Pub Date : 2023-05-29DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6030072
N. Alhalafi, P. Veeraraghavan
This study aims to explore the challenges and issues in adopting cybersecurity practices in smart Saudi cities and to develop and validate a newly developed cybersecurity-based unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 3 (UTAUT3) model. The study has a twofold purpose. First, it identified the key challenges and issues in adopting smart cities in Saudi smart cities. Second, it developed a technology-based model to adopt cybersecurity practices in Saudi smart cities. Two surveys were conducted to achieve these objectives. The first survey identified challenges and gaps in adopting cybersecurity practices in smart cities, revealing concerns about weak cybersecurity platforms, privacy breaches, and the impact of IT infrastructure advancements on Saudi culture (N = 554: common public). The second survey focused on developing and validating a cybersecurity-based UTAUT3 model (N = 108: IT professionals), emphasizing nine factors: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, safety, resiliency, availability, confidentiality, and integrity of cybersecurity. The model’s validity and reliability were assessed, demonstrating its potential for understanding user behavior and adoption patterns in smart cities. The study findings provide valuable insights into the factors influencing the adoption of cybersecurity measures in smart Saudi cities, highlighting the need for targeted strategies, effective awareness programs, and collaboration between stakeholders to promote a secure and resilient digital environment. Future research may focus on refining the model, extending its applicability to other regions or countries, and investigating the impact of emerging technologies and evolving cyber threats on user behavior and cybersecurity practices.
{"title":"Exploring the Challenges and Issues in Adopting Cybersecurity in Saudi Smart Cities: Conceptualization of the Cybersecurity-Based UTAUT Model","authors":"N. Alhalafi, P. Veeraraghavan","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6030072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6030072","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to explore the challenges and issues in adopting cybersecurity practices in smart Saudi cities and to develop and validate a newly developed cybersecurity-based unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 3 (UTAUT3) model. The study has a twofold purpose. First, it identified the key challenges and issues in adopting smart cities in Saudi smart cities. Second, it developed a technology-based model to adopt cybersecurity practices in Saudi smart cities. Two surveys were conducted to achieve these objectives. The first survey identified challenges and gaps in adopting cybersecurity practices in smart cities, revealing concerns about weak cybersecurity platforms, privacy breaches, and the impact of IT infrastructure advancements on Saudi culture (N = 554: common public). The second survey focused on developing and validating a cybersecurity-based UTAUT3 model (N = 108: IT professionals), emphasizing nine factors: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, safety, resiliency, availability, confidentiality, and integrity of cybersecurity. The model’s validity and reliability were assessed, demonstrating its potential for understanding user behavior and adoption patterns in smart cities. The study findings provide valuable insights into the factors influencing the adoption of cybersecurity measures in smart Saudi cities, highlighting the need for targeted strategies, effective awareness programs, and collaboration between stakeholders to promote a secure and resilient digital environment. Future research may focus on refining the model, extending its applicability to other regions or countries, and investigating the impact of emerging technologies and evolving cyber threats on user behavior and cybersecurity practices.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43733072","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 : 2023-05-27DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6030071
Abhishek Kadalagere Lingaraju, Mudligiriyappa Niranjanamurthy, Priyanka Bose, Biswaranjan Acharya, V. Gerogiannis, Andreas Kanavos, S. Manika
Massive human population, coupled with rapid urbanization, results in a substantial amount of garbage that requires daily collection. In urban areas, garbage often accumulates around dustbins without proper disposal at regular intervals, creating an unsanitary environment for humans, plants, and animals. This situation significantly degrades the environment. To address this problem, a Smart Waste Management System is introduced in this paper, employing machine learning techniques for air quality level classification. Furthermore, this system safeguards garbage collectors from severe health issues caused by inhaling harmful gases emitted from the waste. The proposed system not only proves cost-effective but also enhances waste management productivity by categorizing waste into three types: wet, dry, and metallic. Ultimately, by leveraging machine learning techniques, we can classify air quality levels and garbage weight into distinct categories. This system is beneficial for improving the well-being of individuals residing in close proximity to dustbins, as it enables constant monitoring and reporting of air quality to relevant city authorities.
{"title":"IoT-Based Segregation with Location Tracking and Air Quality Monitoring for Smart Cities","authors":"Abhishek Kadalagere Lingaraju, Mudligiriyappa Niranjanamurthy, Priyanka Bose, Biswaranjan Acharya, V. Gerogiannis, Andreas Kanavos, S. Manika","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6030071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6030071","url":null,"abstract":"Massive human population, coupled with rapid urbanization, results in a substantial amount of garbage that requires daily collection. In urban areas, garbage often accumulates around dustbins without proper disposal at regular intervals, creating an unsanitary environment for humans, plants, and animals. This situation significantly degrades the environment. To address this problem, a Smart Waste Management System is introduced in this paper, employing machine learning techniques for air quality level classification. Furthermore, this system safeguards garbage collectors from severe health issues caused by inhaling harmful gases emitted from the waste. The proposed system not only proves cost-effective but also enhances waste management productivity by categorizing waste into three types: wet, dry, and metallic. Ultimately, by leveraging machine learning techniques, we can classify air quality levels and garbage weight into distinct categories. This system is beneficial for improving the well-being of individuals residing in close proximity to dustbins, as it enables constant monitoring and reporting of air quality to relevant city authorities.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47064791","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 : 2023-05-24DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6030070
Zhiyang Xiao, Zhenhan Peng, Zidong Yu, Xintao Liu
Compared with administrative cities, natural cities can be generally referred to as the areas generated based on the density of different urban facilities (e.g., point of interest, road network, etc.). To some extent, natural cities are outperformed in some related urban studies, such as urban living structure analysis. Nevertheless, traditional ways of generating natural cities are mostly limited to the planar space. Modern cities such as Hong Kong are vertical cities with high buildings, 3D road networks and land uses. Therefore, traditional nature cities could be biased when applied to 3D cities. In this work, a 3D road network in Hong Kong is adopted to extract true road intersections and generate modified natural cities to explore urban living structures. Numerous living structure units are classified into two parts: tiny and serried ones representing natural cities and vast ones representing rural areas. The classification method applies head/tail breaks, and a clustering algorithm was fitted for heavy-tailed distribution. According to the living structure theory, the living structures of the proposed natural cities and traditional natural cities based on the same road network in Hong Kong are compared. The findings show that the distribution of modified natural city regions is more reasonable compared with typical ones. The improved model will more clearly show the inherent living structure of the city and will allow an analysis of the relationship between the part and wholeness of the city.
{"title":"Generating Natural Cities Using 3D Road Network to Explore Living Structure: A Case Study in Hong Kong","authors":"Zhiyang Xiao, Zhenhan Peng, Zidong Yu, Xintao Liu","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6030070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6030070","url":null,"abstract":"Compared with administrative cities, natural cities can be generally referred to as the areas generated based on the density of different urban facilities (e.g., point of interest, road network, etc.). To some extent, natural cities are outperformed in some related urban studies, such as urban living structure analysis. Nevertheless, traditional ways of generating natural cities are mostly limited to the planar space. Modern cities such as Hong Kong are vertical cities with high buildings, 3D road networks and land uses. Therefore, traditional nature cities could be biased when applied to 3D cities. In this work, a 3D road network in Hong Kong is adopted to extract true road intersections and generate modified natural cities to explore urban living structures. Numerous living structure units are classified into two parts: tiny and serried ones representing natural cities and vast ones representing rural areas. The classification method applies head/tail breaks, and a clustering algorithm was fitted for heavy-tailed distribution. According to the living structure theory, the living structures of the proposed natural cities and traditional natural cities based on the same road network in Hong Kong are compared. The findings show that the distribution of modified natural city regions is more reasonable compared with typical ones. The improved model will more clearly show the inherent living structure of the city and will allow an analysis of the relationship between the part and wholeness of the city.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43820221","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 : 2023-05-22DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6030069
Asmaa M. Aboelezz, B. E. Sedhom, M. El-Saadawi, Abdelfattah A. Eladl, P. Siano
Shipboard microgrids (SBMGs) are becoming increasingly popular in the power industry due to their potential for reducing fossil-fuel usage and increasing power production. However, operating SBMGs poses significant challenges due to operational and environmental constraints. To address these challenges, intelligent control, management, and protection strategies are necessary to ensure safe operation under complex and uncertain conditions. This paper provides a comprehensive review of SBMGs, including their classifications, control, management, and protection, as well as the most recent research statistics in these areas. The state-of-the-art SBMG types, propulsion systems, and power system architectures are discussed, along with a comparison of recent research contributions and issues related to control, uncertainties, management, and protection in SBMGs. In addition, a bibliometric analysis is performed to examine recent trends in SBMG research. This paper concludes with a discussion of research gaps and recommendations for further investigation in the field of SBMGs, highlighting the need for more research on the optimization of SBMGs in terms of efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness, as well as the development of advanced control and protection strategies to ensure safe and stable operation.
{"title":"State-of-the-Art Review on Shipboard Microgrids: Architecture, Control, Management, Protection, and Future Perspectives","authors":"Asmaa M. Aboelezz, B. E. Sedhom, M. El-Saadawi, Abdelfattah A. Eladl, P. Siano","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6030069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6030069","url":null,"abstract":"Shipboard microgrids (SBMGs) are becoming increasingly popular in the power industry due to their potential for reducing fossil-fuel usage and increasing power production. However, operating SBMGs poses significant challenges due to operational and environmental constraints. To address these challenges, intelligent control, management, and protection strategies are necessary to ensure safe operation under complex and uncertain conditions. This paper provides a comprehensive review of SBMGs, including their classifications, control, management, and protection, as well as the most recent research statistics in these areas. The state-of-the-art SBMG types, propulsion systems, and power system architectures are discussed, along with a comparison of recent research contributions and issues related to control, uncertainties, management, and protection in SBMGs. In addition, a bibliometric analysis is performed to examine recent trends in SBMG research. This paper concludes with a discussion of research gaps and recommendations for further investigation in the field of SBMGs, highlighting the need for more research on the optimization of SBMGs in terms of efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness, as well as the development of advanced control and protection strategies to ensure safe and stable operation.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48979822","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 : 2023-05-19DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6030068
Victor Ariel Leal Sobral, Jacob D. Nelson, Loza Asmare, Abdullah Mahmood, Glen Mitchell, Kwadwo Tenkorang, Conor Todd, Brad Campbell, J. Goodall
Collecting, storing, and providing access to Internet of Things (IoT) data are fundamental tasks to many smart city projects. However, developing and integrating IoT systems is still a significant barrier to entry. In this work, we share insights on the development of cloud data storage and visualization tools for IoT smart city applications using flood warning as an example application. The developed system incorporates scalable, autonomous, and inexpensive features that allow users to monitor real-time environmental conditions, and to create threshold-based alert notifications. Built in Amazon Web Services (AWS), the system leverages serverless technology for sensor data backup, a relational database for data management, and a graphical user interface (GUI) for data visualizations and alerts. A RESTful API allows for easy integration with web-based development environments, such as Jupyter notebooks, for advanced data analysis. The system can ingest data from LoRaWAN sensors deployed using The Things Network (TTN). A cost analysis can support users’ planning and decision-making when deploying the system for different use cases. A proof-of-concept demonstration of the system was built with river and weather sensors deployed in a flood prone suburban watershed in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia.
收集、存储和提供对物联网(IoT)数据的访问是许多智慧城市项目的基本任务。然而，开发和集成物联网系统仍然是一个重要的进入障碍。在这项工作中，我们将以洪水预警为例，分享物联网智慧城市应用的云数据存储和可视化工具的开发见解。开发的系统集成了可扩展、自主和廉价的功能，允许用户监控实时环境条件，并创建基于阈值的警报通知。该系统内置在Amazon Web Services (AWS)中，利用无服务器技术进行传感器数据备份，利用关系数据库进行数据管理，利用图形用户界面(GUI)进行数据可视化和警报。RESTful API允许与基于web的开发环境(如Jupyter notebook)轻松集成，以进行高级数据分析。该系统可以从使用物联网(TTN)部署的LoRaWAN传感器获取数据。在为不同的用例部署系统时，成本分析可以支持用户的计划和决策。该系统的概念验证演示是在弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔市一个洪水多发的郊区分水岭部署了河流和天气传感器。
{"title":"A Cloud-Based Data Storage and Visualization Tool for Smart City IoT: Flood Warning as an Example Application","authors":"Victor Ariel Leal Sobral, Jacob D. Nelson, Loza Asmare, Abdullah Mahmood, Glen Mitchell, Kwadwo Tenkorang, Conor Todd, Brad Campbell, J. Goodall","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6030068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6030068","url":null,"abstract":"Collecting, storing, and providing access to Internet of Things (IoT) data are fundamental tasks to many smart city projects. However, developing and integrating IoT systems is still a significant barrier to entry. In this work, we share insights on the development of cloud data storage and visualization tools for IoT smart city applications using flood warning as an example application. The developed system incorporates scalable, autonomous, and inexpensive features that allow users to monitor real-time environmental conditions, and to create threshold-based alert notifications. Built in Amazon Web Services (AWS), the system leverages serverless technology for sensor data backup, a relational database for data management, and a graphical user interface (GUI) for data visualizations and alerts. A RESTful API allows for easy integration with web-based development environments, such as Jupyter notebooks, for advanced data analysis. The system can ingest data from LoRaWAN sensors deployed using The Things Network (TTN). A cost analysis can support users’ planning and decision-making when deploying the system for different use cases. A proof-of-concept demonstration of the system was built with river and weather sensors deployed in a flood prone suburban watershed in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48887681","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 : 2023-05-19DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6030067
S. Myronenko, H. Oborskyi, Dmytro Dmytryshyn, Vyacheslav Shobik, D. Lauwers, F. Witlox
Consistent and reliable information on passenger traffic is considered crucial for the efficient operation of the public transport (PT) network. The PT network is used to improve public services and thus attract more passengers. This study evaluated the passenger traffic in Odesa, Ukraine, due to the inefficient urban transport system. The main aim of this study was to make PT better by examining passenger distribution on traffic routes and specifying characteristics of PT travel influencing individual satisfaction. The metric-tabular method was used to collect data and examine the number of incoming and outgoing passengers at each bus stop. The results of the passenger and PT analysis provide valuable recommendations for optimizing future routes. It is beneficial for transport companies to implement such recommendations so that inefficient transport on the route can be reduced by either reforming the route network or choosing the optimal number of buses. According to the findings of this study, understanding PT services is the most important determinant of PT adoption. The main implications of the findings are of particular interest to policymakers who develop policies in the field of passenger transport and also to transport scientists and students.
{"title":"From Traffic Congestion to Sustainable Mobility: A Case Study of Public Transport in Odesa, Ukraine","authors":"S. Myronenko, H. Oborskyi, Dmytro Dmytryshyn, Vyacheslav Shobik, D. Lauwers, F. Witlox","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6030067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6030067","url":null,"abstract":"Consistent and reliable information on passenger traffic is considered crucial for the efficient operation of the public transport (PT) network. The PT network is used to improve public services and thus attract more passengers. This study evaluated the passenger traffic in Odesa, Ukraine, due to the inefficient urban transport system. The main aim of this study was to make PT better by examining passenger distribution on traffic routes and specifying characteristics of PT travel influencing individual satisfaction. The metric-tabular method was used to collect data and examine the number of incoming and outgoing passengers at each bus stop. The results of the passenger and PT analysis provide valuable recommendations for optimizing future routes. It is beneficial for transport companies to implement such recommendations so that inefficient transport on the route can be reduced by either reforming the route network or choosing the optimal number of buses. According to the findings of this study, understanding PT services is the most important determinant of PT adoption. The main implications of the findings are of particular interest to policymakers who develop policies in the field of passenger transport and also to transport scientists and students.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45472995","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 : 2023-05-14DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6030066
Ionelia Hirju, Radu-Ionut Georgescu
This paper presents an initiative in which QR codes on public transport are used to provide citizens with books that they can read and that will improve their general knowledge. It builds on the concept of the learning city and combines it with smart city tools. This paper aims to use a descriptive–empirical approach, including an experiment in Bucharest. This research aims to contribute to the academic world, urban sociology, public administration, and lifelong learning education.
{"title":"The Concept of Learning Cities: Supporting Lifelong Learning through the Use of Smart Tools","authors":"Ionelia Hirju, Radu-Ionut Georgescu","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6030066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6030066","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents an initiative in which QR codes on public transport are used to provide citizens with books that they can read and that will improve their general knowledge. It builds on the concept of the learning city and combines it with smart city tools. This paper aims to use a descriptive–empirical approach, including an experiment in Bucharest. This research aims to contribute to the academic world, urban sociology, public administration, and lifelong learning education.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47833986","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 : 2023-05-11DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6030065
Simon Elias Bibri
With their exponentially rising computational power, digital platforms are heralding a new era of hybrid intelligence. There has recently been much enthusiasm and hype that the Metaverse has the potential to unlock hybrid intelligence. This is premised on the idea that the Metaverse represents an applied convergence of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) and Extended Reality (XR) that intersects with urbanism in terms of the distinctive features of platform-mediated everyday life experiences in cities. However, social interaction and its resulting social organization in the Metaverse are mediated and governed by algorithms and thus submitted to—a dream of—complete logical ordering. This raises a plethora of concerns related to the systemic collection and algorithmic processing of users’ personal, brain, and biometric data, i.e., profound societal—and the hardest to predict ethical—implications. Therefore, this study analyzes and synthesizes a large body of scientific literature on the unfolding convergence of AIoT and XR technologies, neurotechnology, and nanobiotechnology in the realm of the Metaverse in order to derive a novel conceptual framework for the Metaverse as an envisioned virtual model of platform urbanism. Further, it examines the key challenges and risks of these converging technologies in relation to the Metaverse and beyond. This study employs thematic analysis and synthesis to cope with multidisciplinary literature. The analysis identifies seven themes: (1) Platformization, (2) platform urbanism, (3) virtual urbanism, (4) XR technologies, (5) AIoT technologies, (6) neurotechnology, and (7) nanobiotechnology. The synthesized evidence reveals that, while neurotechnology and nanobiotechnology have numerous benefits and promising prospects, they raise contentions and controversies stemming from their potential use to inflict harm to human users—if left unchecked—through the black box of the algorithmic mediation underpinning the Metaverse. The findings serve to steer the Metaverse to contribute to human flourishing and wellbeing by adhering to and upholding ethical principles as well as leveraging its underlying disruptive technologies in meaningful ways. They also aid scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in assessing the pros and cons of these technologies, especially their inevitable ramifications.
{"title":"The Metaverse as a Virtual Model of Platform Urbanism: Its Converging AIoT, XReality, Neurotech, and Nanobiotech and Their Applications, Challenges, and Risks","authors":"Simon Elias Bibri","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6030065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6030065","url":null,"abstract":"With their exponentially rising computational power, digital platforms are heralding a new era of hybrid intelligence. There has recently been much enthusiasm and hype that the Metaverse has the potential to unlock hybrid intelligence. This is premised on the idea that the Metaverse represents an applied convergence of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) and Extended Reality (XR) that intersects with urbanism in terms of the distinctive features of platform-mediated everyday life experiences in cities. However, social interaction and its resulting social organization in the Metaverse are mediated and governed by algorithms and thus submitted to—a dream of—complete logical ordering. This raises a plethora of concerns related to the systemic collection and algorithmic processing of users’ personal, brain, and biometric data, i.e., profound societal—and the hardest to predict ethical—implications. Therefore, this study analyzes and synthesizes a large body of scientific literature on the unfolding convergence of AIoT and XR technologies, neurotechnology, and nanobiotechnology in the realm of the Metaverse in order to derive a novel conceptual framework for the Metaverse as an envisioned virtual model of platform urbanism. Further, it examines the key challenges and risks of these converging technologies in relation to the Metaverse and beyond. This study employs thematic analysis and synthesis to cope with multidisciplinary literature. The analysis identifies seven themes: (1) Platformization, (2) platform urbanism, (3) virtual urbanism, (4) XR technologies, (5) AIoT technologies, (6) neurotechnology, and (7) nanobiotechnology. The synthesized evidence reveals that, while neurotechnology and nanobiotechnology have numerous benefits and promising prospects, they raise contentions and controversies stemming from their potential use to inflict harm to human users—if left unchecked—through the black box of the algorithmic mediation underpinning the Metaverse. The findings serve to steer the Metaverse to contribute to human flourishing and wellbeing by adhering to and upholding ethical principles as well as leveraging its underlying disruptive technologies in meaningful ways. They also aid scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in assessing the pros and cons of these technologies, especially their inevitable ramifications.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45719255","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}
Smart cities are required to be effectively and efficiently managed in order to ensure the desired level of sustainability and quality of life for all inhabitants. This is a particularly difficult challenge in crisis situations of considerable scale and intensity (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts, social tensions). For this reason, the aim of this article is to identify the attitudes and perceptions of risk by city administration employees combined with an assessment of their impact on the consequences of risk (the implementation of internal and external threats). The analyses used the results of a survey conducted on a representative sample of 399 Polish municipal offices, as well as descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling. The obtained results show that: (1) employees of municipal offices negatively perceive risk and are aware of its destructive impact on the organization, but are reluctant to report the risks; (2) individual and collective measures are taken in offices to protect against risks, but employees are not always encouraged to report potential sources of risk (rarely in the form of an informal conversation and even more rarely in a systemic form); (3) for the most part, employees are aware that internal and external risks have a negative impact on the operation of municipal offices; (4) the consequences of risks are more strongly influenced by employees’ perceptions of risk than by individual, team, and systemic attitudes toward risk. The added value of the research presented in this article comes from diagnosing the behavioral aspects of urban risk management and assessing the impact of attitudes toward risks and risk perceptions (internal and external) in a broad, representative range.
{"title":"Perceptions and Attitudes toward Risks of City Administration Employees in the Context of Smart City Management","authors":"Karolina Wielicka-Gańczarczyk, Izabela Jonek-Kowalska","doi":"10.3390/smartcities6030064","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6030064","url":null,"abstract":"Smart cities are required to be effectively and efficiently managed in order to ensure the desired level of sustainability and quality of life for all inhabitants. This is a particularly difficult challenge in crisis situations of considerable scale and intensity (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts, social tensions). For this reason, the aim of this article is to identify the attitudes and perceptions of risk by city administration employees combined with an assessment of their impact on the consequences of risk (the implementation of internal and external threats). The analyses used the results of a survey conducted on a representative sample of 399 Polish municipal offices, as well as descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling. The obtained results show that: (1) employees of municipal offices negatively perceive risk and are aware of its destructive impact on the organization, but are reluctant to report the risks; (2) individual and collective measures are taken in offices to protect against risks, but employees are not always encouraged to report potential sources of risk (rarely in the form of an informal conversation and even more rarely in a systemic form); (3) for the most part, employees are aware that internal and external risks have a negative impact on the operation of municipal offices; (4) the consequences of risks are more strongly influenced by employees’ perceptions of risk than by individual, team, and systemic attitudes toward risk. The added value of the research presented in this article comes from diagnosing the behavioral aspects of urban risk management and assessing the impact of attitudes toward risks and risk perceptions (internal and external) in a broad, representative range.","PeriodicalId":34482,"journal":{"name":"Smart Cities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47766590","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 : 2023-05-09DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6030063
Elizaveta Stavinova, Ilyas Varshavskiy, P. Chunaev, Ivan Derevitskii, A. Boukhanovsky
Dynamic pricing is frequently used in online marketplaces, ticket sales, and booking systems. The commercial principles of dynamic pricing systems are often kept secret; however, their application causes complex changes in human behavior. Thus, a scientific tool is needed to evaluate and predict the impact of dynamic pricing strategies. Publications in the field lack a common quality evaluation methodology, public data, and source code, making them difficult to reproduce. In this paper, a data-driven method, DPRank, for evaluating dynamic pricing systems is proposed. DPRank first builds a surrogate price elasticity of demand model using public data generated by a hidden dynamic pricing model, and then applies the surrogate model to build an exposed dynamic pricing model. The hidden and exposed dynamic pricing models were then systematically compared in terms of quality using a Monte Carlo simulation in terms of a company’s revenue. The effectiveness of the proposed method was tested on the dataset collected from the website of a Russian railway passenger carrier company. Depending on the train type, the quality difference between the hidden and exposed models can vary by several dozen percent on average, indicating the potential for improving the existing (hidden) company’s dynamic pricing model.
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