scholarly journals “Smart Is Not Smart Enough!” Anticipating Critical Raw Material Use in Smart City Concepts: The Example of Smart Grids

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin David ◽  
Florian Koch

Globally emerging smart city concepts aim to make resource production and allocation in urban areas more efficient, and thus more sustainable through new sociotechnical innovations such as smart grids, smart meters, or solar panels. While recent critiques of smart cities have focused on data security, surveillance, or the influence of corporations on urban development, especially with regard to intelligent communication technologies (ICT), issues related to the material basis of smart city technologies and the interlinked resource problems have largely been ignored in the scholarly literature and in urban planning. Such problems pertain to the provision and recovery of critical raw materials (CRM) from anthropogenic sources like scrap metal repositories, which have been intensely studied during the last few years. To address this gap in the urban planning literature, we link urban planning literatures on smart cities with literatures on CRM mining and recovery from scrap metals. We find that underestimating problems related to resource provision and recovery might lead to management and governance challenges in emerging smart cities, which also entail ethical issues. To illustrate these problems, we refer to the smart city energy domain and explore the smart city-CRM-energy nexus from the perspectives of the respective literatures. We show that CRMs are an important foundation for smart city energy applications such as energy production, energy distribution, and energy allocation. Given current trends in smart city emergence, smart city concepts may potentially foster primary extraction of CRMs, which is linked to considerable environmental and health issues. While the problems associated with primary mining have been well-explored in the literature, we also seek to shed light on the potential substitution and recovery of CRMs from anthropogenic raw material deposits as represented by installed digital smart city infrastructures. Our central finding is that the current smart city literature and contemporary urban planning do not address these issues. This leads to the paradox that smart city concepts are supporting the CRM dependencies that they should actually be seeking to overcome. Discussion on this emerging issue between academics and practitioners has nevertheless not taken place. We address these issues and make recommendations.

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 73-83
Author(s):  
Zurisaddai De la Cruz Severiche ◽  
Oscar Andrés Guevara Guevara

Resumen: El crecimiento de la población en las zonas urbanas es una dificultad que se genera a nivel mundial y que requiere de tácticas que permitan contrarrestar sus efectos. Las ciudades inteligentes son vistas como una excelente solución a esta problemática ya que genera soluciones viables al apoyarse en la tecnología para gestionar diversos aspectos dentro de los que se incluye el entorno urbano. Este trabajo presenta una revisión de investigaciones que involucran la gestión urbana dentro de las ciudades inteligentes. Analizando el papel que cumple la gestión urbana dentro las ciudades inteligentes, lo que nos muestra que la gestión urbana apoyada de las TIC coopera visiblemente en la conformación de las ciudades inteligentes logrando mejorar la calidad de vida de sus habitantes. ___Palabras clave: ciudad inteligente, gestión urbana, planificación urbana, TIC. ___Abstract: Population growth in urban areas is a wordwide-generated difficulty and requires of tactics to counteract its effects. Smart cities are seen as an excellent solution to this problem, because they generate viable solutions to rely on technology to manage various aspects within which the urban environment is included. This paper presents a review of research involving urban management in smart cities. Analyzing the role that urban management accomplishes in smart cities, which shows that urban management supported by ICT visibly cooperates in shaping smart cities managing to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. ___Keywords: smart city, urban management, urban planning, TIC. ___Recibido: 11 de agosto de 2015. aceptado: 02 de octubre de 2015.


Author(s):  
Nina Danilina

Modern urban planning educational trend defines the sustainable development of smart cities as one of the most dynamic areas of city policies around the world. A smart city is a high-tech urban living environment in which innovative solutions are embedded in its constituent elements and processes to improve its quality and living standards. The concept of a smart city is aimed at sustainable development of urban areas and offers technology as a tool for solving problems in the field of planning, design, integrated engineering landscaping, as well as in the provision of urban services to the population. The article discusses the contents of the smart city concept, which reflects the main directions of the curriculum of the master's program «Sustainable Smart City». Its main purpose is to prepare urban planners who have professional competencies in the development of smart cities in the implementation of urban processes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Bakri ◽  
Anita Ahmad Kasim

