Challenges for the Development of Sustainable Smart Cities

A special issue of Smart Cities (ISSN 2624-6511). This special issue belongs to the section "Internet of Things".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 32146

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
BISITE Research Group, University of Salamanca, Edificio Multiusos I+D+I, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Interests: artificial intelligence; multi-agent systems; cloud computing and distributed systems; technology-enhanced learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Smart cities have transformed how citizens relate to their environment and their city. Technology and the increasingly powerful connection offered by the Internet, as well as the generation and interpretation of data (big data), makes cities optimize their consumption, which translates into taking better care of the environment and reducing pollution.

Sensorization has played a fundamental role in the collection of data, which, once analyzed in IoT and smart cities platforms, has allowed for the optimization of multiple decisions in terms of governance and the optimization of resource consumption. This has also been the case with the integration and development of open data portals or research in techniques of artificial intelligence such as blockchain, edge computing/fog computing-based systems, IoT, and big data.

This Special Issue is devoted to promoting the investigation of the latest research in IoT and smart cities and their effective applications, to explore the latest innovations in guidelines, theories, models, ideas, technologies, applications, and tools to assess the impact of the approach, and to facilitate technology transfer.

The topics of interest for this Issue include but are not limited to the following:

  • Smart cities challenges;
  • Smart home and smart buildings;
  • Open data and big data analytics;
  • Smart health and emergency management;
  • Smart environments;
  • Smart manufacturing and logistics;
  • Industry 4.0;
  • Virtual organizations of agents;
  • Human–machine interactions;
  • Artificial intelligence;
  • Industrial internet of things;
  • Machine learning;
  • Multi agents;
  • Advanced building simulation;
  • Energy and climate policy;
  • Sustainable waste management.

Dr. Fernando De la Prieta Pintado
Dr. Alfonso González-Briones
Dr. Pablo Chamoso Santos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Smart Cities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • smart cities
  • IoT
  • smart mobility
  • smart data
  • smart cities challenges
  • e-governance

