Smart City Technologies Research Articles

“Often People Don't Understand the Complex World”: How Local Governments Respond to Political Contestation About the Smart City

Governments introducing smart city technologies increasingly encounter political contestation. The deliberative perspective aims to overcome contestation by seeking consensus through deliberation. The agonistic perspective critiques this deliberative perspective, arguing that emphasizing consensus-building in response to contestation can lead to a ‘post-political’ debate excluding certain citizens and opinions. This article presents an empirical assessment of this critique by analyzing governments responses to contestation about the smart city and its potentially depoliticizing implications. Therefore, 17 vignette interviews were conducted with civil servants working at major local governments in the Netherlands. The results reveal three depoliticizing responses in the smart city debate: (1) local governments aim to include everyone, but only if citizens act and behave in a way that they perceive as rational and reasonable; (2) local governments welcome a variety of viewpoints, but only if these views do not contradict what they see as the natural order and common sense; and (3) local governments allow for contestation, but only if it is perceived as being provided at the right time and in the right context. Two tentative explanations for depoliticizing responses are presented: a silent ideology within the government and a lack of practical methods to organize agonistic channels for engagement.

How ‘smart’ are smart cities? Resident attitudes towards smart city design

The growth in the international smart city market over the past decade has been tremendous. Fuelled by private vendors and consultants, adoption of smart city technology in many cities has been rapid. How well does the adoption of this technology and the overall design of smart cities align with the needs and preferences of residents? In this paper we examine this question using data from a unique survey of residents in three large Canadian cities: Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. The survey includes perceptions of both the importance and maturity of 23 policy or service areas, grouped along four dimensions (Services, Governance, Social and Economic). The results indicate that there is a misalignment in certain service and policy areas between the types of projects that cities are pursuing and the preferences of residents, indicating the need for broader and deeper engagement with the community in the design and implementation of smart city plans.

Navigating Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Digital Era: How Smart Buildings and Smart Cities Become the Key to Sustainability

This paper aims to understand the critical path of digital transformation in construction by investigating major drivers for technical innovation, e.g., in smart cities. Despite available new technologies, increasing societal, environmental pressure, and data complexity, the branch lacks a will to innovate and qualified personnel. The study identifies the potential of innovation and the pillars of sustainability to define ways to responsibly use data-driven, smart technologies in smart cities throughout their holistic life cycles. The mix of expert interview surveys and structured literature analysis is the basis to examine the status quo and innovative approaches. It enables to critically investigate limitations and human, societal and environmental impacts. This study’s findings offer orientation in navigating innovation for resilient, agile ecosystems with the dynamic ability to adapt to changing environment and to grow with the change and achieving the sustainable development goals toward preservation and upgrade of buildings instead of new construction. The key challenge for sustainable technical innovation is to exploit human and societal potential. The study allocates the lack of research in this field and inadequate education as most significant limitations and critically evaluates that a disruptive culture of thinking may enable the sustainable design of smart cities. This study is unique as it develops a comprehensive, transparent Corporate Digital Responsibility Policy Framework and provides orientation to assume ethical, societal, environmental responsibility as part of creating resilient, agile environments.

Hybrid Machine Learning and Modified Teaching Learning-Based English Optimization Algorithm for Smart City Communication

This paper introduces a hybrid algorithm that combines machine learning and modified teaching learning-based optimization (TLBO) for enhancing smart city communication and energy management. The primary objective is to optimize the modified systems, which face challenges due to their high population density. The proposed algorithm integrates the strengths of machine learning techniques, more specifically, the long short-term memory (LSTM) technique, with teaching learning-based optimization algorithms. To achieve optimization, the algorithm learns from historical data on energy consumption and communication patterns specific to the modeled system. By leveraging these insights, it can predict future energy consumption and communication patterns accurately. Additionally, the algorithm incorporates a modified teaching learning-based optimization approach inspired by the teaching and learning process in classrooms. It adjusts the system parameters based on feedback received from the system, thereby optimizing both energy consumption and communication systems. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is evaluated through a case study conducted on the test system, where historical data on energy consumption and communication patterns are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the algorithm efficiently optimizes the communication and energy management systems, leading to substantial energy savings and improved communication efficiency within the test system. In conclusion, this study presents a hybrid machine learning and modified teaching learning-based optimization algorithm that effectively addresses the communication and energy management challenges in the test system. Moreover, this algorithm holds the potential for application in various smart city domains beyond the test system. The findings of this research contribute to the advancement of smart city technologies and offer valuable insights into reducing energy consumption in densely populated urban areas.