<p><em>Smart City comes as a strategy to reduce the problem due to rapid urban growth and urbanization. The concept of Smart City is needed to ensure the conditions of a habitable City in the context of rapidly growing urban population growth. The urgency of this challenge prompted many cities to begin to find smarter ways of managing urban areas. One way to make the concept of the smart city is to make the city an icon that is sustainable and livable. This study aims to provide the necessary information in building and developing a city through the smart city approach. This paper clarifies the meaning of the word "smart" in the city context through an approach based on an in-depth literature review of the relevant study. This study will identify the main factors and characteristics that characterize smart cities. The method used to obtain various factors and the characteristics of the Smart City in the arrangement of a region is done by studying various kinds of the literature of various concepts and components in the Smart City. The results obtained in this study there is a concept of Smart City in urban planning by mapping various factors and characteristics in the Smart City. </em></p><p><strong>Keywords</strong><em>: Smart City, Urban planning, smart city characteristic </em></p>


Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Daria Uspenskaia ◽  
Karl Specht ◽  
Hendrik Kondziella ◽  
Thomas Bruckner

Without decarbonizing cities energy and climate objectives cannot be achieved as cities account for approximately two thirds of energy consumption and emissions. This goal of decarbonizing cities has to be facilitated by promoting net-zero/positive energy buildings and districts and replicating them, driving cities towards sustainability goals. Many projects in smart cities demonstrate novel and groundbreaking low-carbon solutions in demonstration and lighthouse projects. However, as the historical, geographic, political, social and economic context of urban areas vary greatly, it is not always easy to repeat the solution in another city or even district. It is therefore important to look for the opportunities to scale up or repeat successful pilots. The purpose of this paper is to explore common trends in technologies and replication strategies for positive energy buildings or districts in smart city projects, based on the practical experience from a case study in Leipzig—one of the lighthouse cities in the project SPARCS. One of the key findings the paper has proven is the necessity of a profound replication modelling to deepen the understanding of upscaling processes. Three models analyzed in this article are able to provide a multidimensional representation of the solution to be replicated.


2018 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 02021
Author(s):  
Olga Chudiniva ◽  
Marina Afonina

The development of “Smart Cities” is associated with a comprehensive study of the General system of settlement. The aim of the study is to use the system of indicators for the objective assessment of territories, as well as determining the effect of each part in the overall assessment of the functioning of the «Smart City». The leading method of research is a comparative analysis of international rankings, surveys of experts and a comprehensive study of indicators. The article analyzes the papers of specialists working in the field of research «Smart Cities» and technologies: Mueller, Battarra, Srivastava, Dolgikh etc. The basis for this work were the studies by authoritative rating organizations such as IESE Business School University of Navarra, Vienna University of Technology and Research Institute of technology and communications (NIITC, Russia) which allowed to generalize the available research from the perspective of sustainable development and use them on a concrete example.The authors have adapted the existing groups of indicators in relation to the SKOLKOVO innovation city, Russia. The applied system is represented by 7 groups and 23 indicators, which allow to present the planning aspect of the current urban planning structure with its impact on human capital, transport infrastructure, social cohesion, the state of the environment, etc. The work lets confirm the influence of the selected indicators on the development of SKOLKOVO (Russia) and use the obtained data for the rating of “Smart Cities” adapted for Russia. The materials of the article can be extremely useful in the designing of concepts for the development of territories focused on the use of smart solutions in order to minimize costs in the implementation of new solutions.


Author(s):  
Makeri Yakubu Ajiji ◽  
Xi’an Jiaotong Victor Chang ◽  
Targio Hashem Ibrahim Abaker ◽  
Uzorka Afam ◽  
T Cirella Giuseppe

