Skip to main content

Cities Rethinking Smart-Oriented Pathways for Urban Sustainability

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ((IHQL))

  • 890 Accesses

Abstract

As smart communities, cities use technology to develop “smartness” as a means of change and to achieve urban sustainability by improving urban quality of life. Cities as smart communities understand and develop the potential offered by information technology to improve urban competitiveness, innovation, and quality of life within a community. Cities identify the pathway for sustainability by promoting a smart vision strategy that relies on strengthening technology to develop a human-centered view and community-approach to urban sustainable development. In doing so, this implies collaborative public-private driven processes within urban ecosystems and enhances the need for security and freedom preservation, as well as supporting social inclusion initiatives to drive cities as sustainable and inclusive communities. As a result, these cities become smarter as intelligent urban organizations, achieving competitiveness and promoting innovation to better ensure a high quality of life.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahvenniemi, H., Huovila, A., Pinto-Seppä, I., & Airaksinen, M. (2017). What are the differences between sustainable and smart cities? Cities, 60, 234–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Albino, V., Berardi, U., & Dangelico, R. M. (2015). Smart cities: Definitions, dimensions, performance, and initiatives. Journal of Urban Technology, 22(1), 3–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allwinkle, S., & Cruickshank, P. (2011). Creating smart-er cities: An overview. Journal of Urban Technology, 18(2), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andreani, S., Kalchschmidt, M., Pinto, R., & Sayegh, A. (2019). Reframing technologically enhanced urban scenarios: A design research model towards human centered smart cities. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 142, 15–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angelidou, M. (2015). Smart cities: A conjuncture of four forces. Cities, 47, 95–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angelidou, M., Psaltoglou, A., Komninos, N., Kakderi, C., Tsarchopoulos, P., & Panori, A. (2017). Enhancing sustainable urban development through smart city applications. Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, 9(2), 146–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anjos, L., & Coelho, H. (2018). Privacy and data protection in Brazilian smart cities. Retrieved from http://irisbh.com.br/en/privacy-and-data-protection-in-brazilian-smart-cities/

  • Appio, F., Lima, M., & Paroutis, S. (2019). Understanding smart cities: Innovation ecosystems, technological advancements, and societal challenges. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 142, 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayulken, B., & Huisingh, D. (2015). A literature review of historical trends and emerging theoretical approaches for developing sustainable cities (part 1). Journal of Cleaner Production, 109, 11–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Begg, I. (1999). Cities and competitiveness. Urban Studies, 36(5–6), 795–809.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhagya, N. S., Murad, K., & Kijun, H. (2018). Towards sustainable smart cities: A review of trends, architectures, components, and open challenges. Sustainable Cities and Society, 38, 697–713.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bibri, S. E., & Krogstie, J. (2017a). Smart sustainable cities of the future: An extensive interdisciplinary literature review. Sustainable Cities and Society, 31, 183–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bibri, S. E., & Krogstie, J. (2017b). On the social shaping dimensions of smart sustainable cities: A study in science, technology, and society. Sustainable Cities and Society, 29, 219–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caprotti, F., & Liu, D. (2019). Emerging platform urbanism in China: Reconfigurations of data, citizenship and materialities. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 151, 119690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.06.016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caragliu, A., Del Bo, C., & Nijkamp, P. (2011). Smart cities in Europe. Journal of Urban Technology, 8(2), 65–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang, D. L., Sabatini-Marques, J., da Costa, E. M., Selig, P. M., & Yigitcanlar, T. (2018). Knowledge-based, smart and sustainable cities: A provocation for a conceptual framework. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 4(1), 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chourabi, H., Gil-Garcia, J. R., Pardo, T. A., Nam, T., Mellouli, S., Scholl, H. J., Walker, S., & Nahon, K. (2012). Understanding smart cities: An integrative framework. In 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 2289–2297). Maui, HI: IEEE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comune di Firenze. (2015). Firenze smart city plan. Retrieved from http://www.spesconsulting.com/sites/default/files/Firenze%20Smart%20City%20Plan.pdf

  • Dameri, R. (2013). Searching for smart city definition: A comprehensive proposal. International Journal of Computers & Technology, 11(5), 2544–2551.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dameri, R. P., Benevolo, C., Veglianti, E., & Li, Y. (2019). Understanding smart cities as a glocal strategy: A comparison between Italy and China. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 142, 26–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deakin, M. (2011). The embedded intelligence of smart cities. Intelligent Building International, 3(3), 189–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deakin, M. (2014). Smart cities: State-of-the-art and governance challenge. Triple Helix, 1(7), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deakin, M., Hirst, P., Hummerstone, E., Webb, S., Karlsson, A.-K., Blin, A. S., Duff, M., & Jordanou, M. (2012). JESSICA for smart and sustainable cities. London: European Investment Bank, Mazars LLP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dempsey, N., Bramley, G., Power, S., & Brown, C. (2009). The social dimension of sustainable development: Defining urban social sustainability. Sustainable Development, 19(5), 289–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denyer, D., & Tranfield, D. (2006). Using qualitative research synthesis to build an actionable knowledge base. Management Decision, 24, 213–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon-Woods, M., Agarwall, S., Young, B., Jones, D., & Sutton, A. (2004). Integrative approaches to qualitative and quantitative evidence. London: Health Development Agency. Retrieved from www.hda.nhs.uk

  • Eger, J. M. (1997). Cities of the future. The role of smart and sustainable communities (pp. 114–121).

