Digital Transition of African Cities in the Era of Sustainable Development Goals

Dear Colleagues,

The world’s cities, and particularly African cities, are experiencing rapid exponential population growth. They need to respond dynamically to major challenges, such as digitalisation, the connected and smart city, sustainability, resilience, inclusion and economic development. To do so, modern and innovative urban planning actors must enable urban forms that respond to these challenges to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the continent. African digital cities are presented as a rational response to future demographic projections and the inability of the public sector alone to structurally address these. As a new urban paradigm is implemented but intrinsic challenges remain, the role of digital cities as drivers of urban development in Africa is to be established. There is, today, a tangible and growing demand for talented and highly qualified African researchers on the theme of the city and its digitalization. This is particularly visible in all areas of the continent's digital transformation.

This Special Issue aims to increase the scope and reach of research, innovation and entrepreneurial activities related to the digitalisation of African cities and the SDGs. It will provide an opportunity to collect the results of recent work by experts on this theme to promote scientific excellence, popularise the digital transition and its benefits for the achievement of the SDGs in African cities. Thus, it will update and strengthen the existing literature on African cities through the results of scientific studies based on qualitative and quantitative analysis methods on topics including, but not limited to:

• Digital water and energy management
• Smart waste management and sanitation
• Digital management of education and health
• Digital mobility and transport management
• Quality of Life and Social Layer 
• Digital and smart cities strategies in Africa
• Digital and smart African city stakeholders
• Digital and smart city infrastructure
• Artificial intelligence and application integration
• Digital governance for smart cities
• Citizen sensing and citizen engagement 
• Collective sensing and spatial big urban data
• Smart geo-addressing and participatory addressing
• Transitions digitales and smart governance
• Citizen and collaborative governance 

Dr. Ştefan Cristian Gherghina
Dr. Cédric Stéphane Koumétio Tékouabou
Dr. Jérôme Chenal
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainable development goals
• SDGs
• African cities
• digital cities
• digitalization
• urban planning
• smart cities
• digital governance
• sustainability
• sustainable cities
• green cities
• citizen engagement
• collaborative governance
• GIS
• urban sensing