Today the world is becoming connected. The number of devices that are connected are increasing day by day. Many studies reveal that about 50 billion devices would be connected by 2020 indicating that Internet of things have a very big role to play in the future to come Considering the perplexing engineering of Smart City conditions, it ought not to be failed to remember that their establishment lies in correspondence advancements that permit availability and information move between the components in Smart City conditions. Remote interchanges with their capacities speak to Smart City empowering advancements that give the open door for their fast and effective execution and extension as well. The gigantic weight towards the proficient city the board has triggered various Smart City activities by both government and private area businesses to put resources into Information and Communication Technologies to discover feasible answers for the assorted chances and difficulties (e.g., waste the executives). A few specialists have endeavored to characterize a lot of shrewd urban areas and afterward recognize openings and difficulties in building brilliant urban communities. This short article likewise expresses the progressing movement of the Internet of Things and its relationship to keen urban communities. Advancement in ICT and data sharing innovation are the drivers of keen city degree and scale. This quick development is changing brilliant city development with the beginning of the Internet of Things (IoT). This transformation additionally speaks to difficulties in building (Kehua, Li, and Fu ,Su et al.1). By knowing the attributes of specific advances, the experts will have the occasion to create proficient, practical, and adaptable Smart City frameworks by actualizing the most reasonable one.


Author(s):  
A.W.A. Hammad ◽  
A. Akbarnezhad ◽  
D. Rey

The incorporation of sustainable design measures in urban planning and development has been steadily increasing in the recent years. Achieving a sustainable urban environment requires accounting for the economic, environmental and social impacts of the development involved. An important factor affecting the social and environmental sustainability of urbanised areas which is commonly overlooked in urban planning is the noise pollution level. Despite the proven impacts of noise pollution on the general wellbeing of individuals within an urban setting, there remains a lack of systematic methods to integrate the impact of noise within the design of urban areas. This chapter seeks to raise awareness of the issue of noise pollution in urban settings while proposing novel approaches for its incorporation as a design parameter in planning the layout of smart cities.


2019 ◽  
pp. 658-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. V. Ralegaonkar ◽  
M. V. Madurwar ◽  
V. V. Sakhare

Due to ever increasing demand for the conventional construction materials as well as an increase in agro-industrial by-products it is essential to reuse these materials. As a smart city solution this chapter briefs an overview for the application of alternate raw materials as a principal source for the development of sustainable construction materials. The potential application of the discussed raw materials is elaborated as cementitious material, the aggregates as well as alternative reinforcement material. To understand the process of application, sustainable masonry product development is discussed in detail. In order to evaluate the feasibility of the raw material, the necessary physico-chemical test evaluation methods are also briefed. The developed end product performance evaluation is also discussed by desired tests as recommended by standards. The chapter concludes with a positive note that reuse of agro-industrial by-products is a feasible solution for the smart city development.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1459-1480
Author(s):  
Anand Nayyar ◽  
Rachna Jain ◽  
Bandana Mahapatra ◽  
Anubhav Singh

Smart cities are composed of interlinked components with constant data transfer and services targeted at increasing the life style of the people. The chapter focuses on diverged smart city components as well as the security models designed to be implemented. The four major paradigms discussed in this chapter are smart grids, building automation system (BAS), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and smart vehicles. Apart from addressing the security concerns of every component, the major highlights of this chapter are architecture, smart environment, industry, lifestyle, services, and digital lifestyle quality. Finally, the chapter focuses on privacy preserving mechanisms, its essence over smart cities, strong architecture related to privacy, preserving mechanism, and various approaches available that can retaliate these issues in a smart city environment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 4848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Garau ◽  
Alfonso Annunziata

The increases in urbanization, pollution, resource depletion, and climate change underline the need for urban planning policies that incorporate blue–green infrastructure (BGI) and ecosystem services. This paper proposes a framework for assessing BGI’s effect on children’s outdoor activities. This effect, called meaningful usefulness, is a central issue due to the influence of experiences with nature on children’s development and the global trend of concentration of children in urban areas. Based on the concept of affordance, the methodology formalizes meaningful usefulness in terms of an index of usefulness of individual settings (IUIS) and a synthetic index of usefulness of BGI in a specific area (ISGI). These are determined via an audit protocol, Opportunities for Children in Urban Spaces (OCUS), which incorporates a set of indicators measuring micro-scale properties of individual places and contextual macro-scale factors. The methodology is applied to BGI components in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, which was selected for its superior density of urban green spaces. The application of the OCUS tool confirms its usefulness for investigating functional affordances incorporated into the trans-scalar structures of BGIs. The analytic protocol further contributes to the implementation of urban planning strategies within the smart city paradigm.


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