The smart city and COVID-19

Smart cities are concepts much loved by politicians and technologists but are very difficult to bring about in practice. There are many isolated applications in cities such as operating streetlamps, but very few, if any, examples of integrated applications sharing data and managing the city as a holistic entity rather than a set of disparate and unconnected applications. This is despite hundreds of trials and indicates how difficult bringing about a smart city will be. The key challenge is the wide range of interested parties in a city including the elected city authority, subcontractors and suppliers to the authority, emergency services, transport providers, businesses, residents, workers, tourists, and other visitors. Some of these entities will be primarily driven by finance, such as businesses and transport providers. Some will be driven by political considerations. Some will be concerned with the quality of life as well as financial costs. In some cases, there will be conflicting interests-the city may want as much information as possible on people in the city, whereas individuals may want privacy and the minimum data stored concerning their movements and attributes. COVID-19 does not change any of these issues, but it does increase the importance of some applications such as smart health, logistics, people surveillance, data security, and crisis management, while reducing the importance of others such as traffic management. It may result in more willingness for monitoring and data sharing if this can be shown to result in better control of the virus. © 2023 the authors.

Citizen empowerment through smart surveillance: evidence from Indian smart cities

PurposeCitizens often perceive surveillance by government authorities as oppressive and, hence, demonstrate reluctance in value co-creation from such services. This study aims to investigate the challenges and benefits of citizen empowerment through technology-driven surveillance or "smart surveillance.”Design/methodology/approachGuided by Dynamic Capability theory, the authors conduct in-depth interviews with officers in-charge of surveillance in smart cities. Given the contemporary advancements, this approach allows a retrospective and real-time understanding of interviewees' experiences with smart surveillance.FindingsThe authors develop five propositions for citizen empowerment through smart surveillance to summarize the findings of this study.Research limitations/implicationsThis study advances the relevance of Dynamic Capability in public administration.Practical implicationsSmart city authorities and policymakers may leverage the insights provided in this study to design appropriate policies for smart surveillance.Originality/valueThe authors find that factors such as digital technology and infrastructure, information management, skill divide and perceived return on investment may influence citizen empowerment through smart surveillance.

Internet of Things (IoT) in Smart Cities: A Statistical Survey

Internet of things is progressing very rapidly and involving multiple domains of everyday life including environment, governance, healthcare system, transportation system, energy management system, etc. smart city is a platform for collecting and storing the information that is accessed through various sensor-based IoT devices and make their information available in required and authorized domains. This interoperability can be achieved by semantic web technology. In this paper, I have reviewed multiple papers related to IoT in Smart Cities and presented a comparison among the semantic parameters. Moreover, I've presented my future domain of research which is about delivering the COVID-19 patients report to the concerned domains by the healthcare system domain. © 2023 IEEE.

Exploring CBD Retail Performance, Recovery and Resilience of a Smart City Following COVID-19

The city of Christchurch, New Zealand, incurred significant damage due to a series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The city had, by the late 2010s, regained economic and social normalcy after a sustained period of rebuilding and economic recovery. Through the concerted rebuilding effort, a modern central business district (CBD) with redesigned infrastructure and amenities was developed. The Christchurch rebuild was underpinned by a commitment of urban planners to an open and connected city, including the use of innovative technologies to gather, use and share data. As was the case elsewhere, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant disruptions to social and economic life in Christchurch. Border closures, lockdowns, trading limitations and other restrictions on movement led to changes in traditional consumer behaviors and affected the retail sector's resilience. In this study, we used CBD pedestrian traffic data gathered from various locations to predict changes in retail spending and identify recovery implications through the lens of retail resilience. We found that the COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns have driven a substantive change in the behavioral patterns of city users. The implications for resilient retail, sustainable policy and further research are explored. © 2023 by the authors.