SMART CITIES AND CITY LOGISTICS

<em>Because of the constant influx of people, big cities are growing, and life in them is getting more challenging. City governments face increasing challenges related to the citizens supplying water and food, energy, public transport, roads, health services, and others for waste removal, recycling, and storage. Cities adapt to new conditions by using new technologies and innovative solutions. Cyber-physical systems, digitization, networking, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and blockchains are tools that can help smart cities function. In this review paper, based on a review of relevant literature, the authors discussed some possible models for meeting the logistical needs of citizens in Smart cities. They focused on Smart-city technologies. The subject matter of this article is very complex and covers several disciplines, such as management, transport, and information technologies. Few have mastered the necessary knowledge in all these areas. The authors wish that this multi-dimensional presentation of the current situation will be helpful to those who deal with the organization of life in cities, logistics, or the application of information technologies in business organizations, but also ordinary citizens who are not yet familiar with these problems. The article should allow the reader to see the complexity of last-mile delivery and encourage it to use its potential to get involved in solving this problem</em>.

Smart Cities—A Structured Literature Review

Smart cities are rapidly evolving concept-transforming urban developments in the 21st century. Smart cities use advanced technologies and data analytics to improve the quality of life for their citizens, increase the efficiency of infrastructure and services, and promote sustainable economic growth. Smart cities integrate multiple domains, including transportation, energy, health, education, and governance, to create an interconnected and intelligent urban environment. Our research study methodology was a structured literature review using Web of Science and Google Scholar and ten smart city research questions. The research questions included smart city definitions, advantages, disadvantages, implementation challenges, funding, types of applications, quantitative techniques for analysis, and prioritization metrics. In addition, our study analyzes the implementation of smart city solutions in international contexts and proposes strategies to overcome implementation challenges. The integration of technology and data-driven solutions in smart cities has the potential to revolutionize urban living by providing citizens with personalized and accessible services. However, the implementation also presents challenges, including data privacy concerns, unequal access to technology, and the need for collaboration across private, public, and government sectors. This study provides insights into the current state and future prospects of smart cities and presents an analysis of the challenges and opportunities they present. In addition, we propose a concise definition for smart cities: “Smart cities use digital technologies, communication technologies, and data analytics to create an efficient and effective service environment that improves urban quality of life and promotes sustainability”. Smart cities represent a promising avenue for urban development. As cities continue to grow and face increasingly complex challenges, the integration of advanced technologies and data-driven solutions can help to create more sustainable communities.

A thorough examination of smart city applications: Exploring challenges and solutions throughout the life cycle with emphasis on safeguarding citizen privacy

With the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoTs), it is crucial to acknowledge the potential security and privacy issues that arise from these advanced technologies in smart cities. This article provides overview of these concerns, highlighting the various ways in which smart city technologies can be vulnerable to cyber-attacks and other security threats. Additionally, the paper examines the privacy risks associated with the collection and use of personal data in smart cities. Effective security measures and privacy protection policies are crucial in ensuring the safety and security of smart cities. Cooperation between governments, private companies and citizens is essential to implement such measures and policies, allowing smart cities to continue developing while guaranteeing the security and privacy of their citizens. Likewise, smart city public safety systems that utilize AI-powered surveillance technologies may be predisposed to hacking, leading to privacy breaches and data misuse. Moreover, smart city energy systems, which rely on IoT devices to regulate power grids, are susceptible to cyber-attacks that can result in power outages or significant damage to vital infrastructure. The adoption of information and communication technology for smart city development has increased the risk of cyber threats, emphasizing the need for a review cybersecurity governance model. In addition, smart city water systems that rely on AI-powered sensors to monitor water quality may also be at risk of hacking, which could result in the contamination of the water supply. Further research is required to better understand the potential risks associated with smart city technologies and develop new solutions to address them. This article shows as a valuable resource for city administrators, policymakers and researchers interested in the security and privacy concerns of smart cities.

