scholarly journals Environmentally data-driven smart sustainable cities: applied innovative solutions for energy efficiency, pollution reduction, and urban metabolism

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri ◽  
John Krogstie

AbstractThe IoT and big data technologies have become essential to the functioning of both smart cities and sustainable cities, and thus, urban operational functioning and planning are becoming highly responsive to a form of data-driven urbanism. This offers the prospect of building models of smart sustainable cities functioning in real time from routinely sensed data. This in turn allows to monitor, understand, analyze, and plan such cities to improve their energy efficiency and environmental health in real time thanks to new urban intelligence functions as an advanced form of decision support. However, prior studies tend to deal largely with data-driven technologies and solutions in the realm of smart cities, mostly in relation to economic and social aspects, leaving important questions involving the underlying substantive and synergistic effects on environmental sustainability barely explored to date. These issues also apply to sustainable cities, especially eco-cities. Therefore, this paper investigates the potential and role of data-driven smart solutions in improving and advancing environmental sustainability in the context of smart cities as well as sustainable cities, under what can be labeled “environmentally data-driven smart sustainable cities.” To illuminate this emerging urban phenomenon, a descriptive/illustrative case study is adopted as a qualitative research methodology§ to examine and compare Stockholm and Barcelona as the ecologically and technologically leading cities in Europe respectively. The results show that smart grids, smart meters, smart buildings, smart environmental monitoring, and smart urban metabolism are the main data-driven smart solutions applied for improving and advancing environmental sustainability in both eco-cities and smart cities. There is a clear synergy between such solutions in terms of their interaction or cooperation to produce combined effects greater than the sum of their separate effects—with respect to the environment. This involves energy efficiency improvement, environmental pollution reduction, renewable energy adoption, and real-time feedback on energy flows, with high temporal and spatial resolutions. Stockholm takes the lead over Barcelona as regards the best practices for environmental sustainability given its long history of environmental work, strong environmental policy, progressive environmental performance, high environmental standards, and ambitious goals. It also has, like Barcelona, a high level of the implementation of applied data-driven technology solutions in the areas of energy and environment. However, the two cities differ in the nature of such implementation. We conclude that city governments do not have a unified agenda as a form of strategic planning, and data-driven decisions are unique to each city, so are environmental challenges. Big data are the answer, but each city sets its own questions based on what characterize it in terms of visions, policies, strategies, pathways, and priorities.

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri

AbstractSustainable cities are quintessential complex systems—dynamically changing environments and developed through a multitude of individual and collective decisions from the bottom up to the top down. As such, they are full of contestations, conflicts, and contingencies that are not easily captured, steered, and predicted respectively. In short, they are characterized by wicked problems. Therefore, they are increasingly embracing and leveraging what smart cities have to offer as to big data technologies and their novel applications in a bid to effectively tackle the complexities they inherently embody and to monitor, evaluate, and improve their performance with respect to sustainability—under what has been termed “data-driven smart sustainable cities.” This paper analyzes and discusses the enabling role and innovative potential of urban computing and intelligence in the strategic, short-term, and joined-up planning of data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future. Further, it devises an innovative framework for urban intelligence and planning functions as an advanced form of decision support. This study expands on prior work done to develop a novel model for data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future. I argue that the fast-flowing torrent of urban data, coupled with its analytical power, is of crucial importance to the effective planning and efficient design of this integrated model of urbanism. This is enabled by the kind of data-driven and model-driven decision support systems associated with urban computing and intelligence. The novelty of the proposed framework lies in its essential technological and scientific components and the way in which these are coordinated and integrated given their clear synergies to enable urban intelligence and planning functions. These utilize, integrate, and harness complexity science, urban complexity theories, sustainability science, urban sustainability theories, urban science, data science, and data-intensive science in order to fashion powerful new forms of simulation models and optimization methods. These in turn generate optimal designs and solutions that improve sustainability, efficiency, resilience, equity, and life quality. This study contributes to understanding and highlighting the value of big data in regard to the planning and design of sustainable cities of the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri

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.


Author(s):  
Suresh P. ◽  
Keerthika P. ◽  
Sathiyamoorthi V. ◽  
Logeswaran K. ◽  
Manjula Devi R. ◽  
...  

Cloud computing and big data analytics are the key parts of smart city development that can create reliable, secure, healthier, more informed communities while producing tremendous data to the public and private sectors. Since the various sectors of smart cities generate enormous amounts of streaming data from sensors and other devices, storing and analyzing this huge real-time data typically entail significant computing capacity. Most smart city solutions use a combination of core technologies such as computing, storage, databases, data warehouses, and advanced technologies such as analytics on big data, real-time streaming data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the internet of things (IoT). This chapter presents a theoretical and experimental perspective on the smart city services such as smart healthcare, water management, education, transportation and traffic management, and smart grid that are offered using big data management and cloud-based analytics services.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Lu ◽  
Anjin Liu ◽  
Yiliao Song ◽  
Guangquan Zhang

Abstract Data-driven decision-making ($$\mathrm {D^3}$$D3M) is often confronted by the problem of uncertainty or unknown dynamics in streaming data. To provide real-time accurate decision solutions, the systems have to promptly address changes in data distribution in streaming data—a phenomenon known as concept drift. Past data patterns may not be relevant to new data when a data stream experiences significant drift, thus to continue using models based on past data will lead to poor prediction and poor decision outcomes. This position paper discusses the basic framework and prevailing techniques in streaming type big data and concept drift for $$\mathrm {D^3}$$D3M. The study first establishes a technical framework for real-time $$\mathrm {D^3}$$D3M under concept drift and details the characteristics of high-volume streaming data. The main methodologies and approaches for detecting concept drift and supporting $$\mathrm {D^3}$$D3M are highlighted and presented. Lastly, further research directions, related methods and procedures for using streaming data to support decision-making in concept drift environments are identified. We hope the observations in this paper could support researchers and professionals to better understand the fundamentals and research directions of $$\mathrm {D^3}$$D3M in streamed big data environments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip James ◽  
Ronnie Das ◽  
Agata Jalosinska ◽  
Luke Smith

This commentary describes the rapid development of a COVID-19 data dashboard utilising existing Urban Observatory Internet of Things (IoT) data and analytics infrastructure. Existing data capture systems were rapidly repurposed to provide real-time insights into the impacts of lockdown policy on urban governance.


Author(s):  
Antonio A.C. Vieira ◽  
Luis M.S. Dias ◽  
Maribel Y. Santos ◽  
Guilherme A.B. Pereira ◽  
Jose A. Oliveira

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