COVID-19‘s Impacts on Cities: Insights on the Provision of Safe Water, Sanitation and Waste Management in Zimbabwe

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacies of local authorities' planning frameworks and systems in the provision of potable water, sanitation and waste management in cities. Cities have been hotspots of COVID-19 due to rapid urbanisation and rising informal activities. Zimbabwean cities have struggled with water shortages evidenced by water shedding, incapacitation to acquire chemicals for water treatment, burst sewer outbreaks and blockages and inconsistent municipal waste disposal. Yet, the new normal apart from social distancing and wearing of masks calls for constant washing of hands and efficient waste management systems which help mitigate further spread of the virus. This chapter seeks to provide an overview of the impacts of COVID-19 on water provision, sanitation and waste management in Bulawayo, Masvingo and Mutare. This was a qualitative study which involved interviews with local authority officials, Department of Physical Planning officials, Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA). The impacts of shortcomings on the provision of quality water, sanitation and waste management give a wakeup call to the local authorities on the need to adopt more environmentally friendly and sustainable management strategies. The chapter recommends improvement in water provision through adopting other sources such as water harvesting on a larger scale, recycling of waste water, centralised waste management strategies, conversion of waste into energy as well as improved urban planning and design approaches towards sanitation and waste management. The chapter further anticipates high lighting that COVID-19 crisis is instead an opportunity for planners, designers, engineers, policy makers and other stakeholders to transform Zimbabwean cities towards resilient, sustainable and smart cities. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

Blockchain in Dubai: Toward a Sustainable Digital Future

As governments across the world examine blockchain technology, there are growing concerns about how to implement, enforce and maximize the benefits of the technology. Many countries have to do extensive research and analysis before coming up with proposals. The future of the Emirates Economy is getting less foggy as COVID-19 pushes many government sectors to dip their toes in digital blockchains. It is just a matter of time until blockchain technology is fully implemented in both the public and private sectors. This chapter's purpose is to first understand what is blockchain? Second, to explore blockchain technology in Dubai and third, to describe the sustainable aspects generated by blockchain by looking at different projects implemented in Dubai. The paper summarizes several measures for implementing, promoting and regulating the advancement of blockchain technology taking the example of Dubai. Finance, supply chain, digital identity, energy, healthcare, real estate, transportation and crowdfunding are only a few industries that have well-embraced blockchain technology. This chapter uses an exploratory approach by reviewing past studies and literature reviews on the topic of blockchain in Dubai. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

The interventions of the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan: digitalization in cities

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always following a rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. This section of the Journal, Review Notes, is the expression of a continuous updating of emerging topics concerning relationships among urban planning, mobility and environment, through a collection of short scientific papers. The Review Notes are made of five parts. Each section examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage within the main interests of TeMA Journal.This section of the Review Notes deals with the new frontiers of urban development through the lenses of the European program NextGenerationEU.In particular, this contribution deepens the topic of digitalization in urban areas within the framework of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan. It provides an overview of the proposed reforms, strategies and interventions to boost the digital economy and digitalize public services within the urban context.

Recommender System for Government Service in Smart Cities

significant recommender systems (RS) development has occurred along with the Internet of Things (IoT) development in recent years. Recommender systems have been widely spread across diverse fields, including environmental preservation, e-commerce, healthcare, social and governance systems. There has been a growing focus on e-government as part of smart city initiatives in today's world of connected devices and infrastructure, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. With the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), the government can enhance the delivery of public services, increase transparency, accountability, and credibility, as well as engage citizens in the decision-making process. To facilitate 'smart' governance, one of a smart city initiative's objectives is integrating e-government into the city's governance framework. The lack of personalized services for particular stakeholders is one of the most significant limitations of e-governance. There are a number of open challenges coupled with interesting opportunities, making this a very promising and exciting area for research to shape recommendation systems for urban environments. Considering the overwhelming amount of information, services, and tasks available through smart government applications, it is a greater chance of providing personalized recommendations for different stakeholders and tasks within multi-faceted and multi-dimension. There is still a lot of research to be done on recommendation systems in the context of smart cities or smart government. This paper survey the existing studies on recommendation systems for smart governance. The study aims to address smart city challenges to considered when designing and implementing recommendations for e-governance and the target stakeholder's interests. © 2022 IEEE.