    Google Scholar 

  • Eger, J. M. (2005). Smart communities, universities, and globalization: Educating the workforce for tomorrow’s economy. Metropolitan Universities, 16(4), 28–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission. (2017). Report from the Commission to the Council on the Urban Agenda for the EY. COM(2017) 657 fubakm 20.11.2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, J., Karvonen, A., Luque-Ayala, A., Martin, C., McCormick, K., Raven, R., & Palgan, Y. V. (2019). Smart and sustainable cities? Pipedreams, practicalities and possibilities. Local Environment, 24(7), 557–564.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finco, A., & Nijkamp, P. (2001). Pathways to urban sustainability. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 3(4), 289–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • General Assembly. (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. A/RES70/1 United Nations, 25 September 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giffinger, R., Fertner, C., Kramar, H., Kalasek, R., Pichler-Milanović, N., & Meijers, E. (2007). Smart cities: Ranking of European medium-sized cities. Vienna: Centre of Regional Science (SRF), Vienna University of Technology. Available from http://www.smart-cities.eu/download/smart_cities_final_report.pdf

  • Gil-Garcia, J. R., Pardo, T. A., & Nam, T. (2015). What makes a city smart? Identifying core components and proposing an integrative and comprehensive conceptualization. Information Polity, 20, 61–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gόmez-Baggethun, E., & Barton, D. N. (2013). Classifying and valuing ecosystem service for urban planning. Ecological Economics, 86, 235–245. 

    Google Scholar 

  • Gün, A., Demir, Y., & Pak, B. (2019). Urban design empowerment through ICT-based platforms in Europe. International Journal of Urban Sciences, 29, 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Höjer, M., & Wangel, J. (2015). Smart sustainable cities: Definition and challenges. In Hilty & Aebischer (Eds.), ICT innovations for sustainability (pp. 333–349). Cham: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huovila, A., Bosch, P., & Airaksinen, M. (2019). Comparative analysis of standardized indicators for smart sustainable cities: What indicators and standards to use and when? Cities, 89, 141–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ibrahim, M., El-Zaart, A., & Adams, C. (2018). Smart sustainable cities roadmap: Readiness for transformation towards urban sustainability. Sustainable Cities and Society, 37, 530–540.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitchin, R. (2016). The ethics of smart cities and urban science. Philosophical Transactions, Royal Society, 374(283), 20160115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitchin, R., & Dodge, M. (2017). The (in)security of smart cities: Vulnerabilities, risks, mitigation, and prevention. Journal of Urban Technology, 26, 47–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitchin, R., Coletta, C., Evans, L., & Heaphy, L. (2018). Creating smart cities: Introduction. In Coletta, Evans, Heaphy, & Kitchin (Eds.), Creating smart cities (pp. 1–18). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Komninos, N. (2014). Introduction: The age of intelligent cities. In Komninos (Ed.), The age of intelligent cities. Smart environments and innovation-for-all strategies (pp. 1–9). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Komninos, N., Kakderi, C., Panori, A., & Tsarchopoulos, P. (2019). Smart city planning from an evolutionary perspective. Journal of Urban Technology, 26(2), 3–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kondepudi, S. N., Ramanarayanan, V., Jain, A., Singh, G. N., Nitin Agarwal, N. K., Kumar, R., Singh, R., Bergmark, P., Hashitani, T., Gemma, P., Sang, Z., Torres, D., Ospina, A., & Menon, M. (2014). Smart sustainable cities analysis of definitions. The ITU-T focus group for smart sustainable cities.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kourtit, K., & Nijkamp, N. (2012). Smart cities in the innovation age. Innovation – The European Journal of Social Science Research, 2582, 93–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lara, A. P., Da Costa, E. M., Furlan, T. Z., & Yigitcanlar, T. (2016). Smartness that matters: Towards a comprehensive and human-centered characterization of smart cities. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market and Complexity, 2(2), 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazariou, G. C., & Roscia, M. (2012). Definition methodology for the smart cities model. Energy, 47, 326–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leydesdorff, L., & Deakin, M. (2011). The triple-helix model of smart cities: A neo-evolutionary perspective. Journal of Urban Technology, 18(2), 53–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindskog, H. (2004). Smart communities initiatives. In Proceedings of the 3rd ISOneWorld Conference (Vol. 16).

