Understanding social sustainability for smart cities: The importance of inclusion, equity, and citizen participation as both inputs and long-term outcomes

Wentao Wang Dezhi Li Shiyao Zhu + 3 lainnya

13 Desember 2022

The previous technology-centric development of smart cities mainly focuses on the numbers, diversities, and types of applied intelligent technologies, while the citizen-centric smart city has become an important paradigm for improving the sustainability of cities around the world. The citizens’ sense of gain (CSG) , which considers both material acquisition and spiritual feelings of smart city services, is thus proposed and regarded as one of the core orientations in the smart cities’ transformation development process from the centric of advanced technology applied to the centric of citizen subjective perception. To shift smart cities from being technology-centric to citizen-centric, it is critical to identify the factors influencing CSG and develop appropriate strategies to enhance CSG in smart cities. Hence, this work identifies 17 key CSG influencing factors based on the dimensions dissected from the definition of CSG and it further formulates 15 strategies for enhancing CSG by adopting the SWOT-AHP-TOWS method based on data collected from Nanjing citizens. The results indicate that the most important criteria for enhancing CSG in smart cities are the external opportunities, which are originated from citizens’ attitudes and behaviors, and the top-ranked strategy is “dividing smart infrastructure into different categories according to the hierarchy needs of citizens and promoting the synergy development of smart infrastructure within and among different categories”. Finally, four implications are proposed, including (i) strengthening publicity and encouraging citizen participation, (ii) clarifying the responsibilities of local governments, (iii) prioritizing citizens’ needs, and (iv) promoting age-friendly, vulnerable-friendly, and environmental-friendly development.

Benjamin Hewitt M. Taddeo M. Ziosi + 2 lainnya

30 September 2022

This paper considers a host of definitions and labels attached to the concept of smart cities to identify four dimensions that ground a review of ethical concerns emerging from the current debate. These are: (1) network infrastructure, with the corresponding concerns of control, surveillance, and data privacy and ownership; (2) post-political governance, embodied in the tensions between public and private decision-making and cities as post-political entities; (3) social inclusion, expressed in the aspects of citizen participation and inclusion, and inequality and discrimination; and (4) sustainability, with a specific focus on the environment as an element to protect but also as a strategic element for the future. Given the persisting disagreements around the definition of a smart city, the article identifies in these four dimensions a more stable reference framework within which ethical concerns can be clustered and discussed. Identifying these dimensions makes possible a review of the ethical implications of smart cities that is transversal to their different types and resilient towards the unsettled debate over their definition.

E. Papageorgiou S. Trang Ilja Nastjuk

28 November 2022

In the last two decades, the concept of smart cities has attracted significant research and policy attention. Despite its extensive discussion in literature, the term smart city is a fuzzy concept (Albino et al., 2015; Angelidou, 2014; Anthopoulos, 2015). It commonly refers to environments in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) are utilized to offer innovative services to citizens in order to enhance their well-being and to stimulate sustainable economic growth (Yigitcanlar et al., 2018). According to Giffinger et al. (2007), the key defining characteristics of smart cities include smart economy, smart people, smart governance, smart mobility, smart environment, and smart living, addressing key topics such as economic competitiveness, educational level of citizens, quality of social interactions, flexibility of labor market, governmental strategies, innovative transportation systems, sustainable resource management, or public safety. However, since the introduction of the term smart cities in the ’90 s, numerous perspectives on smart cities have emerged (e.g., Chourabi et al., 2012; Dameri & Cocchia, 2013; Hosseini et al., 2018; Yigitcanlar et al., 2018). One predominant perspective relates to the role of smart ICTs to improve the quality of citizens’ life (e.g., Bifulco et al., 2016; Dameri, 2017; Ferro et al., 2013; Gade, 2019; Van Dinh et al., 2020). Smart ICTs are wireless, embedded in objects, and record the environment using sensors (Yigitcanlar & Lee, 2014). They provide the critical infrastructure for more intelligent and interconnected solutions in areas such as healthcare, real estate, utilities, transportation, public safety, and administration (Washburn et al., 2009). In the energy grid domain, for example, smart ICTs help collect and share consumption data to optimize energy management (Farmanbar et al., 2019). In the transportation domain, smart ICTs enable safe, socially inclusive, and sustainable multi-modal transportation networks, which allow citizens to travel with ease (Herrenkind et al., 2019; Lembcke et al., 2021; Nastjuk et al., 2020; Nikitas et al., 2017; Rocha et al., 2020; Trang et al., 2015). In the building domain, smart ICTs can help to establish so-called “zero energy buildings” by significantly reducing the energy demand during the lifecycle of residential and commercial buildings (Kylili & Fokaides, 2015). In the healthcare domain, smart wearable devices can, for example, cater for remote diagnosis, medical prescriptions, and treatment of patients (Ghazal et al., 2021) or allow for the effective monitoring of public health (Trang et al., 2020). In the education domain, smart ICTs promote a more engaged learning experience in which learners can “learn at anytime, anywhere, in any way and at any pace” (Liu et al., 2017, p. 33). The importance of ICTs as a key driver for smart cities varies in the aforementioned application fields. In domains such as energy or transportation management, smart ICTs are essential enablers and require big data processing capabilities, while in domains such as education or public administration, smart ICTs have a more limited role where processing large volumes of data in real time is usually not required (Neirotti et al., 2014). Apart of the relevance of ICTs to envision smart cities, a significant body of literature has argued extensively about This article is part of the Topical Collection on Smart Cities Smart governance models for future cities.

