential to attract additional investments in both the clean energy transition and the digitalization of energy infrastructure.

Co-producing an urban heat climate service for UK cities: A case study of Belfast, Northern Ireland

UK city decision makers in local governments are coming under increasing pressure to plan for extreme heat events due to the increasing frequency and intensity of such events. While these local authorities are aware of the potential impacts of climate change, many highlight the need for more robust evidence of local climate risks to inform climate planning. Characterising the current and future spatial variability of heat risks can help city decision makers identify vulnerable populations, inform planning, and prioritise action. This paper explores the co-development of a prototype urban heat climate service for UK cities with stakeholders in the pilot city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. This two-tier service uses the latest high-resolution UK Climate Projections to assess changes in impact relevant heat indicators summarised in a bespoke set of factsheets for building awareness (Tier 1). Tier 2 combines this information with socio-economic and built environment data to provide geospatial, decision-relevant, heat risk information at the sub-city scale using a Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) and communicated using StoryMaps. This work highlights the importance of considering the different components of risk (hazard, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) when planning interventions for extreme heat to ensure local vulnerabilities are adequately addressed. It also highlights the minimum level of heat risk to which we are now committed locally under current emission pledges. This work also explores the lessons learnt in co-production, the impact this service has had on local decision making and explores options for upscaling.

Stormwater Quality and Long-Term Efficiency Capturing Potential Toxic Elements in Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems—Is the Soil Quality of Bio-Swales after 10–20 Years Still Acceptable?

Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) or nature-based solutions (NBSs) are widely implemented to collect, store and infiltrate stormwater. The buildup of pollutants is expected in NBSs, and Dutch guidelines advise monitoring the topsoil of bio-swales every 5 years. In the Netherlands, almost every municipality has implemented bio-swales. Some municipalities have over 300 bio-swales, and monitoring all their NBSs is challenging due to cost and capacity. In this study, 20 locations where bio-swales with ages ranging between 10 and 20 years old were selected for a field investigation to answer the following question: is the soil quality of bio-swales after 10 years still acceptable? Portable XRF instruments were used to detect potential toxic elements (PTEs) for in situ measurements. The results showed that for copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb), 30%, 40% and 25% of the locations show values above the threshold and 5%, 20% and 0% above the intervention threshold, meaning immediate action should be taken. The results are of importance for stakeholders in (inter)national cities that implement, maintain, and monitor NBS. Knowledge of stormwater and soil quality related to long-term health risks from NBS enables urban planners to implement the most appropriate stormwater management strategies. With these research results, the Dutch guidelines for design, construction, and maintenance can be updated, and stakeholders are reminded that the monitoring of green infrastructure should be planned and executed every 5 years.

Temporal Dynamics of Citizen-Reported Urban Challenges: A Comprehensive Time Series Analysis

Temporal Dynamics of Citizen-Reported Urban Challenges: A Comprehensive Time Series Analysis

Democratic participation and smart city citizenship in emerging economies – Case of smart cities in India

The paper argues that sustainable Smart Cities cannot be delivered by profit-driven visions, but through a process that integrates the diverse aptitudes and needs of the city stakeholders. The study uses mixed methods to examine democratic participation in governance and the emerging notion of Smart City Citizenship in the context of India. Benchmarking and assessment of 21 smart cities reveals the existing participatory processes being “tokenistic” and a substantial deficit in democratic stakeholder participation mechanisms. A deeper assessment in Kochi and Nagpur exposes the existing barriers to citizen participation and reveals that the capacities of capable stakeholders and citizen groups can be channelised more effectively. This study promotes advancing the notion of ‘citizenship’ beyond the market to the commons. It suggests transforming urban governance into a more accountable and collaborative governance model with a stronger role and power to local government, residents, and democratic stakeholders.