Special Section: Consumer Healthcare Technologies in Smart Cities

This Special Issue takes an in-depth look into the recent developments in consumer technology that blend into everyone's health and safety in a smart city environment. Smart wearables, such as watches and wristbands, have been widely used in health monitoring in recent years. These connected consumer electronics devices not only provide indicative information for consumers' health management, but also play a vital role in communicable disease management and prevention. In the context of consumer technology as part of a smart city infrastructure, wireless communication and sensing technologies have evolved substantially over the past decade and have seen an accelerating trend of technical advances, particularly in the consumer healthcare sector. Optimization techniques have been developed significantly and smart devices have become more efficiently designed and implemented both for the betterment of individual consumers and health service providers.

Conference Preface

The 4th Conference on Geographic Information Systems and Smart Cities is an international conference covering research and development in the field of GIS technologies for environmental planning, including remote sensing, satellite image processing, sustainable development and smart city applications. The conference was held in Baghdad - Iraq, on February 6-8, 2023. This conference was organized by the National Security Adviser and in cooperation with the University of Baghdad, Private University of Uruk and Private College of Al-Hikma University.More than 184 abstracts were submitted and after initial review 94 papers were submitted. Through a peer review process, more than 40 papers have been accepted for publication in IOP Earth and Environmental Sciences.The conference aimed to involve academics and professionals to review points of view, through theoretical analyses or realistic practical studies that promote dialogue and exchange of ideas with decision makers.The conference presented a number of sessions under its auspices, providing a brief overview of the latest issues and practical experience in environmental and geographical planning and sustainable development technologies for smart cities. -Related fields:• Theme 1: Geospatial Information and National Security• Theme 2: Smart Cities & Sustainable Urban Development• Theme 3: Remote sensing and satellite image interpretation• Theme 4: Environmental Monitoring and Climate ChangeThe Organizing Committee thanks all reviewers for their time and effort in reviewing the papers. The published papers have gone through the refinement process to accommodate discussion during the conference as well as comments from the reviewers who directed any necessary improvements. Also, it would like to thank all the members who participated and organizers in any way in the conference and especially the sponsors:• National Security Adviser• Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research• University of Baghdad (College of Science, College of Engineering)• Al-Hikma University College• Uruk UniversityWe also extend our thanks to the organizers who managed the conference sessions:List of Conference Sessions Managers, Conference Committees are available in this Pdf.

Smart City 2023

What does the future hold for smart city technology? NEIL TYLER investigates

Urban quantum leap: A comprehensive review and analysis of quantum technologies for smart cities

Contemporary smart city solutions rely on standardized von Neumann architecture, in which single data units are coded as “0” or “1.” Conversely, urban quantum technologies rely on the fundamental principles of quantum physics, transcending the conventions of the current computational paradigm. On the one hand, urban quantum technologies hold managerial relevance for future smart cities. On the other hand, they are often overlooked by smart city researchers. Accordingly, their value as a breakthrough technological paradigm is still largely unexplored. In this article, we look at how quantum technologies may contribute to existing smart city solutions, including the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, ICT, smart transportation, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. First, through a semi-systematic review of eighty articles on quantum computing within the social science domain, we identify two relevant classes of urban quantum technologies: quantum communication and quantum computing. Second, we establish a comprehensive taxonomy of conventional smart city solutions based on the automated content analysis of 567 abstracts of articles on the technological aspects of smart cities. Third, we investigate potential associations between two classes of technologies (conventional smart city solutions and urban quantum technologies) by analyzing the semantic relationships between eighty articles on quantum technologies according to the frequency of keywords denoting different types of conventional smart city solutions. Finally, we triangulate our findings through a thematic analysis of potential uses of quantum technologies within identified categories of smart city solutions.

