Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6050131
Maciej Kruszyna
This study shows the concept of an innovative road and rail vehicle as a new form of public transport. Our literature review shows that the idea of a “smart city” contains not only new tools but also vehicles or infrastructure. The new vehicle is proposed based on the observed development of urban public transport means and other novel solutions. A slight innovation proposed here could allow the use of typical and operated tram routes for modified buses. A new type of vehicle could use both the existing tram routes and newly constructed sections with no tracks. It is assumed that new vehicles would drive with trams on the same, shared tracks. All of the conditions should reduce the costs of developing public transport networks in many cities where tram networks already exist. This paper contains a description of the idea and a potential case study location. The implementation conditions are outlined in the Discussion section. The title’s question is also considered there: “Should smart cities introduce a new form of public transport vehicles?” In addition, the potential benefits as well as threats are presented. Conclusions define the next steps for the research. So, this paper is an introduction to the wider research. It will popularize the idea of a new vehicle and could motivate the industry to construct a prototype. At this stage, no models or detailed calculations were conducted.
{"title":"Should Smart Cities Introduce a New Form of Public Transport Vehicles?","authors":"Maciej Kruszyna","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6050131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6050131","url":null,"abstract":"This study shows the concept of an innovative road and rail vehicle as a new form of public transport. Our literature review shows that the idea of a “smart city” contains not only new tools but also vehicles or infrastructure. The new vehicle is proposed based on the observed development of urban public transport means and other novel solutions. A slight innovation proposed here could allow the use of typical and operated tram routes for modified buses. A new type of vehicle could use both the existing tram routes and newly constructed sections with no tracks. It is assumed that new vehicles would drive with trams on the same, shared tracks. All of the conditions should reduce the costs of developing public transport networks in many cities where tram networks already exist. This paper contains a description of the idea and a potential case study location. The implementation conditions are outlined in the Discussion section. The title’s question is also considered there: “Should smart cities introduce a new form of public transport vehicles?” In addition, the potential benefits as well as threats are presented. Conclusions define the next steps for the research. So, this paper is an introduction to the wider research. It will popularize the idea of a new vehicle and could motivate the industry to construct a prototype. At this stage, no models or detailed calculations were conducted.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135569206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6050130
Eman Alharbi, Asma Cherif, Farrukh Nadeem
Recently, there has been growing interest in using smart eHealth systems to manage asthma. However, limitations still exist in providing smart services and accurate predictions tailored to individual patients’ needs. This study aims to develop an adaptive ubiquitous computing framework that leverages different bio-signals and spatial data to provide personalized asthma attack prediction and safe route recommendations. We proposed a smart eHealth framework consisting of multiple layers that employ telemonitoring application, environmental sensors, and advanced machine-learning algorithms to deliver smart services to the user. The proposed smart eHealth system predicts asthma attacks and uses spatial data to provide a safe route that drives the patient away from any asthma trigger. Additionally, the framework incorporates an adaptation layer that continuously updates the system based on real-time environmental data and daily bio-signals reported by the user. The developed telemonitoring application collected a dataset containing 665 records used to train the prediction models. The testing result demonstrates a remarkable 98% accuracy in predicting asthma attacks with a recall of 96%. The eHealth system was tested online by ten asthma patients, and its accuracy achieved 94% of accuracy and a recall of 95.2% in generating safe routes for asthma patients, ensuring a safer and asthma-trigger-free experience. The test shows that 89% of patients were satisfied with the safer recommended route than their usual one. This research contributes to enhancing the capabilities of smart healthcare systems in managing asthma and improving patient outcomes. The adaptive feature of the proposed eHealth system ensures that the predictions and recommendations remain relevant and personalized to the current conditions and needs of the individual.
