Modes of making smart cities: Or,practices of variegated smart urbanism

The ‘actually existing’ smart city is not a monolith. It is not directed by a universal logic, nor does it develop in a standardised way. As recent research has argued, the spatial, material, and political contexts of cities have major influence over what smart urbanism looks like in practice. This paper adds analytical depth to, and broadens the geographical scope of, research on the variegated modes of making smart cities. Based on empirical research in multiple Australian cities we use three case studies to explore three different modes of smart urbanism, each one centred on the interests of a different key actor: corporate-centric, citizen-centric, and planner-centric. These different modes can, and do, co-exist in the same city. At times, they are competing logics that fight to pull the city in different directions. Yet, they can also work together to shape smart city initiatives. In describing these different modes, we pay particular attention to the ways that these projects and strategies must contend with the already existing spatial, cultural, and political contexts of each place.     

Historicizing the smart cities: Genealogy as a method of critique for smart urbanism

This study explores the utility of genealogy as a method of critiquing the history of the present in the smart cities. Taking a South Korean smart city of Songdo as a point of departure, this paper offers a genealogical understanding of a smart city that situates the current technics and technologies of data-driven urban governance within the broader context of South Korean history. Given the scarcity of a historically informed understanding of a smart city in the existing literatures on smart urbanism, this paper argues that a genealogical method helps us to counter the sweeping binarism that obscures the complexity and diversity of actually existing smart cities today. Through genealogy, this study underscores the multifaceted nature of the smart city, which consists of a combination of multiple urban diagrams that grows out of distinct problems and objectives of urban management – mobility, security, environment, and futurity. This paper illustrates how a smart city emerged out of multiple strings of history and problematizations that are contingently interweaved at a given time and space in multiple and diffused forms.     

Smart cities education: An insight into existing drawbacks

Smart cities aim to increase citizens’ quality of life by employing technology. Education is one of the areas of focus in smart cities and in this context, smart education is a term used to refer to education provided by smart cities. As research in this area has expanded recently as shown by the number of literature reviews in a smart city context, a review could help summarize existing directions focusing in this case on education in the smart cities context. As our understanding on negative consequences is limited, this research will address this knowledge gap by concentrating on challenges and difficulties when it comes to education in smart cities. The articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science were review and a qualitative analysis of the articles fitting our research criteria was done. Three themes were identified: shortcomings on the existing educational initiatives to address the needs of smart cities, negative consequences of smart city education in other areas and problems that arise as a result of employing technology in education.     

Cloudy landscapes: On the extended geography of smart urbanism

The hypervisibility of the projects of smart urbanism in urban cores masks and obfuscates an extended geography of extraction, processing, storage, transmission, and control that underlies the ideologies, practices, and forms of smart cities. By adopting a hybrid analytical framework, assembled from recent work emerging from critical urban geography, media studies, and design, this paper argues for a spatial recontextualization of smart urbanism. Expanding the scope of urban analysis beyond cities and into the enabling geography of “the cloud,” this paper positions smart urbanism within an uneven and socio-technically constructed planetary landscape, to problematize and more effectively map the “where” of smart cities. As an initial grounding of this discussion, a typological categorization of the extended geography of smart urbanism identifies a number of conditions and avenues for further research.     

DORS: A data overhead reduction scheme for hybrid networks in smart cities

Today, smart cities represent an effective digital platform for facilitating our lives by shifting all stakeholders toward more sustainable behavior. Consequently, the field of smart cities has become an increasingly important research area. The smart city comprises a huge number of hybrid networks, with each network containing an enormous number of nodes that transmit massive amounts of data, thus giving rise to many network problems, such as delay and loss of connectivity. Decreasing the amount of such transmitted data is a great challenge. This paper presents a data overhead reduction scheme (DORS) for heterogeneous networks in smart city environments that comprise five different methods: median, nonlinear least squares, compression, data merging, and prioritization. Each method is applied according to the current status of quality of service. To measure the performance of the proposed model, a simulation environment is constructed for a smart city using network simulation package, NS2. The obtained results indicate that DORS has the capability to decrease the size of transmitted data in the simulated smart city environment while attaining a notable performance enhancement in terms of data reduction rate, end‐to‐end delay, packet loss ratio, throughput, and energy consumption ratio.     