Hybrid computational and real data-based positioning of small cells in 5G networks.

One of the key technologies in smart cities is the use of next generation networks such as 5G networks. Mainly because this new mobile technology offers massive connections in densely populated areas in smart cities, thus playing a crucial role for numerous subscribers anytime and anywhere. Indeed, all the most important infrastructure to promote a connected world is being related to next generation networks. Specifically, the small cells transmitters is one of the 5G technologies more relevant to provide more connections and to attend the high demand in smart cities. In this article, a smart small cell positioning is proposed in the context of a smart city. The work proposal aims to do this through the development of a hybrid clustering algorithm with meta-heuristic optimizations to serve users, with real data, of a region satisfying coverage criteria. Furthermore, the problem to be solved will be the best location of the small cells, with the minimization of attenuation between the base stations and its users. The possibilities of using multi-objective optimization algorithms based on bioinspired computing, such as Flower Pollination and Cuckoo Search, will be verified. It will also be analyzed by simulation which power values would allow the continuity of the service with emphasis on three 5G spectrums used around the world: 700 MHz, 2.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz.

Design of an Evaluation System for Disruptive Technologies to Benefit Smart Cities

Technological empowerment has facilitated the development of cities, which have progressed from pre-industrial to industrial to information-based and are currently transitioning towards the advanced stage of smart cities. The evolution and transformation of cities are fuelled by technology, which serves as a key driver. Disruptive technologies are radically scientific innovations that dramatically change the way consumers, businesses, and industries operate by destroying the value of existing technical competencies, thereby providing organisations with the capability or technical foundation to alter their business environments. To ensure that a city has a clear understanding of its smart city development direction, it is crucial to establish a scientifically valid and reliable evaluation index and method to analyse and recognise the disruptive technologies closely related to industrial development, transformation, and competitiveness in smart cities. However, there is a paucity of study on this topic. This paper addresses this research gap by developing a framework for disruptive technology identification and evaluation for smart cities using an entropy weight method and analytic hierarchy process. The evaluation index system contains 5 primary indicators and 11 secondary indicators according to the connotation of disruptive technologies in smart cities. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed framework are verified in the field of information science. This study provides technical knowledge and theoretical support for the evaluation and construction of smart cities.

Use of Blockchain Technologies in Smart Cities

Abstract: A city is called a smart city where every citizen gets quality government services using the technologies like Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT also helps in providing operational efficiency in information sharing with the public. Smart cities promote better quality of life by using modern technologies and economic growth. Blockchain helps in end-to-end data transfer with great efficiency, transparency and security. Every data is stored in a block which has a hash value also considered as digital signature. In this paper, it is discussed how we can use Blockchain technologies to promote smart cities and provide better services. Also, it discusses various challenges and trends in use of blockchain technology in building smart cities.

Determinants of Smart City Technology Acceptance: Role of Smart Governance as Moderator

Smart city technology is a city with information and communication technology that aims to solve problems and meet society's needs. Smart city technology's success depends on the acceptance of its citizens. The main purpose of this paper is to illustrate the determinants of smart city technology acceptance among working professionals and the moderating role of smart governance, supported by the unified theory of adoption and use of technology 2. The study uses a quantitative approach. Data is collected from working professionals using an online questionnaire. 103 responses were received and analysed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 26 and SmartPLS 3 software. The findings suggest that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, price value, habit, and trust significantly influenced the acceptance of smart city technology. In addition, smart governance moderated the relationship between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, price value, habit, trust, and smart city technology acceptance. The study contributes to the empirical gap by adding trust and smart governance's role as a moderator to address the limitations of the unified theory of adoption and use of technology 2 model. Practically, this study reveals insights useful to government agencies and corporations in crafting sustainable strategies that prioritise people's needs in smart city initiatives.