Conceptual Principles of Accounting and Control of the Local Budgets during the War and Post-War Periods

External threats (Russian-Ukrainian war, climate change on the planet, consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic) and internal factors (lack of funding, inefficient use of funds, inconsistency of powers of the executive power at different levels) lead to unbalanced adoption of budget decisions at the local level in Ukraine. A major role in overcoming such bottlenecks lies in rethinking the functions of accounting and control. The purpose of the article is to find new conceptual approaches that will improve the efficiency of municipalities based on providing the management of the territorial community with complete, accurate and operational data. The authors analyze the publications for 1946-2022 from SCOPUS by computer program VOSviewer, using methods of content analysis and clustering. In addition, the authors use a number of scientific methods: analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, the system method, analogies, etc. The study deals with a number of problems and solutions implemented by municipalities during wartime, related to local budgets. The influence of natural factors, sustainable development, accounting and control on ensuring the manageability of budgets of territorial communities has been clarified. The authors propose a new conceptual approach to the organization of the budgetary process of territorial communities, which is based on the concept of STEM. For its practical implementation, it is recommended to apply the smart city concept. The study identifies the main advantages and caveats regarding its implementation in Ukraine. The practical significance of the obtained results lies in the possibility of improving accounting and control of local budgets.

Societal smart city: Definition and principles for post-pandemic urban policy and practice

Smart cities are expected to address global challenges and increase the quality of life. However, due to the overemphasis on physical and technological aspects, social rights and democratic values have often been neglected in smart city projects. In this paper, we introduce the concept of 'societal smart city' and discuss how and why it should be prioritized in the post-pandemic era. We argue that a societal smart city is a city that integrates social rights and democratic values with technological innovations. Six major dimensions of a societal smart city are: social sustainability, citizen-centeredness, e-democracy, social justice, participatory governance, and cultural resilience. We encourage urban planners and policymakers to pay attention to these dimensions and caution against physical and technological determinism.

Design and Implementation of a Real-Time Crowd Monitoring System Based on Public Wi-Fi Infrastructure: A Case Study on the Sri Chiang Mai Smart City

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in many aspects of daily life, including learning, working, and communicating. As countries aim to recover their economies, there is an increasing need for smart city solutions, such as crowd monitoring systems, to ensure public safety both during and after the pandemic. This paper presents the design and implementation of a real-time crowd monitoring system using existing public Wi-Fi infrastructure. The proposed system employs a three-tiered architecture, including the sensing domain for data acquisition, the communication domain for data transfer, and the computing domain for data processing, visualization, and analysis. Wi-Fi access points were used as sensors that continuously monitored the crowd and uploaded data to the server. To protect the privacy of the data, encryption algorithms were employed during data transmission. The system was implemented in the Sri Chiang Mai Smart City, where nine Wi-Fi access points were installed in nine different locations along the Mekong River. The system provides real-time crowd density visualizations. Historical data were also collected for the analysis and understanding of urban behaviors. A quantitative evaluation was not feasible due to the uncontrolled environment in public open spaces, but the system was visually evaluated in real-world conditions to assess crowd density, rather than represent the entire population. Overall, the study demonstrates the potential of leveraging existing public Wi-Fi infrastructure for crowd monitoring in uncontrolled, real-world environments. The monitoring system is readily accessible and does not require additional hardware investment or maintenance. The collected dataset is also available for download. In addition to COVID-19 pandemic management, this technology can also assist government policymakers in optimizing the use of public space and urban planning. Real-time crowd density data provided by the system can assist route planners or recommend points of interest, while information on the popularity of tourist destinations enables targeted marketing.

Understanding Residents' Behavior for Smart City Management by Sequential and Periodic Pattern Mining

Understanding the residents’routine and repetitive behavior patterns is important for city planners and strategic partners to enact appropriate city management policies. However, the existing approaches reported in smart city management areas often rely on clustering or machine learning, which are ineffective in capturing such behavioral patterns. Aiming to address this research gap, this article proposes an analytical framework, adopting sequential and periodic pattern mining techniques, to effectively discover residents’routine behavior patterns. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated in a case study of American public behavior based on a large-scale venue check-in dataset. The dataset was collected in 2020 (during the global pandemic due to COVID-19) and contains 257 561 check-in data of 3995 residents. The findings uncovered interesting behavioral patterns and venue visit information of residents in the United States during the pandemic, which could help the public and crisis management in cities. IEEE