S. Bibri Ayyoob Sharifi Alahi Alexandre + 1 lainnya

5 April 2023

There have recently been intensive efforts aimed at addressing the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change through the applied innovative solutions of AI, IoT, and Big Data. Given the synergistic potential of these advanced technologies, their convergence is being embraced and leveraged by smart cities in an attempt to make progress toward reaching the environmental targets of sustainable development goals under what has been termed “environmentally sustainable smart cities.” This new paradigm of urbanism represents a significant research gap in and of itself. To fill this gap, this study explores the key research trends and driving factors of environmentally sustainable smart cities and maps their thematic evolution. Further, it examines the fragmentation, amalgamation, and transition of their underlying models of urbanism as well as their converging AI, IoT, and Big Data technologies and solutions. It employs and combines bibliometric analysis and evidence synthesis methods. A total of 2,574 documents were collected from the Web of Science database and compartmentalized into three sub-periods: 1991–2015, 2016–2019, and 2020–2021. The results show that environmentally sustainable smart cities are a rapidly growing trend that markedly escalated during the second and third periods—due to the acceleration of the digitalization and decarbonization agendas—thanks to COVID-19 and the rapid advancement of data-driven technologies. The analysis also reveals that, while the overall priority research topics have been dynamic over time—some AI models and techniques and environmental sustainability areas have received more attention than others. The evidence synthesized indicates that the increasing criticism of the fragmentation of smart cities and sustainable cities, the widespread diffusion of the SDGs agenda, and the dominance of advanced ICT have significantly impacted the materialization of environmentally sustainable smart cities, thereby influencing the landscape and dynamics of smart cities. It also suggests that the convergence of AI, IoT, and Big Data technologies provides new approaches to tackling the challenges of environmental sustainability. However, these technologies involve environmental costs and pose ethical risks and regulatory conundrums. The findings can inform scholars and practitioners of the emerging data-driven technology solutions of smart cities, as well as assist policymakers in designing and implementing responsive environmental policies.

I. Chan Zhaoyu Chen

12 Januari 2022

PurposeThis study examined a tourism destination, Macao, a fast-progressing smart city under development, vis-à-vis a set of smart city quality of life (SCQOL) domains and verified their effects on citizens' attitudes, perceptions and support for citizen-centric smart city development (SCD).Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a quantitative approach. In particular, a questionnaire survey was used to collect data from Macao citizens. Factor analysis was used to identify SCQOL domains, while multiple linear regression and cluster analysis were used to achieve the research objectives.FindingsThis study identified five SCQOL domains: smart environment, smart people, smart livelihood, smart economy and economic policy, and smart mobility. Each of the domains had a different influence on citizens' attitudes and support for SCD. Three citizen segments (passive, neutral and enthusiastic supporters) were identified.Practical implicationsThe five SCQOL domains, their effects on citizens' support for SCD and the three citizen segments identified can help implement the appropriate measures to enhance the target groups' SCD. The findings are also of practical value in evaluating the citizen-centric approaches on smart progress in other contexts.Originality/valueThe concept of smart technology has been widely applied to all aspects of city development. The main goal of SCD is to enhance citizens' quality of life. However, most studies have only explored smart cities and quality of life in isolation. Grounded on citizen centrality, this study contributes to the literature on SCD by proposing a new concept of SCQOL, identifying the domains constituting SCQOL and their influence on citizens' support for SCD.