Theoretical and analytical assessment of smart green cities

As a locus of technological innovation, a smart city (SC) is a prototypical city of the future. Moreover, according to scholars, a smart city is also sustainable city. Nonetheless, the environmental aspects of urban sustainability are often de-emphasized in favor of discourses around the technical characteristics of SC technologies. In order to integrate the two, the article introduces the notion of a smart green city (SGC) in which technological means and environmental outcomes are in sustainable balance. SGC is presented here as a unifying concept integrating smart city and green city concepts through the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework. To illustrate the positive synergy between a city's greenness and smartness, we derive operational definitions of both based on the online media's attention to the related technology and sustainability initiatives. After calculating the two indices for all the cities worldwide with over one million inhabitants (498 cities), regression analysis is performed to determine the strength and direction of the relationships between a city's greenness and smartness. We find that a city's greenness is positively related to its smartness. Principal component analysis reveals a potential relationship between a city's population and the two indices. In particular, a large city's population negatively affects its greenness but positively affects its smartness. A joint index of smartness and greenness is negatively related to a city's population. Hence, the containment of uncontrolled urban growth is critical for successfully implementing SGC initiatives. The analysis results are of use to policy-makers, city managers, and planners intending to integrate the ESG framework into their future urban development strategies. Moreover, to our knowledge, a joint evaluation of a city's greenness and smartness has never been performed before on the inter-regional level of analysis. Accordingly, such a holistic assessment can be of methodological interest to scholars of smart and sustainable cities.

Data driven approaches for smart city planning and design: a case scenario on urban data management

PurposeBecause of the use of digital technologies in smart cities, municipalities are increasingly facing issues related to urban data management and are seeking ways to exploit these huge amounts of data for the actualization of data driven services. However, only few studies discuss challenges related to data driven strategies in smart cities. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to present data driven approaches (architecture and model), for urban data management needed to improve smart city planning and design. The developed approaches depict how data can underpin sustainable urban development.Design/methodology/approachDesign science research is adopted following a qualitative method to evaluate the architecture developed based on top-level design using a case data from workshops and interviews with experts involved in a smart city project.FindingsThe findings of this study from the evaluations indicate that the identified enablers are useful to support data driven services in smart cities and the developed architecture can be used to promote urban data management. More importantly, findings from this study provide guidelines to municipalities to improve data driven services for smart city planning and design.Research limitations/implicationsFeedback as qualitative data from practitioners provided evidence on how data driven strategies can be achieved in smart cities. However, the model is not validated. Hence, quantitative data is needed to further validate the enablers that influence data driven services in smart city planning and design.Practical implicationsFindings from this study offer practical insights and real-life evidence to define data driven enablers in smart cities and suggest research propositions for future studies. Additionally, this study develops a real conceptualization of data driven method for municipalities to foster open data and digital service innovation for smart city development.Social implicationsThe main findings of this study suggest that data governance, interoperability, data security and risk assessment influence data driven services in smart cities. This study derives propositions based on the developed model that identifies enablers for actualization of data driven services for smart cities planning and design.Originality/valueThis study explores the enablers of data driven strategies in smart city and further developed an architecture and model that can be adopted by municipalities to structure their urban data initiatives for improving data driven services to make cities smarter. The developed model supports municipalities to manage data used from different sources to support the design of data driven services provided by different enterprises that collaborate in urban environment.

A task scheduling algorithm with deadline constraints for distributed clouds in smart cities.

