scholarly journals The underlying components of data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future: a case study approach to an applied theoretical framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
The Future ◽  
Smart Urbanism

AbstractThe increased pressure on cities has led to a stronger need to build sustainable cities that can last. Planning sustainable cities of the future, educated by the lessons of the past and anticipating the challenges of the future, entails articulating a multi-scalar vision that, by further interplaying with major societal trends and paradigm shifts in science and technology, produce new opportunities towards reaching the goals of sustainability. Enabled by big data science and analytics, the ongoing transformative processes within sustainable cities are motivated by the need to address and overcome the challenges hampering progress towards sustainability. This means that sustainable cities should be understood, analyzed, planned, designed, and managed in new and innovative ways in order to improve and advance their contribution to sustainability. Therefore, sustainable cities are increasingly embracing and leveraging what smart cities have to offer in terms of data-driven technologies and applied solutions so as to optimize, enhance, and maintain their performance and thus achieve the desired outcomes of sustainability—under what has been termed “data-driven smart sustainable cities.” Based on a case study analysis, this paper develops an applied theoretical framework for strategic sustainable urban development planning. This entails identifying and integrating the underlying components of data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future in terms of the dimensions, strategies, and solutions of the leading global paradigms of sustainable urbanism and smart urbanism. The novelty of the proposed framework lies in combining compact urban design strategies, eco-city design strategies and technology solutions; data-driven smart city technologies, competences, and solutions for sustainability; and environmentally data-driven smart sustainable city solutions and strategies. These combined have great potential to improve and advance the contribution of sustainable cities to the goals of sustainability through harnessing its synergistic effects and balancing the integration of its dimensions. The main contribution of this work lies in providing new insights into guiding the development of various types of strategic planning processes of transformative change towards sustainability, as well as to stimulate and inspire future research endeavors in this direction. This study informs policymakers and planners about the opportunity of attaining important advances in sustainability by integrating the established models of sustainable urbanism and the emerging models of smart urbanism thanks to the proven role and untapped potential of data-driven technologies in catalyzing sustainable development and thus boosting sustainability benefits.

scholarly journals A novel model for data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future: the institutional transformations required for balancing and advancing the three goals of sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri
Keyword(s):  
Smart Cities ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
The Future ◽  
Novel Model ◽  
Smart Urbanism

AbstractIn recent years, it has become increasingly feasible to achieve important improvements of sustainability by integrating sustainable urbanism with smart urbanism thanks to the proven role and synergic potential of data-driven technologies. Indeed, the processes and practices of both of these approaches to urban planning and development are becoming highly responsive to a form of data-driven urbanism, giving rise to a new phenomenon known as “data-driven smart sustainable urbanism.” Underlying this emerging approach is the idea of combining and integrating the strengths of sustainable cities and smart cities and harnessing the synergies of their strategies and solutions in ways that enable sustainable cities to optimize, enhance, and maintain their performance on the basis of the innovative data-driven technologies offered by smart cities. These strengths and synergies can be clearly demonstrated by combining the advantages of sustainable urbanism and smart urbanism. To enable such combination, major institutional transformations are required in terms of enhanced and new practices and competences. Based on case study research, this paper identifies, distills, and enumerates the key benefits, potentials, and opportunities of sustainable cities and smart cities with respect to the three dimensions of sustainability, as well as the key institutional transformations needed to support the balancing of these dimensions and to enable the introduction of data-driven technology and the adoption of applied data-driven solutions in city operational management and development planning. This paper is an integral part of a futures study that aims to analyze, investigate, and develop a novel model for data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future. I argue that the emerging data-driven technologies for sustainability as innovative niches are reconfiguring the socio-technical landscape of institutions, as well as providing insights to policymakers into pathways for strengthening existing institutionalized practices and competences and developing and establishing new ones. This is necessary for balancing and advancing the goals of sustainability and thus achieving a desirable future.

scholarly journals From Eco-Urbanism to Eco-Fusion: An Augmented Multi-Scalar Framework in Sustainable Urbanism

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2373
Author(s):  
Ali Cheshmehzangi ◽  
Andrew Flynn ◽  
May Tan-Mullins ◽  
Linjun Xie ◽  
Wu Deng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Development Models ◽  
Exploratory Case Study ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
Integrated Methods ◽  
Practical Factors ◽  
Key Terms

This paper introduces the new concept of “eco-fusion” through an exploratory case study project. It suggests the importance of multi-scalar practice in the broader field of eco-urbanism. This study introduces eco-fusion as a multiplexed paradigm, which is then discussed in two different development models. This paper first highlights the position of “eco” in urbanism by providing a brief account of key terms and how they relate to one another. It then points out the associations between eco-fusion and sustainable urban development. Through an exploratory case study example in China, the practical factors of eco-development are assessed. The study aims to provide a set of intermediate development stages while maintaining each spatial level’s interface in their own defined and distinguished contexts. The key objective is to consider integrating the natural and built environments, which is considered the best practice of eco-development in urbanism. This study’s findings highlight integrated methods in eco-urbanism and suggest new directions for eco-planning/eco-design strategies.