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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21 pages, 11838 KiB  
Article
Children’s Participation in the Design of Smart Solutions: A Literature Review
by Maria Angela Pellegrino, Eftychia Roumelioti, Mauro D’Angelo and Rosella Gennari
Smart Cities 2022, 5(2), 475-495; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5020026 - 2 Apr 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3365
Abstract
Smart solutions are widespread and diversified. Smart cities and smart objects are example of smart solutions. Their design usually follows certain patterns so that they can detect events and react accordingly. As future citizens, children are expected to interact with them in their [...] Read more.
Smart solutions are widespread and diversified. Smart cities and smart objects are example of smart solutions. Their design usually follows certain patterns so that they can detect events and react accordingly. As future citizens, children are expected to interact with them in their daily lives. It is thus crucial to provide children with the tools for understanding, creating, and possibly programming them—in short, designing them. This paper presents a literature review of workshops involving children in designing smart solutions. The review coded a total of 25 papers that met the inclusion criteria. The discussion draws a research agenda using the workshops organized by the authors, the Roobopoli workshops for smart cities and the SNaP workshops for smart objects, as reference. Whereas smart cities and smart objects are usually addressed separately, this paper binds and compares them in order to investigate what, in different settings, enables children to be part of the design of smart solutions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges for the Development of Sustainable Smart Cities)
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25 pages, 4562 KiB  
Article
A Cluster-Based Approach Using Smartphone Data for Bike-Sharing Docking Stations Identification: Lisbon Case Study
by Tiago Fontes, Miguel Arantes, Paulo V. Figueiredo and Paulo Novais
Smart Cities 2022, 5(1), 251-275; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5010016 - 3 Mar 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3915
Abstract
Urban mobility is a massive issue in the current century, being widely promoted the need of adopting sustainable solutions regarding transportation within large urban centres. The evolution of technologies has democratised smart cities to better plan and manage their mobility solutions, without compromising [...] Read more.
Urban mobility is a massive issue in the current century, being widely promoted the need of adopting sustainable solutions regarding transportation within large urban centres. The evolution of technologies has democratised smart cities to better plan and manage their mobility solutions, without compromising the social, economic, and environmental impacts. Pursuing the carbon neutrality and the climate agreement goals, soft mobility is one of the most popular emerging methods to provide greener alternatives regarding mobility. Among these transportation modes are the bicycle, which has been widely used in several public systems across the world, one of them being in Lisbon. This article provides a decision support system for bike-sharing docking stations for three council parishes of the city, namely, Parque das Nações, Marvila, and Beato. Taking advantage of clustering methods and GSM data from a telecommunication operator, this study pretends to highlight a novel approach to identify soft mobility hotspots, in specific bike-sharing docking stations, for suited mobility management systems in Lisbon’s city centre. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges for the Development of Sustainable Smart Cities)
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8 pages, 1062 KiB  
Article
Technological Developments of Mobility in Smart Cities. An Economic Approach
by Javier Parra-Domínguez, Jorge Herrera Santos, Sergio Márquez-Sánchez, Alfonso González-Briones and Fernando De la Prieta
Smart Cities 2021, 4(3), 971-978; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4030050 - 6 Jul 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3274
Abstract
This article introduces the concern that exists in the wider economic world concerning the developments carried out in Smart Cities. The various studies that have been developed capture the economic approach by focusing on specific economic development theories. This article initially provides a [...] Read more.
This article introduces the concern that exists in the wider economic world concerning the developments carried out in Smart Cities. The various studies that have been developed capture the economic approach by focusing on specific economic development theories. This article initially provides a theoretical response to the need for a joint approach to the different economic theories relating to Smart Cities, placing the bases of their development in the circular economy. Subsequently, the paper presents a device-based proposal to validate the sustainability principles indicated in the Smart Economy, focusing exclusively on the areas of health and mobility. As a whole, the work concludes with the need to incorporate sustainability criteria into economic ambition so that technological developments have a place in future Smart Cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges for the Development of Sustainable Smart Cities)
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25 pages, 1696 KiB  
Article
Mobile Networks and Internet of Things Infrastructures to Characterize Smart Human Mobility
by Luís Rosa, Fábio Silva and Cesar Analide
Smart Cities 2021, 4(2), 894-918; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4020046 - 10 Jun 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 6058
Abstract
The evolution of Mobile Networks and Internet of Things (IoT) architectures allows one to rethink the way smart cities infrastructures are designed and managed, and solve a number of problems in terms of human mobility. The territories that adopt the sensoring era can [...] Read more.
The evolution of Mobile Networks and Internet of Things (IoT) architectures allows one to rethink the way smart cities infrastructures are designed and managed, and solve a number of problems in terms of human mobility. The territories that adopt the sensoring era can take advantage of this disruptive technology to improve the quality of mobility of their citizens and the rationalization of their resources. However, with this rapid development of smart terminals and infrastructures, as well as the proliferation of diversified applications, even current networks may not be able to completely meet quickly rising human mobility demands. Thus, they are facing many challenges and to cope with these challenges, different standards and projects have been proposed so far. Accordingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been utilized as a new paradigm for the design and optimization of mobile networks with a high level of intelligence. The objective of this work is to identify and discuss the challenges of mobile networks, alongside IoT and AI, to characterize smart human mobility and to discuss some workable solutions to these challenges. Finally, based on this discussion, we propose paths for future smart human mobility researches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges for the Development of Sustainable Smart Cities)
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21 pages, 2954 KiB  
Article
Sustainable and Reliable Information and Communication Technology for Resilient Smart Cities
by Nikolay Tcholtchev and Ina Schieferdecker
Smart Cities 2021, 4(1), 156-176; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4010009 - 14 Jan 2021
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 7470
Abstract
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is at the heart of the smart city approach, which constitutes the next level of cities’ and communities’ development across the globe. Thereby, ICT serves as the gluing component enabling different domains to interact with each other and [...] Read more.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is at the heart of the smart city approach, which constitutes the next level of cities’ and communities’ development across the globe. Thereby, ICT serves as the gluing component enabling different domains to interact with each other and facilitating the management and processing of vast amounts of data and information towards intelligently steering the cities’ infrastructure and processes, engaging the citizens and facilitating new services and applications in various aspects of urban life—e.g., supply chains, mobility, transportation, energy, citizens’ participation, public safety, interactions between citizens and the public administration, water management, parking and many other cases and domains. Hence, given the fundamental role of ICT in cities in the near future, it is of paramount importance to lay the ground for a sustainable and reliable ICT infrastructure, which can enable a city/community to respond in a resilient way to upcoming challenges, whilst increasing the quality of life for its citizens. A structured way of providing and maintaining an open and resilient ICT backbone for a city/community is constituted by the concept of an Open Urban Platform. Therefore, the current article presents the activities and developments necessary to achieve a resilient, standardized smart city, based on Open Urban Platforms (OUP) and the way these serve as a blueprint for each city/community towards the establishment of a sustainable and resilient ICT backbone. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges for the Development of Sustainable Smart Cities)
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16 pages, 1162 KiB  
Perspective
Regarding Smart Cities in China, the North and Emerging Economies—One Size Does Not Fit All
by Nigel J. W. Browne
Smart Cities 2020, 3(2), 186-201; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities3020011 - 1 Apr 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5743
Abstract
This article explores the significance of the “Smart city” concept by reviewing its key components, namely: Internet of Things (IoT), big (urban) data, and urban informatics/analytics, which are discussed against the background of two ongoing trends impacting everyone in the world—the Fourth Paradigm [...] Read more.
This article explores the significance of the “Smart city” concept by reviewing its key components, namely: Internet of Things (IoT), big (urban) data, and urban informatics/analytics, which are discussed against the background of two ongoing trends impacting everyone in the world—the Fourth Paradigm (the digital revolution) and rapid urbanization. China is seen as a great success story in the sense of how urbanization has driven a significant improvement in the economic wellbeing and prosperity of many of its citizens. Chinese expansion has come at a cost, and the question remains concerning the sustainability of the Chinese model. Along with this, the article suggests some of the short comings of the components of the Smart city concept and reflects on the human resource skills that will be required to implement Smart cities in the north. This is contrasted with the piecemeal way in which elements of the Smart city are being implemented in emerging economies. A process that very much seems to reflect fundamental technical and capacity issues that may hinder any blanket application of the Smart city in the emerging economies for a long time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges for the Development of Sustainable Smart Cities)
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