{"title":"Adaptive Smart eHealth Framework for Personalized Asthma Attack Prediction and Safe Route Recommendation","authors":"Eman Alharbi, Asma Cherif, Farrukh Nadeem","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6050130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6050130","url":null,"abstract":"Recently, there has been growing interest in using smart eHealth systems to manage asthma. However, limitations still exist in providing smart services and accurate predictions tailored to individual patients’ needs. This study aims to develop an adaptive ubiquitous computing framework that leverages different bio-signals and spatial data to provide personalized asthma attack prediction and safe route recommendations. We proposed a smart eHealth framework consisting of multiple layers that employ telemonitoring application, environmental sensors, and advanced machine-learning algorithms to deliver smart services to the user. The proposed smart eHealth system predicts asthma attacks and uses spatial data to provide a safe route that drives the patient away from any asthma trigger. Additionally, the framework incorporates an adaptation layer that continuously updates the system based on real-time environmental data and daily bio-signals reported by the user. The developed telemonitoring application collected a dataset containing 665 records used to train the prediction models. The testing result demonstrates a remarkable 98% accuracy in predicting asthma attacks with a recall of 96%. The eHealth system was tested online by ten asthma patients, and its accuracy achieved 94% of accuracy and a recall of 95.2% in generating safe routes for asthma patients, ensuring a safer and asthma-trigger-free experience. The test shows that 89% of patients were satisfied with the safer recommended route than their usual one. This research contributes to enhancing the capabilities of smart healthcare systems in managing asthma and improving patient outcomes. The adaptive feature of the proposed eHealth system ensures that the predictions and recommendations remain relevant and personalized to the current conditions and needs of the individual.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135570069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-19DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6050129
Karim Gazzeh
Sustainable Smart Cities have a significant potential to ensure equal access to public services, achieve sustainability and governance transparency, improve livability, and anticipate and mitigate increasingly changing threats. This study aims at prioritizing a core set of Sustainable Smart City (SSC) indicators using a combined methodology: (a) Content Analysis and (b) Analytic Hierarchy Process. The study’s contribution is that it successfully developed a more robust ranking of the above-mentioned set of indicators by combining AHP and co-occurrence analyses. The final combined ranking is intended to serve as a Decision Support Tool to streamline the decision-making process and help decision-makers prioritize dimensions to measure, achieve, or monitor actions when they cannot be undertaken simultaneously in contexts of economic recessions, financial constraints, and resource mobilization challenges. The findings draw attention to the need for considering the concept of SSCs through the prism of interconnecting the various current technology-driven “smart silos” under an inclusive umbrella that focuses on the combinations and connectedness to achieve a systemic approach to sustainability and smartness that none of those single areas can achieve in isolation. The results also revealed an interesting paradox, which relegated the Technology and ICT dimension to the bottom of the ranking, contrary to the widespread consensus and opinion, opening an opportunity for discussion among peers.
{"title":"Ranking Sustainable Smart City Indicators Using Combined Content Analysis and Analytical Hierarchy Process Techniques","authors":"Karim Gazzeh","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6050129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6050129","url":null,"abstract":"Sustainable Smart Cities have a significant potential to ensure equal access to public services, achieve sustainability and governance transparency, improve livability, and anticipate and mitigate increasingly changing threats. This study aims at prioritizing a core set of Sustainable Smart City (SSC) indicators using a combined methodology: (a) Content Analysis and (b) Analytic Hierarchy Process. The study’s contribution is that it successfully developed a more robust ranking of the above-mentioned set of indicators by combining AHP and co-occurrence analyses. The final combined ranking is intended to serve as a Decision Support Tool to streamline the decision-making process and help decision-makers prioritize dimensions to measure, achieve, or monitor actions when they cannot be undertaken simultaneously in contexts of economic recessions, financial constraints, and resource mobilization challenges. The findings draw attention to the need for considering the concept of SSCs through the prism of interconnecting the various current technology-driven “smart silos” under an inclusive umbrella that focuses on the combinations and connectedness to achieve a systemic approach to sustainability and smartness that none of those single areas can achieve in isolation. The results also revealed an interesting paradox, which relegated the Technology and ICT dimension to the bottom of the ranking, contrary to the widespread consensus and opinion, opening an opportunity for discussion among peers.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135779113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-18DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6050128
Ayat-Allah Bouramdane
Global urbanization and increasing water demand make efficient water resource management crucial. This study employs Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to evaluate smart city water management strategies. We use representative criteria, employ objective judgment, assign weights through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and score strategies based on meeting these criteria. We find that the “Effectiveness and Risk Management” criterion carries the highest weight (15.28%), underscoring its pivotal role in strategy evaluation and robustness. Medium-weight criteria include “Resource Efficiency, Equity, and Social Considerations” (10.44%), “Integration with Existing Systems, Technological Feasibility, and Ease of Implementation” (10.10%), and “Environmental Impact” (9.84%) for ecological mitigation. “Community Engagement and Public Acceptance” (9.79%) recognizes involvement, while “Scalability and Adaptability” (9.35%) addresses changing conditions. “Return on Investment” (9.07%) and “Regulatory and Policy Alignment” (8.8%) balance financial and governance concerns. Two low-weight criteria, “Data Reliability” (8.78%) and “Long-Term Sustainability” (8.55%), stress data accuracy and sustainability. Highly weighted strategies like “Smart Metering and Monitoring, Demand Management, Behavior Change” and “Smart Irrigation Systems” are particularly effective in improving water management in smart cities. However, medium-weighted (e.g., “Educational Campaigns and Public Awareness”, “Policy and Regulation”, “Rainwater Harvesting”, “Offshore Floating Photovoltaic Systems”, “Collaboration and Partnerships”, “Graywater Recycling and Reuse”, and “Distributed Water Infrastructure”) and low-weighted (e.g., “Water Desalination”) strategies also contribute and can be combined with higher-ranked ones to create customized water management approaches for each smart city’s unique context. This research is significant because it addresses urban water resource management complexity, offers a multi-criteria approach to enhance traditional single-focused methods, evaluates water strategies in smart cities comprehensively, and provides a criteria-weight-based resource allocation framework for sustainable decisions, boosting smart city resilience. Note that results may vary based on specific smart city needs and constraints. Future studies could explore factors like climate change on water management in smart cities and consider alternative MCDM methods like TOPSIS or ELECTRE for strategy evaluation.
{"title":"Optimal Water Management Strategies: Paving the Way for Sustainability in Smart Cities","authors":"Ayat-Allah Bouramdane","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6050128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6050128","url":null,"abstract":"Global urbanization and increasing water demand make efficient water resource management crucial. This study employs Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to evaluate smart city water management strategies. We use representative criteria, employ objective judgment, assign weights through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and score strategies based on meeting these criteria. We find that the “Effectiveness and Risk Management” criterion carries the highest weight (15.28%), underscoring its pivotal role in strategy evaluation and robustness. Medium-weight criteria include “Resource Efficiency, Equity, and Social Considerations” (10.44%), “Integration with Existing Systems, Technological Feasibility, and Ease of Implementation” (10.10%), and “Environmental Impact” (9.84%) for ecological mitigation. “Community Engagement and Public Acceptance” (9.79%) recognizes involvement, while “Scalability and Adaptability” (9.35%) addresses changing conditions. “Return on Investment” (9.07%) and “Regulatory and Policy Alignment” (8.8%) balance financial and governance concerns. Two low-weight criteria, “Data Reliability” (8.78%) and “Long-Term Sustainability” (8.55%), stress data accuracy and sustainability. Highly weighted strategies like “Smart Metering and Monitoring, Demand Management, Behavior Change” and “Smart Irrigation Systems” are particularly effective in improving water management in smart cities. However, medium-weighted (e.g., “Educational Campaigns and Public Awareness”, “Policy and Regulation”, “Rainwater Harvesting”, “Offshore Floating Photovoltaic Systems”, “Collaboration and Partnerships”, “Graywater Recycling and Reuse”, and “Distributed Water Infrastructure”) and low-weighted (e.g., “Water Desalination”) strategies also contribute and can be combined with higher-ranked ones to create customized water management approaches for each smart city’s unique context. This research is significant because it addresses urban water resource management complexity, offers a multi-criteria approach to enhance traditional single-focused methods, evaluates water strategies in smart cities comprehensively, and provides a criteria-weight-based resource allocation framework for sustainable decisions, boosting smart city resilience. Note that results may vary based on specific smart city needs and constraints. Future studies could explore factors like climate change on water management in smart cities and consider alternative MCDM methods like TOPSIS or ELECTRE for strategy evaluation.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135823684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-16DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6050127
Ahmed Ali A. Mohamed, Rohama Ahmad, Jaskaran Singh, Ahmed S. Rahman
This article investigates the feasibility of using regenerative energy from braking trains to charge electric buses in the context of New York City’s (NYC) subway and electric bus networks. A case study centered around NYC’s system has been performed to evaluate the benefits and challenges pertaining to the use of the preexisting subway network as a power supply for its new all-electric buses. The analysis shows that charging electric buses via the subway system during subway off-peak periods does not hinder regular train operation. In addition, having the charging electric buses connected to the third rail allows for more regenerative braking energy (RBE) to be recuperated, decreasing the energy wasted throughout the system. It was also found that including a wayside energy storage system (WESS) reduces the overall substation peak power consumption.
{"title":"Train to Vehicle: Toward Sustainable Transportation in Dense Urban Regions","authors":"Ahmed Ali A. Mohamed, Rohama Ahmad, Jaskaran Singh, Ahmed S. Rahman","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6050127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6050127","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the feasibility of using regenerative energy from braking trains to charge electric buses in the context of New York City’s (NYC) subway and electric bus networks. A case study centered around NYC’s system has been performed to evaluate the benefits and challenges pertaining to the use of the preexisting subway network as a power supply for its new all-electric buses. The analysis shows that charging electric buses via the subway system during subway off-peak periods does not hinder regular train operation. In addition, having the charging electric buses connected to the third rail allows for more regenerative braking energy (RBE) to be recuperated, decreasing the energy wasted throughout the system. It was also found that including a wayside energy storage system (WESS) reduces the overall substation peak power consumption.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136115958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ensuring safe and clean drinking water for communities is crucial, and necessitates effective tools to monitor and predict water quality due to challenges from population growth, industrial activities, and environmental pollution. This paper evaluates the performance of multiple linear regression (MLR) and nineteen machine learning (ML) models, including algorithms based on regression, decision tree, and boosting. Models include linear regression (LR), least angle regression (LAR), Bayesian ridge chain (BR), ridge regression (Ridge), k-nearest neighbor regression (K-NN), extra tree regression (ET), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). The research’s objective is to estimate the surface water quality of Al-Seine Lake in Lattakia governorate using the MLR and ML models. We used water quality data from the drinking water lake of Lattakia City, Syria, during years 2021–2022 to determine the water quality index (WQI). The predictive performance of both the MLR and ML models was evaluated using statistical methods such as the coefficient of determination (R2) and the root mean square error (RMSE) to estimate their efficiency. The results indicated that the MLR model and three of the ML models, namely linear regression (LR), least angle regression (LAR), and Bayesian ridge chain (BR), performed well in predicting the WQI. The MLR model had an R2 of 0.999 and an RMSE of 0.149, while the three ML models had an R2 of 1.0 and an RMSE of approximately 0.0. These results support using both MLR and ML models for predicting the WQI with very high accuracy, which will contribute to improving water quality management.
{"title":"Multiple Linear Regression and Machine Learning for Predicting the Drinking Water Quality Index in Al-Seine Lake","authors":"Raed Jafar, Adel Awad, Iyad Hatem, Kamel Jafar, Edmond Awad, Isam Shahrour","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6050126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6050126","url":null,"abstract":"Ensuring safe and clean drinking water for communities is crucial, and necessitates effective tools to monitor and predict water quality due to challenges from population growth, industrial activities, and environmental pollution. This paper evaluates the performance of multiple linear regression (MLR) and nineteen machine learning (ML) models, including algorithms based on regression, decision tree, and boosting. Models include linear regression (LR), least angle regression (LAR), Bayesian ridge chain (BR), ridge regression (Ridge), k-nearest neighbor regression (K-NN), extra tree regression (ET), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). The research’s objective is to estimate the surface water quality of Al-Seine Lake in Lattakia governorate using the MLR and ML models. We used water quality data from the drinking water lake of Lattakia City, Syria, during years 2021–2022 to determine the water quality index (WQI). The predictive performance of both the MLR and ML models was evaluated using statistical methods such as the coefficient of determination (R2) and the root mean square error (RMSE) to estimate their efficiency. The results indicated that the MLR model and three of the ML models, namely linear regression (LR), least angle regression (LAR), and Bayesian ridge chain (BR), performed well in predicting the WQI. The MLR model had an R2 of 0.999 and an RMSE of 0.149, while the three ML models had an R2 of 1.0 and an RMSE of approximately 0.0. These results support using both MLR and ML models for predicting the WQI with very high accuracy, which will contribute to improving water quality management.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135968218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-11DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6050125
Diogo Correia, Phillip Richards, Adelino Ferreira
Research into novel methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is being carried out with the use of energy-harvesting systems. On road pavements, energy-harvesting technology has been successful in finding solutions and applications. This study discusses a solution for airport pavements that aims to produce electric energy from aircraft traffic. The new system is simulated in Simulink/MATLAB with all the components for producing technical data being provided by the manufacturers. The system is internally subdivided by simulating the aircraft in 3DOF and the energy harvesting in 1DOF. The energy-harvesting simulations achieved an energy density of up to 6.80 Wh/(m.vehicle) and a 24% conversion rate. This paper contributes to the exploration of solutions to enable energy-harvesting systems to be placed in airport pavements. These solutions are traffic dependent and require an innovative system to control the operation due to the specifications of airport pavements.
{"title":"Energy Harvesting on Airport Pavements Traffic Dependent: A321 (Narrow-Body) Aircraft Case Study","authors":"Diogo Correia, Phillip Richards, Adelino Ferreira","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6050125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6050125","url":null,"abstract":"Research into novel methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is being carried out with the use of energy-harvesting systems. On road pavements, energy-harvesting technology has been successful in finding solutions and applications. This study discusses a solution for airport pavements that aims to produce electric energy from aircraft traffic. The new system is simulated in Simulink/MATLAB with all the components for producing technical data being provided by the manufacturers. The system is internally subdivided by simulating the aircraft in 3DOF and the energy harvesting in 1DOF. The energy-harvesting simulations achieved an energy density of up to 6.80 Wh/(m.vehicle) and a 24% conversion rate. This paper contributes to the exploration of solutions to enable energy-harvesting systems to be placed in airport pavements. These solutions are traffic dependent and require an innovative system to control the operation due to the specifications of airport pavements.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136210939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-10DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6050123
Izabela Jonek-Kowalska
The Smart City concept is perceived as a method of dynamic development of cities and an opportunity to improve the quality of life of the urban community. Nevertheless, it is not without its disadvantages, among which the possibility of exclusion (economic, social or digital) is most often mentioned. However, the literature on the subject lacks empirical research verifying this allegation. For this reason, the purpose of this article is to conduct a comparative analysis of economic and social conditions in 17 Polish cities, 3 of which are recognized as Smart Cities in international rankings. By analyzing the economic and demographic conditions in the long term, an attempt is made to answer the question of whether Smart Cities offer better living conditions, and if so, how big is the imbalance and the risk of excluding other cities? In the course of the research, the following are taken into account: tax revenue per capita, unemployment rate, population density and level, as well as the share of working and post-working age population. These parameters are analyzed using descriptive statistics and systematized using multi-criteria analysis. The collective comparison of all the surveyed provincial cities shows that the best economic and demographic conditions apply to cities recognized as smart. The average annual rate of changes in tax revenues in the surveyed cities ranges from 5% to almost 8% and is the highest in Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław. These cities are also characterized by the lowest unemployment rate, ranging from 3% to 4% (in other cities, from 4% to almost 7%). The mentioned cities and Gdańsk are the only ones with a positive rate of population change (from 0.62% to 1.08%). Other studied cities are systematically depopulating (annual rate of change from −0.37% to −7.09%). In Warsaw, Wrocław and Kraków, the share of the working-age population is also decreasing the slowest (the annual rate of change below −1.0%). The cities recognized as smart (Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław) are matched by Gdańsk and Poznań, which can be considered strong contenders for being smart. Unfortunately, the remaining cities are far from the leaders of the ranking, which may expose them to economic and social exclusion, all the more so that the parameters examined in them are characterized by negative tendencies. It can, therefore, be concluded that striving to be smart can be a cause of increasing the economic and demographic distance. Therefore, it may increase unbalance and generate exclusion in the analyzed areas.
{"title":"The Exclusiveness of Smart Cities—Myth or Reality? Comparative Analysis of Selected Economic and Demographic Conditions of Polish Cities","authors":"Izabela Jonek-Kowalska","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6050123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6050123","url":null,"abstract":"The Smart City concept is perceived as a method of dynamic development of cities and an opportunity to improve the quality of life of the urban community. Nevertheless, it is not without its disadvantages, among which the possibility of exclusion (economic, social or digital) is most often mentioned. However, the literature on the subject lacks empirical research verifying this allegation. For this reason, the purpose of this article is to conduct a comparative analysis of economic and social conditions in 17 Polish cities, 3 of which are recognized as Smart Cities in international rankings. By analyzing the economic and demographic conditions in the long term, an attempt is made to answer the question of whether Smart Cities offer better living conditions, and if so, how big is the imbalance and the risk of excluding other cities? In the course of the research, the following are taken into account: tax revenue per capita, unemployment rate, population density and level, as well as the share of working and post-working age population. These parameters are analyzed using descriptive statistics and systematized using multi-criteria analysis. The collective comparison of all the surveyed provincial cities shows that the best economic and demographic conditions apply to cities recognized as smart. The average annual rate of changes in tax revenues in the surveyed cities ranges from 5% to almost 8% and is the highest in Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław. These cities are also characterized by the lowest unemployment rate, ranging from 3% to 4% (in other cities, from 4% to almost 7%). The mentioned cities and Gdańsk are the only ones with a positive rate of population change (from 0.62% to 1.08%). Other studied cities are systematically depopulating (annual rate of change from −0.37% to −7.09%). In Warsaw, Wrocław and Kraków, the share of the working-age population is also decreasing the slowest (the annual rate of change below −1.0%). The cities recognized as smart (Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław) are matched by Gdańsk and Poznań, which can be considered strong contenders for being smart. Unfortunately, the remaining cities are far from the leaders of the ranking, which may expose them to economic and social exclusion, all the more so that the parameters examined in them are characterized by negative tendencies. It can, therefore, be concluded that striving to be smart can be a cause of increasing the economic and demographic distance. Therefore, it may increase unbalance and generate exclusion in the analyzed areas.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136358225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-10DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6050124
Amr Adel
In the quest to meet the escalating demands of citizens, future smart cities emerge as crucial entities. Their role becomes even more vital given the current challenges posed by rapid urbanization and the need for sustainable and inclusive living spaces. At the heart of these future smart cities are advancements in information and communication technologies, with Industry 5.0 playing an increasingly significant role. This paper endeavors to conduct an exhaustive survey to analyze future technologies, including the potential of Industry 5.0 and their implications for smart cities. The crux of the paper is an exploration of technological advancements across various domains that are set to shape the future of urban environments. The discussion spans diverse areas including but not limited to cyber–physical systems, fog computing, unmanned aerial vehicles, renewable energy, machine learning, deep learning, cybersecurity, and digital forensics. Additionally, the paper sheds light on the specific role of Industry 5.0 in the smart city context, illuminating its impact on enabling advanced cybersecurity measures, fostering human–machine collaboration, driving intelligent automation in urban services, and refining data management and decision making. The paper also offers an in-depth review of the existing frameworks that are shaping smart city applications, evaluating how Industry 5.0 technologies could augment these frameworks. In particular, the paper delves into the various technological challenges that smart cities face, bringing potential Industry 5.0-enabled solutions to the fore.
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Pub Date : 2023-10-09DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6050122
Lutz Eichholz
This paper explores the challenges in providing digital services of general interest in rural areas and proposes co-created ride-sharing software solutions to address the specific needs of these regions. This applied research is part of the Smarte.Land.Regionen project, which aims to improve digital public services at the district level. Focusing on rural mobility, the paper introduces ride-sharing benches enhanced with software as a possible low-threshold solution. Via workshops, surveys, and market research, the study identifies barriers to the adoption of ride-sharing benches and investigates factors contributing to their success. The software will be developed in an agile process together with partner counties and applied in a real-world case study. The proposed software solution emphasizes user-centered development, the geographical location of benches, and the prioritization of ride requests over ride offers. The findings highlight safety concerns, a lack of reliability, and the importance of obtaining people who are theoretically interested in solutions to actively participate in them. The paper emphasizes the importance of collaborative development with county stakeholders while also acknowledging the inherent limitations as the overall process becomes more complex and organizational obstacles arise. In addition, the findings suggest that the current state of rural mobility cannot be fundamentally changed by the implementation of ride-sharing software alone. Future research should focus on sustaining and scaling digital solutions, measuring their impact on rural mobility, and ensuring their transferability to other regions. The goal is to contribute to inclusive and sustainable rural development by improving access to digital public services and promoting the adoption of tailored mobility solutions.
本文探讨了在农村地区提供普遍感兴趣的数字服务所面临的挑战，并提出了共同创建的乘车共享软件解决方案，以满足这些地区的具体需求。这项应用研究是smart . land . regionen项目的一部分，该项目旨在改善地区一级的数字公共服务。针对农村交通问题，本文介绍了一种可能的低门槛解决方案，即通过软件增强拼车长椅。通过研讨会、调查和市场研究，该研究确定了采用拼车长凳的障碍，并调查了促成其成功的因素。该软件将与伙伴国一起在敏捷过程中开发，并应用于现实世界的案例研究。提出的软件解决方案强调以用户为中心的开发，长凳的地理位置，以及乘车请求优先于乘车提供。研究结果强调了安全问题，缺乏可靠性，以及让理论上对解决方案感兴趣的人积极参与其中的重要性。本文强调了与国家利益相关者合作发展的重要性，同时也承认随着整个过程变得更加复杂和组织障碍的出现，存在固有的局限性。此外，研究结果表明，仅通过实施拼车软件无法从根本上改变农村交通的现状。未来的研究应侧重于维持和扩展数字解决方案，衡量其对农村流动性的影响，并确保其可转移到其他地区。目标是通过改善数字公共服务的可及性和促进采用量身定制的移动解决方案，促进农村包容性和可持续发展。
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