Securing the smart city: A review of cybersecurity challenges and strategies

In the era of rapid urbanization and technological advancement, the emergence of smart cities promises innovative solutions to urban challenges. However, the integration of various technologies into urban infrastructures also exposes cities to unprecedented cybersecurity threats. This review presents a comprehensive review of the cybersecurity challenges faced by smart cities and explores the strategies to mitigate these risks. Smart cities leverage interconnected networks of sensors, devices, and systems to enhance efficiency, sustainability, and citizen services. Yet, this interconnectedness creates a complex attack surface vulnerable to cyber threats. One of the primary challenges is the diverse range of IoT devices deployed across smart city infrastructures, often lacking robust security mechanisms. These devices are susceptible to exploitation by cybercriminals for malicious activities, such as data breaches, sabotage, and surveillance. Moreover, the interconnected nature of smart city systems amplifies the potential impact of cyberattacks, posing significant risks to critical infrastructure, public safety, and privacy. Threat actors can exploit vulnerabilities in interconnected systems to disrupt essential services, manipulate data, or even cause physical harm. As smart cities rely on data-driven decision-making, the integrity and confidentiality of data become paramount concerns. To address these challenges, various cybersecurity strategies have been proposed and implemented. These strategies encompass a multi-layered approach, integrating technical solutions, regulatory frameworks, and collaboration among stakeholders. Technical measures include encryption, authentication mechanisms, intrusion detection systems, and secure software development practices. Additionally, implementing robust access controls and network segmentation can limit the scope of potential attacks. Furthermore, regulatory initiatives play a crucial role in enhancing cybersecurity standards and promoting compliance among smart city stakeholders. Establishing clear guidelines for data protection, privacy rights, and incident response protocols is essential to safeguarding citizens' interests. Collaboration among government agencies, private sector partners, academia, and cybersecurity experts fosters information sharing and collective defense against emerging threats. Securing smart cities against cybersecurity threats requires a concerted effort to address the multifaceted challenges posed by interconnected technologies. By implementing comprehensive strategies encompassing technical measures, regulatory frameworks, and collaborative approaches, smart cities can mitigate risks and foster a resilient and secure urban environment for all citizens.

A crowdsensing-based framework for sound and vibration data analysis in smart urban environments

In this paper, we introduce a framework tailored to the precise analysis of sound and vibration data in the dynamic context of smart cities. By harnessing the power of crowdsensing data, our system offers a robust and highly adaptable solution for the real-time monitoring and comprehensive assessment of acoustic and vibrational parameters within urban environments. The rise of smart cities, fueled by sensor tech and data analysis, demands advanced tools to tackle urban environmental issues and improve residents’ quality of life. Our framework empowers city stakeholders, offering insights for informed decisions in urban planning, transportation, infrastructure maintenance, and public health. Key features of our system include data acquisition through mobile crowdsensing application, advanced signal processing algorithms for noise and vibration identification, and the integration of geospatial information to provide location-specific context. Furthermore, our framework supports scalable and adaptable data analytics, ensuring the efficient utilization of resources and the effective management of urban environments. The presented framework addresses the challenges of noise pollution, structural health monitoring, transportation optimization, and public safety in smart cities. By exploiting crowdsourced data, it promotes a collaborative approach to data collection, analysis, and decision-making, fostering an environment where cities can continuously evolve and adapt to the evolving needs of their residents. This paper offers a detailed exploration of the system’s architecture, and showcases its practical implementation, affirming its potential as a powerful starting point for advancing the science of smart cities.

EXPLORING SMART CITY CHARACTERISTICS FOR “TOURISM-FOR-ALL” INITIATIVES IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

The study presents a systematic literature review conducted following a rigorous search protocol that identified 7900 articles published in SCOPUS-indexed journals in 2001-2021. These articles were filtered using the PRISMA approach, resulting in the selection of 61 relevant papers. The research outcome offers essential insights into the core characteristics of smart cities in urban development, encompassing five primary dimensions: government, citizens, technology, mobility, and the environment, over the past two decades. The findings of this study benefit smart city stakeholders, recommends using the “Tourism-For-All” destination concept in urban development, and contributes to the emerging “Purple Tourism” framework.