Sustainable Urban Freight for Energy-Efficient Smart Cities—Systematic Literature Review

Smart cities need energy-efficient and low-emission transportation for people and goods. Most studies focus on sustainable urban-transportation systems for passengers. Freight transportation in cities has increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to greenhouse gases emissions and negative externalities, such as traffic congestion. The purpose of this paper is to identify through a systematic literature review which innovations (hardware and software) applied by logistics service providers (LSPs) in sustainable urban freight (SUF) are suitable to support the transition to energy-efficient smart cities. We propose to classify the existing innovations in last-mile delivery for SUF into categories: (1) urban freight consolidation and/or trans-shipment;(2) the Consumer as a Service Provider (CaaSP);(3) choice of transportation modes. We introduce the concept of CaaSP as an innovative solution in last-mile delivery (LMD), where customers take over some transport operations with the use of smart technologies, and thus reduce the energy demand. We consider the modes of transportation, such as: drones, autonomous delivery robots, autonomous vehicles, cargo bikes (including e-cargo bikes, e-tricycles), electric vehicles (mainly vans), and combined passenger-and-cargo transportation rapid-transit systems. From the analyzed dataset, we find that energy-efficiency in smart cities can be improved by the consolidation of parcels in micro-depots, parcel lockers, and mobile depots. We analyze smart technologies (the Internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, and digital twins), which enable energy efficiency by reducing the energy demand (fuel) of SUF, due to better operational planning and infrastructure sharing by logistics service providers. We propose a new IEE matrix as an actionable tool for the classification of innovations applied by LSPs in SUF, according to the level of their interconnectivity and energy efficiency. Additionally, this paper contributes to the theory by exploring possible future research directions for SUF in energy-efficient smart cities. © 2023 by the authors.

Conceptual Model for Assessing Logistics Maturity in Smart City Dimensions

The advancement of new technologies and the increasingly inseparable presence of logistics systems in the daily life of cities, industries, companies, and society has been modifying how logistics processes are implemented in these environments based on technological innovations, internet, virtual businesses, mobility, and the use of multi-channel distribution. Together with these changes, urban centers have been connecting to the smart city concept as the understanding of this theme advances into the debate and improvements in the agendas of either public or private management. This research proposes a conceptual model for evaluating logistics maturity in the smart city dimensions. The method has a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive approach, supported by the Delphi method, which uses a questionnaire and interview as a data collection instrument with specialists on the subject. We identified that qualifying logistics in the urban environment is complex and requires a specialized look at identifying cities' structural, geographic, regional, social, and environmental characteristics. As a social–technological contribution, the proposition of the logistics maturity assessment scale in smart city dimensions can serve as an evaluative model of logistics, which means helping in urban planning and strategic management of cities, offering smarter solutions to the realities of urban spaces.

Introduction to the Minitrack on Smart (City) and Data Streaming Application Development: Challenges and Experiences

Building Smart (City) Applications and data streaming have been fast evolving in the last couple of years with a breadth of topics with cities on the edge of the 4th industrial revolution. With COVID-19 starting to be better addressable and people returning to big cities and downtown areas, visions for urban utopia with focus on sustainability and communities arise again. The combination of Artifical Intelligence, Internet of Things and data streaming methods open up novel research areas with large transational potential and address topics such as smart transportation and standards such as Industry 4.0. This minitrack features the concepts and ideas of Smart Applications and data streaming applications, their implementations, especially from a software engineering point of view. Submissions to this minitrack include presentations of architectures, frameworks, platforms and infrastructures as well as success stories of implementations. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Epidemic diseases and smart transformation

In this chapter, the epidemic diseases, their impact on the future of cities, and the causes of these problems for cities are examined. Additionally, efforts will be made to address these challenges and problems, a response that can make future cities livable and sustainable, despite population growth, increasing environmental problems, increasing urban management challenges, epidemic diseases and pandemics such as COVID-19 and other challenges and problems. This chapter will also discuss the steps taken in the field of smart transformation and smart cities and the necessity for cities to move toward smart transformation. © 2023 by Amin Faraji, Amin Gharibi and Azadeh Azimi. All rights reserved.