Leveraging AI-enabled 6G-driven IoT for sustainable smart cities

Many scholastic researches have begun around the globe about the competitive technological interventions like 5G communication networks and its challenges. The incipient technology of 6G networks has emerged to facilitate ultrareliable and low-latency applications for sustainable smart cities which are infeasible with the existing 4G/5G standards. Therefore, the advanced technologies like machine learning (ML), block chain, and Internet of Things (IoT) utilizing 6G network are leveraged to develop cost-efficient mechanisms to address the issues of excess communication overhead in the present state of the art. Initially, the authors discussed the key vision of 6G communication technologies, its core technologies (such as visible light communication [VLC] and THz), and the existing issues with the existing network generations (such as 5G and 4G). A detailed analysis of benefits, challenges, and applications of blockchain-enabled IoT devices with application verticals like Smart city, smart factory plus, automation, and XR that form the key highlights for 6G wireless communication network is also presented. In addition, the key applications and latest research of artificial intelligence (AI) in 6G are discussed facilitating the dynamic spectrum allocation mechanism and mobile edge computing. Lastly, an in-depth study of the existing open issues and challenges in green 6G communication network technology, as well as review of solutions and potential research recommendations are also presented.     

What Makes Indian Cities Smart? A Policy Analysis of Smart Cities Mission

Despite widespread practices worldwide and increasing research centred on smart urbanism, there is no universal definition for ‘smart cities’. More importantly, a growing line of research warns about the north-centric notion of smart city research which underestimates the fast rate of uptake in the global South. In a search for a contextually informed definition of smart cities, the paper focuses on India: Home to one-third of the global South population, and the cradle of the ambitious Smart City Mission to develop 100 smart cities nationwide. It investigates the Smart City Proposals (SCPs) prepared for the first 20 smart cities prioritised, as part of the Mission. Findings offer a typology of smart city approaches; and shed light on the smart dimensions prioritised (e.g. smart governance, smart citizen and smart infrastructure) versus those overlooked (e.g. smart environment and smart economy) at the smart city policymaking level in India. The paper calls for further empirical research to investigate how the typologies pan out at the implementation of smart cities across the nation.     

Smart city and remote services: The case of South Korea’s national pilot smart cities

This study aimed to develop a comprehensive research model, and identify the factors that are positively associated with usage intention of remote smart city services. A theoretical model was developed based on the stimulus–organism–response framework, and the impact of stimulus and organism constructs on responses were investigated. A total of 376 survey responses were collected from two national pilot smart cities (Busan and Sejong) in South Korea, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypotheses. Among the three stimuli factors, the citizens of Busan perceived the importance of ubiquity and autonomy most highly. However, the citizens of Sejong considered information exchange and ubiquity as crucial determinants of satisfaction. The findings revealed that the significant stimuli factors are not the same between smart cities, and there can be differences in the detailed attributes required in smart cities.     

关于我国推进智慧城市的思考与建议——从我国社会经济发展及转型的视角

首先阐述了我国特色的城市化进程以及"智慧城市"产生的背景,其次重点分析了智慧城市区别于数字城市的主要特点以及对传统城市运行管理的影响,并提出了智慧城市的总体架构。基于我国智慧城市的发展现状,结合我国基本国情,探讨了对于我国推进智慧城市的策略思考。最后提出了相关的政策建议。     

智慧城市网络安全问题探讨

智慧城市是以物联网、互联网等通信网络为基础,通过物联网、互联网、智能使城市各功能模块协同运行的新型城市发展模式。它的特点是高度集成的智能技术,智能产业的高端发展和高效便捷的智能服务。然而,随着一切都变得更加互联和依赖技术,城市变得更加“智能”,这意味着它们不可避免地拥有更多的技术基础设施和数据,这意味着它们更容易受到新的威胁,随之而来的是更多的网络安全隐患。文章探讨了智慧城市带来的网络安全问题,并给出了相应的解决方案,使得智慧城市的建设更加安全,能更好的改善市民的生活,使得城市治理更加有效。     

后疫情时代我国智慧城市发展趋势研究

首先梳理了我国智慧城市的建设现状;其次总结了新冠肺炎疫情肆虐期间我国智慧城市建设成果在支撑政府管理和服务民生等领域取得的成绩和暴露的短板,分析了短板背后所隐藏的深层次原因;最后结合“5G+ABCDEI”新一代信息技术、“新基建”等与城市治理日趋深度融合的背景,提出了后疫情时代我国智慧城市的发展趋势,以期对未来我国智慧城市的建设有所借鉴。     

A structured methodology for assessing and improving e-services in digital cities

Many cities all over the world are making large investments for the construction of big network infrastructures, in order to offer to local public organizations, businesses and citizens high speed connectivity, and on top of them useful e-services, aiming to achieve various social and economic objectives. The value generated from these costly ‘digital city’ investments is actually the value provided to the citizens and businesses by the e-services that will be developed and run on these network infrastructures. This paper proposes and validates a structured methodology for assessing and improving e-services developed in digital cities. The proposed methodology assesses the various types of value generated by an e-service, and also the relations among them, allowing a more structured evaluation, a deeper understanding of the value generation process and also identification and prioritization of the improvements that should be made in the e-service with the usually scarce resources in municipalities. This methodology is applied for the evaluation of an e-learning service developed in the Greek city of Karlovassi for young citizens, and also for the prioritization of the necessary improvements in it. The above application provided positive and encouraging evidence concerning the validity, usefulness and applicability of the proposed method.     

Monopolizing mobilities: The data politics of ride-hailing platforms in US cities

Smart-urbanism discourses frequently invoke the transformative potential of data to solve city problems, but data are neither neutral nor are they readily shared in the pursuit of common goals. Drawing upon a two-year study of large-scale digital platforms in US cities, this paper investigates conflicts over data sharing between city transportation departments and ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft. By maintaining data monopolies, platform companies obfuscate the detrimental impacts of their services (e.g., increased congestion and pollution, dangers to cyclists and pedestrians) and interfere with city transportation planners’ tasks of diagnosing city needs and providing services for the public good. Ride-hailing companies’ resistance to data sharing serves the strategic goals of prolonging monopoly status and slowing regulation for maximum capital extraction, but I argue that it also performs a more insidious function of entrenching platform practices and logics, making alternatives difficult to imagine or implement. Against this backdrop, I explore the notion of a “data commons” approach to transportation management.     

Dynamic traffic congestion pricing and electric vehicle charging management system for the internet of vehicles in smart cities

The integration of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) in future smart cities could help solve many traffic-related challenges, such as reducing traffic congestion and traffic accidents. Various congestion pricing and electric vehicle charging policies have been introduced in recent years. Nonetheless, the majority of these schemes emphasize penalizing the vehicles that opt to take the congested roads or charge in the crowded charging station and do not reward the vehicles that cooperate with the traffic management system. In this paper, we propose a novel dynamic traffic congestion pricing and electric vehicle charging management system for the internet of vehicles in an urban smart city environment. The proposed system rewards the drivers that opt to take alternative congested-free ways and congested-free charging stations. We propose a token management system that serves as a virtual currency, where the vehicles earn these tokens if they take alternative non-congested ways and charging stations and use the tokens to pay for the charging fees. The proposed system is designed for Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) in the context of a smart city environment without the need to set up any expensive toll collection stations. Through large-scale traffic simulation in different smart city scenarios, it is proved that the system can reduce the traffic congestion and the total charging time at the charging stations.     

Evaluation of the smart city: Applying the dematel technique

The smart city is a growing multi-dimensional and systematic urban model that offers smart, technological, and sustainable solutions for urban challenges and is separated into various conceptual main and sub-dimensions. In this paper, the smart city concept is addressed by developing a hybrid methodology consisting of two phases. In the first phase, a qualitative analysis is established to determine the smart city concept. In the second phase, the DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) technique is used to examine smart city focusing on the dimensions derived from the literature in the form of six main and 33 sub-dimensions. Data is collected by contacting ten academia experts through a questionnaire specifically designed; open-ended questions and DEMATEL technique assessments. Results indicated that both phases had different outputs. While technology was highlighted and possible managerial issues emerged in the qualitative section, on the contrary, in the quantitative section, ‘smart people’ has emerged as the most important predictor of the smart city while ‘smart governance’ was the least. By the DEMATEL, not only the most and the least important dimensions within each group revealed but also the causer and receiver effects of each dimension. Further, the results and implications of the study are discussed.     

新型智慧城市下政务数据安全管理的研究

新型智慧城市的建设对于提升政府治理能力、提高群众获得感与幸福感、推动数字经济发展具有重要意义,但数据安全问题的凸显目前正成为新型智慧城市建设的瓶颈。分析了新型智慧城市建设中政务数据共享开放存在的数据安全问题,并针对这些问题,梳理了各地政府在数据安全上采取的各类安全管理措施,从共享开放模式、数据质量管控、责任边界划定、分级分类管理、技术保障、安全风险评估以及监督管理机制上对管理措施提出了若干建议,以期全方位保障政务数据共享开放安全,促进新型智慧城市建设。     

Making (in) the smart city: The emergence of makerspaces

Critical approaches to the smart city concept are used to begin highlighting the promises of makerspaces, that is to say, those emerging urban sites that promote sharing practices; exercise community-based forms of governance; and utilize local manufacturing technologies. A bird’s-eye-view of the history of makerspaces is provided tracing their roots back to the hacker movement. Drawing from secondary sources, their community-building, learning and innovation potential is briefly discussed. Makerspaces, this essay argues, can serve as hubs and vehicles for citizen-driven transformation and, thus, play a key part in a more inclusive, participatory and commons-oriented vision of the smart city.     

An approach based on semantic stream reasoning to support decision processes in smart cities

This paper discusses the use of stream reasoning models and techniques to provide a stream reasoning-based architecture to represent, manage and process data streams produced in the Smart City context, to extract useful knowledge for a better understanding of city phenomena and to support the decision making processes in both the city governance and the citizens. The proposed architecture, taking into account the need for processing heterogeneous data/information across several and different domains, is able to sustain decision-making processes deployed at operational, tactical and strategical levels. Such architecture is distributed and adopts a meet-in-the-middle configuration logic that is really effective and scalable in a complex environment like a (smart) city. The applicability of semantic technologies to implement all the aforementioned features is demonstrated by means of a complex case study realized by using a dataset, related to the city of Aarhus, provided by the CityPulse EU Project.     

新型智慧城市关键使能技术与标准研究

新型智慧城市是实现数字中国的重要载体,已经获得了社会各界的广泛关注.新型智慧城市高质量发展依赖于国家的统筹规划、各类新兴技术的创新融合以及标准化工作的支撑引导,同时也对技术创新和标准推进提出了更高要求,带来诸多挑战.现有研究缺少对新型智慧城市关键使能技术以及当前标准化工作的全面梳理与分析.文章在介绍新型智慧城市发展态势...     

Sustainable Framework for Smart Transportation System: A Case Study of Karachi

In this paper, a framework of smart transportation system is proposed, aiming to address the transportation problem in Karachi city. In modern day world, the mega cities and urban areas are on the edge of transformation into smart cities. With the advancement of engineering and technology, smart cities are designed to integrate and utilize these scientific innovations to provide smart solutions and social innovations for sustainable infrastructure, thus they are able to provide its resident highest quality of life by utilizing its resources effectively. One of the major application of smart cities is the Smart Transportation System, which provides safer, quick, environment friendly service to the residents. Thus, this study highlights the current traffic situation of Karachi and propose a framework to transform it into a smart transportation system. In order to have a smart transportation system, it is necessary to have in-depth knowledge and information about the city dynamics and its traffic related issues. Therefore, this study also highlights current traffic situation of Karachi, its road conditions and capacity, vehicles condition, alternate mean of transport (other than road-based system) and its present condition, and finally proposes a framework to develop a smart transportation system while keeping in mind the aforesaid traffic problems.