scholarly journals A methodological framework for futures studies: integrating normative backcasting approaches and descriptive case study design for strategic data-driven smart sustainable city planning

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri
Keyword(s):  
Study Design ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
Case Study Design ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
The Future

AbstractOriginally proposed as an alternative to traditional energy planning methodology in the 1970s, backcasting is increasingly applied in futures studies related to sustainability, as it is viewed as a natural step in operationalizing sustainable development. This futures study is concerned with data-driven smart sustainable urbanism as an instance of sustainable urban development—a strategic approach to achieving the long-term goals of urban sustainability. This is at the core of backcasting, which typically defines criteria for a desirable (sustainable) future and builds a set of feasible and logical pathways between the state of the future and the present. This paper reviews, discusses, and justifies the methodological framework applied in the futures study. This aims to analyze, investigate, and develop a novel model for data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future as a form of transformative change towards sustainability. This paper corroborates that the backcasting approach—as applied in the futures study—is well-suited for long-term urban problems and sustainability solutions due to its normative, goal-oriented, and problem-solving character. It also suggests that case study research is the most effective way to underpin and increase the feasibility of future visions. Indeed, the case study approach as a research strategy facilitates the investigation and understanding of the underlying principles in the real-world phenomena involved in the construction of the future vision in the backcasting study. The novelty of this work lies in the integration of a set of principles underlying several normative backcasting approaches with descriptive case study design to devise a framework for strategic urban planning whose core objective is clarifying which city model is desired and working towards that goal. Visionary images of a long-term future based on normative backcasting can spur innovative thinking about and accelerate the movement towards sustainability. The proposed framework serves to help researchers in analyzing, investigating, and developing future models of sustainable urbanism, smart urbanism, and smart sustainable urbanism, as well as to support policymakers and facilitate and guide their actions with respect to transformative changes towards sustainability based on empirical research.

scholarly journals How Does the New Urban Agenda Align with Comprehensive Planning in U.S. Cities? A Case Study of Asheville, North Carolina

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Cohen ◽  
Geoffrey Habron
Keyword(s):  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
The United States ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Weak Sustainability ◽  
System Sustainability ◽  
New Urban Agenda

Despite growing interests in sustainable urban development, planning lacks unifying themes or directives for achieving sustainability in cities. While professional rating systems provide some guidance, they can be context-specific by country and may at best target weak sustainability as their intended outcome. The United Nations’ New Urban Agenda attempts to offer a singular vision for urban sustainability, and its language appears flexible enough to apply across contexts. In this research, we explore the extent that emergent themes from the New Urban Agenda can guide urban planning for sustainability, specifically in the United States (U.S.). We develop inductive codes from the New Urban Agenda and compare these emergent themes to the content of Asheville, North Carolina’s (U.S.) comprehensive plan, Living Asheville as well as to the STAR Community rating system (Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities). We ask how well the New Urban Agenda can align with conventional U.S. planning processes and whether it offers value beyond the contributions of industry-standard practices like STAR Communities. We find that the New Urban Agenda voices common urban sustainability goals while making some new contributions, particularly in areas such as equity and governance. We conclude that in contexts like the U.S., the New Urban Agenda might be best carried out by integrating it into already existing frameworks like STAR, which have already been widely implemented. These conclusions are based on a reading of one case study city, and future research should analyze and compare themes of the New Urban Agenda and STAR and analyze case studies of multiple certified cities.

Sustainable Urban Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Nicola Boccella ◽  
Irene Salerno
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
The World ◽  
University Of Rome ◽  
The City

The concept of participation in sustainable urban development practices is actually more and more popular in Europe and all over the world. In parallel, there is a rapid growth of urban design and planning projects including local communities in urban development planning activities. According to such concepts, this chapter, starting from the description of the results of field and desk researches carried out by ‘La Sapienza' University of Rome and related to communities involvement strategies currently available in Europe, describes and analyses a case study based on a concrete application of theoretical and methodological approaches, and two more cases of possible application of an integrated methodology. All the projects described concern the city of Rome.

Geoinformation Technologies in Land Use Monitoring of Fast-Growing Cities for Sustainable Urban Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 34-56
Author(s):  
Cristina Delgado Henriques
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Fast Growing ◽  
Geoinformation Technologies ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
Urban Territories ◽  
Experimental Laboratory ◽  
Planning Processes

To understand the territory of fast-growing cities, where there are multiple stakeholders involved, the observation of such dynamics seems indispensable to formulate and implement policies and actions based on a better understanding of these territorial systems. This chapter offers a perspective on how urban territories should be observed through geoinformation technologies that can provide a means for creating monitoring indicators concerning land use of fast-growing cities. The city of Maputo was used as an experimental laboratory for the use of geoinformation technologies in the observation, discussion, and reflection on methods for sustainable urbanism. The discussion includes the implications of the case study and possible developments to take a step forward in land use planning processes to achieve the desired socio-spatial equality.

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