Trends in Smart Healthcare Systems for Smart Cities Applications

Consider the most important lessons learned from the global achievements and disappointments of the previous year. It was a year filled with pandemics that exacerbated massive geopolitical, social, and economic shocks on a worldwide scale, bringing out the worst and best in people. However, the past two years have demonstrated the fragility of global institutions in numerous industries, including medicine, hospitality, travel, and commerce. It also reflects the resilience of the international system with the introduction of various vaccinations and concentrated worldwide efforts against pandemic threats. Conventional and cutting-edge technology approaches are needed to attack COVID-19 and put the situation under control. This paper's primary purpose is to systematically study trends in technology solutions for smart healthcare systems - for example, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data (BD) analytics, which will help save the world. These AI solutions facilitate innovative administrations, adaptability, productivity, and efficiency by developing related frameworks. Specifically, this study identifies AI and Big Data contributions that should be incorporated into smart healthcare systems. It also studies the application of big data analytics and AI to offer users insights and help them to plan and presents models for intelligent healthcare systems based on AI and big data analytics. © 2023 IEEE.

Eco-Friendly IoT Solutions for Smart Cities Development: An Overview

The last three years showed global systems' fragility in different disciplines, such as medicine, travel, and trade. Moreover, environmental changes are still happening in extreme weather phenomena, exacerbating COVID-19 in the world health sector. Therefore, the world needs to work hard in both traditional and modern technological ways to develop smart solutions for the development of smart cities to create open, interconnected networks for everyone. The focus of intense research worldwide is the development of standardized eco-friendly sensor networks enabled by IoT technology. This study presents a comprehensive overview of the challenges facing the world and humans in the current era and how modern technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), can make a real change in smart city development and save the global environment. These technological solutions and frameworks help to achieve innovative administration, high adaptability, better efficiency, and productivity. In particular, the paper spots light on top environmental challenges according to impact and likelihood classifications. Also, it discusses recent green technology solutions for smart city development in many applications, such as e-waste management, climate change adaptation, water crises, and natural disaster management. © 2023 IEEE.

Digital Transformation in the Smart City During Covid-19: Perceptions of Citizens

The article presents an analysis of the communicative behavior of actors in cyberspace during Covid-19. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that an algorithm is presented for determining the perception and track opinions and attitude changes of metropolitan residents in terms of digital transformation. The material included Russian-language data from social networks, video hosting services, microblogs, messengers, blogs, news, reviews, and forums. The data was collected at the beginning of the third wave of Covid-19 in Russia from June 2, 2021 to June 29, 2021. The study enabled identification of digital transformation aspects that were positively perceived by the residents of Moscow (RF) and found their support;and it also made possible to identify resources the emergence and development of which could lead to an increase in social tension. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

IoT-Based E-Parking System for Multiplexes and Shopping Malls

This paper helps in automating process of car parking in shopping malls. It helps in making parking more efficient by burning of less fuel. This system is useful for places with large number of people considering less people-to-people contact considering Covid Pandemic and making a safe system for minimal infection transmission from people to people. This paper aims at developing a IoT-based E-parking system. This project uses Micro-controller (ATtiny85) for controlling of sensors. Set of multiple ultrasonic sensors are put on ceilings per floor with multiple slots for detection of vehicles in parked spaces with threshold set for cars. Multiple Wi-Fi modules are used for wirelessly uploading the values of vehicles parked in different floors to cloud from where the Wi-Fi module at entrance extracts data and displays on central display at entrance for assigning empty parking slots to new vehicles on arrival. Entrance display displays number of empty slots on every floor to new customer entering mall parking system. This project achieved objective of making a system which can be used in times of Covid-19 for better safety of people. This paper has been able to achieve its main objectives of making a safe, affordable, scalable parking system which can be used in shopping malls and multiplexes. It can be scaled to large usable parking systems using better sensors and better computing devices. It can provide means of work or business to youth of city for building and selling smart vehicle parking systems and deploy them to multiple malls and multiplexes using help from staff and sell at affordable rates. It can also help make more customizable and modular smart parking systems tailored to use of system in any buildings. Arduino IDE has been used for uploading code to cloud modules in project. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.