    Google Scholar 

  • Macke, J., Casagrande, R. M., Sarate, J. A., & Silva, K. A. (2018). Smart city and quality of life: Citizens’ perception in a Brazilian case study. Journal of Clearer Production, 182, 717–726.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mairie de Paris. (2015). Paris smart and sustainable looking ahead to 2020 and beyond. Retrieved from https://api-site-cdn.paris.fr/images/99354

  • Mora, L., & Bolici, R. (2017). How to become a smart city: Learning from Amsterdam. In Bisello, Vettorato, Stephens, & Elisei (Eds.), Smart and sustainable planning for cities and regions (pp. 251–266). Cham: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moser, M. A. (2001). What is smart about the smart communities movement. EJournal, 1011(1), 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, P. (2000). Urban governance for more sustainable cities. European Environment, 10(5), 239–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nam, T., & Pardo, T. A. (2011a). Smart city as urban innovation with dimensions of technology, people and institutions. In Proceedings of the 5th international conference on theory and practice of electronic governance (pp. 185–194). New York: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nam, T., & Pardo, T. A. (2011b). Conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people and institutions. In Proceedings of the 12th annual international digital government research conference: Digital government innovation in challenging times (pp. 282–291). New York: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, P., & Jennings, J. (2008). Cities as sustainable ecosystems. Principles and practices. Washington, DC: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, B. F., Baer, D., & Lindkvist, C. (2019). Identifying and supporting exploratory and exploitative models of innovation in municipal urban planning: Key challenges from seven Norwegian energy ambitious neighborhood pilots. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 142, 142–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nijkamp, P., & Perrels, A. (1994). Sustainable cities in Europe. London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paskaleva, K. A. (2011). The smart city: A nexus for open innovation? Intelligent Buildings International, 3(3), 153–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peris-Ortiz, M. P., Bennett, D. R., & Yábar, D. P. B. (2017). Preface. In B. Ortiz & Yábar (Eds.), Sustainable smart cities. Creating spaces for technological, social and business development (pp. ix–xii). Cham: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saba, M., Saba, P. B., & Harfouche, A. (2018). Hidden facets of IT projects are revealed only after deployment. The case of French agricultural cooperatives. Information Technology & People, 31(1), 239–255.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sartori, L. (2015). Alla ricerca della smart citizenship. Le Istituzioni del Federalismo, 4, 927–948.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scipioni, A., Mazzi, A., Mason, M., & Manzardo, A. (2009). The dashboard of sustainability to measure the local urban sustainable development: The case study of Padua Municipality. Ecological Indicators, 9(2), 364–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment. (2015). Smart City strategy Berlin. Retrieved from https://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/planen/foren_initiativen/smart-city/download/Strategie_Smart_City_Berlin_en.pdf

  • Shapiro, J. M. (2006). Smart cities: Quality of life, productivity and the growth. Effects of human capital. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 88(2), 324–335.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silva, B. N., Khan, M., & Han, K. (2018). Towards sustainable smart cities: A review of trends, architectures, components, and open challenges in smart cities. Sustainable Cities and Society, 38, 697–713.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trindade, E. P., Hinnig, M. P. F., da Costa, E. M., Marques, J. S., Bastos, R. C., & Yigitcanlar, T. (2017). Sustainable development of smart cities: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 3(1), 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations. (2013). World economic and social survey 2013. Sustainable Development Challenges. New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vienna City Administration. (2014). Smart City Wien framework strategy. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d4f4/128d69db6eb9fe0cea112cf8ad3fd80c3cb8.pdf?_ga=2.36377443.2117305120.1582999667-1388792735.1559362141

  • Yigitcanlar, T. (2017). Editorial: Smart cities in the making. International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 8(3), 201–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yigitcanlar, T., & Kamruzzaman, M. (2018). Does smart city policy lead to sustainability of cities? Land Use Policy, 73, 49–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yigitcanlar, T., & Teriman, S. (2015). Rethinking sustainable urban development: Towards an integrated planning and development process. International journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 12(1), 341–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yigitcanlar, T., Dur, F., & Dizdaroglu, D. (2015). Towards prosperous sustainable cities: A multiscalar urban sustainability approach. Habitat International, 45, 36–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yigitcanlar, T., Hoon, H., Kamruzzaman, M., Ioppolo, G., & Sabatini-Marques, J. (2019a). The making of smart cities: Are Songdo, Masdar, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Brisbane the best we could build? Land Use Policy, 88, 104187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yigitcanlar, T., Kamruzzaman, M., Foth, M., Sabatini-Marques, J., da Costa, E., & Ioppolo, G. (2019b). Can cities become smart without being sustainable? A systematic review of the literature. Sustainable Cities and Society, 45, 348–365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yin, R. (2011). Qualitative research from start to finish. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mauro Romanelli .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Romanelli, M. (2021). Cities Rethinking Smart-Oriented Pathways for Urban Sustainability. In: Martinez, J., Mikkelsen, C.A., Phillips, R. (eds) Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50540-0_23

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50540-0_23

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50539-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-50540-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics