Internet of Things Empowered Smart Cities

The concept of smart cities originated from the broader notions of digital or intelligent cities that emerged in the late 20th century. Today, its aim remains a grand challenge toward optimizing the efficiency of city operations and services and connecting to citizens. One of its foundation technologies among many information and communication technologies (ICTs) is the Internet of Things (IoTs), which form the sensing layer that collects operational data from a broad class of urban lifeline objects and agents, including transportation systems, power plants, utilities, water supply networks, waste facilities, critical facilities (e.g., schools, libraries, hospitals, and other community services), and citizens and communities, collectively urban lifeline systems.

As we witness continuous advances and breakthroughs in ICT technologies, the dominating trend of IoT applications in smart cities is the potential to tackle complex and connected urban dynamics in real time; examples include real-time traffic, energy, water supplies, and stormwater control and management during routine operation or extreme events. With such envisioned digital transformation (DX) in modern cities, many critical challenges are outstanding, which include theories, methods, processes, and frameworks dedicated to (i) managing the colossal number of IoT sensors and edge devices from all possible elements of urban lifelines, (ii) processing and understanding the panoramic data, and (iii) analyzing and possibly globally optimizing the operation of the lifelines and the city.

This topical collection seeks original and breakthrough research in IoT-empowered smart cities. We cordially invite global authors from academia and industries to contribute to this topical collection of Urban Lifeline. Topics of interest, but are not limited to such, include: •IoT as a critical infrastructure: design and implementation for smart cities；•IoT devices as a network: deployment and optimization in smart cities；•IoT energy management in smart cities；•IoT communication technologies in smart cities in the 5G and 6G era；•IoT sensing modalities and multi-mode data fusion；•IoT-enabled urban transportation solutions；•IoT-enabled structural health monitoring and maintenance；•IoT-enabled disaster mitigation and resilience；•IoT-enabled communities and governance；•IoT-enabled smart healthcare；•IoT applications in smart home；•Cybersecurity and privacy in urban IoT applications；•Social and inclusive ethics and implications of IoT operations.