People, place, and planet: Global review of use-inspired research on water-related ecosystem services in urban wetlands

Abstract With climate change and urbanization, city planners and developers have increasing interest and practice in constructing, restoring, or incorporating wetlands as forms of green infrastructure to maintain water-related ecosystem services (WES). We reviewed studies that valued in functional or monetary units the water regulation and purification services of urban wetlands around the globe. We used the adaptive management cycle (AMC) as a heuristic to determine the step that a study would represent in the AMC, the connections between the cycle steps that were used or considered, and the stakeholders involved. Additionally, we identified the social, ecological, and/or technological dimension(s) of the environmental stressors and management strategies described by study authors. While use-inspired research on WES occurs throughout the globe, most studies serve to singularly assess problems or monitor urban wetlands, consider or use no connectors between steps, and involve no stakeholder groups. Both stressors and strategies were overwhelmingly multidimensional, with the social dimension represented in the majority of both. We highlight studies that successfully interfaced with cities across multiple steps, connectors, engaged stakeholder groups, and disseminated findings and skills to stakeholder groups. True use-inspired research should explicitly involve management systems that are used by city stakeholders and propose multidimensional solutions.

USING TRANSDISCIPLINARY CO-PRODUCTION TO GAIN INSIGHTS INTO SPATIAL JUSTICE AND AGE-FRIENDLY CITIES

Abstract Globally, a popular policy approach to address the two interrelated challenges of population ageing and urbanisation has been to adopt the World Health Organization’s Age-Friendly City framework, a model that can help to identify and address barriers to the well-being and participation of older people. This paper reports early findings from the ‘Ageing in Place in Cities’ project. The research was conducted from a critical gerontology perspective and embedded a spatial justice perspective by centring the concepts of equity, diversity and co-production in our underpinning theoretical framework. Discussing findings from seven case study cities (all who were early adopters of the Age-Friendly Cities framework), this paper discusses how a transdisciplinary co-production approach has been used to gain greater understanding of age-friendly initiatives in each city. Using mixed methods, we first developed descriptive profiles for each city using both census and other local demographic data to explore how the populations have changed over time, and narratives and policy documents detailing the initiatives used to support ageing in place. Second, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a variety of actors in each city to examine how the cities delivered age-friendly change. We integrated the data using a comparative case study approach to draw out insights across the cities. Our findings reveal the role of key leaders and stakeholders in age-friendly cities and will be of interest to policy makers and academics interested in population ageing and urban change. Further, our transdisciplinary co-production methods present a novel approach to conducting age-friendly research.

The relationship between green space accessibility by multiple travel modes and housing prices: A case study of Beijing

Green space accessibility affects housing prices, which is an issue that has been underappreciated. This paper takes Beijing's central urban area as an example. First, the Gaussian-based two-step floating catchment area (G2SFCA) method is used to measure four levels (community green space, subdistrict green space, district green space, and municipal green space) of green space accessibility by multiple travel modes (walking, cycling and driving). Second, the spatial error model (SEM) is used to examine the factors influencing housing prices. Finally, the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model is introduced to explore the spatial relationship between green space accessibility by walking, cycling and driving and housing prices. The results show the following: (1) The SEM shows that only driving accessibility has a positive spatial spillover effect on housing prices, indicating that the spatial inequity of local community green spaces by driving will exacerbate surrounding spatial inequity. (2) The GWR model shows that from the perspective of walking and driving accessibility, most areas within the Second Ring Road show spatial equity in green spaces, while cycling accessibility shows that the spatial inequity of green space exists only outside the Second Ring Road. (3) We find that municipal green space and subdistrict green space most affect the spatial equity of green spaces. Community green space, which is not open to the public, plays a minimal role. Regarding walking and driving accessibility, municipal green space increases the spatial equity of green spaces. In contrast, this type of green space can promote the spatial equity of green spaces regarding cycling accessibility. This study can significantly improve the quality of urban settlements in the Global South and has important implications for policy-makers, planners, and stakeholders in other large cities worldwide to create green and liveable cities.