Computing technologies and 5G are helpful for the development of smart cities. Cloud computing has become an essential smart city technology. With artificial intelligence technologies, it can be used to integrate data from various devices, such as sensors and cameras, over the network in a smart city for management of the infrastructure and processing of Internet of Things (IoT) data. Cloud computing platforms provide services to users. Task scheduling in the cloud environment is an important technology to shorten computing time and reduce user cost, and thus has many important applications. Recently, a hierarchical distributed cloud service network model for the smart city has been proposed where distributed (micro) clouds, and core clouds are considered to achieve a better network architecture. Task scheduling in the model has attracted many researchers. In this article, we study a task scheduling problem with deadline constraints in the distributed cloud model and aim to reduce the communication network's data load and provide low-latency services from the cloud server in the local area, hence promoting the efficiency of cloud computing services for local users. To solve the task scheduling problem efficiently, we present an efficient local search algorithm to solve the problem. In the algorithm, a greedy search strategy is proposed to improve the current solutions iteratively. Moreover, randomized methods are used in selecting tasks and virtual machines for reassigning tasks. We carried out extensive computational experiments to evaluate the performance of our algorithm and compared experimental results with Swarm-based approaches, such as GA and PSO. The comparative results show that the proposed local search algorithm performs better than the comparative algorithms on the task scheduling problem.

A Hybrid Fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS Approach for Implementation of Smart Sustainable Waste Management Strategies

The integration of smart city technologies into waste management is a challenging field for decision makers due to its multivariate, multi-limiting, and multi-stakeholder structure, despite its contribution to the ecological and economic sustainability understanding of cities. The success of smart sustainable waste management strategies depends on many environmental, technical, economic, and social variables, and many stakeholders are involved in these processes. Using fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods helps decision makers determine effective, affordable, and acceptable smart waste management strategies. Although MCDM methods are widely used in various environmental engineering applications, the determination of smart sustainable waste management strategies using these methods has not yet received enough attention in the literature. This study aims to contribute to this gap in the literature by evaluating four different smart waste management strategies using a hybrid fuzzy MCDM method. The performance of the proposed strategy alternatives according to fifteen sub-criteria (under four main criteria selected from the literature) was evaluated using a combined application of fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to obtain the ideal solution (fuzzy TOPSIS). For this evaluation, the subjective opinions of ten different experts working in academia, in the private sector, or in the public sector were obtained using prepared questionnaires. As a result, the sub-criteria of fewer atmospheric emissions (0.42), operational feasibility (0.64), initial investment costs (0.56), and increased awareness of sustainable cities (0.53) had the highest weight values in their main criteria groups. The performance ranking of the alternatives according to the closeness coefficient (CCi) values was obtained as A2 (0.458) > A3 (0.453) > A4 (0.452) > A1 (0.440), with A3 being slightly ahead of A4 due only to a 0.001 higher CCi value. To test the reliability and stability of the obtained performance ranking results, a sensitivity analysis was also performed using eighteen different scenarios, in which the weights of the different sub-criteria were increased by 25% or decreased by 50%, or they were assumed to be 1 and 0, or all sub-criteria in the same group had equal weight values. Since the performance ranking of the alternatives did not change, the ranking obtained at the beginning was found to be robust against the sub-criterion weight changes.

Civic Engagement in a Citizen-Led Living Lab for Smart Cities: Evidence From South Korea

Smart cities have emerged in the hope of solving growing urban problems. In addition, unlike past citizen participation in tokenism, new technologies in smart cities have shed light on creating cities with high levels of civic engagement. However, contrary to expectations, technology-centric smart city development has resulted in a lack of opportunities for citizen participation. Consequently, smart cities are increasingly adopting a citizen-centric living lab methodology. Previous research on living labs has emphasized the significance of civic engagement and the potential as a collaborative platform for governments, businesses, and citizens. However, keeping individuals engaged and motivated during the living lab process might be challenging. This study examined the significance of citizens’ active participation and determined the elements that influence the level of participation in a living lab. In this study, the first citizen-led living laboratory in South Korea was selected as the subject of a case study. An empirical analytic approach was adopted and a survey was conducted among living lab participants regarding their level of participation and the sociocultural elements that may impact it. Our findings revealed that living lab activities were associated with enhanced civic self-esteem and positive attitudes toward smart cities. Moreover, they display the socioeconomic elements that influence the degree of participation. This study offers evidence that living lab activities encourage citizen engagement by giving participants a sense of empowerment during the co-creation process with multiple stakeholders, boosting civic competency through learning activities, and improving a sense of community ownership.