A Comprehensive Survey on the Societal Aspects of Smart Cities

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The abstract describes the aims and content of the submitted manuscript in summary, but it is required to address the main motivation, problem definitions and proposed outcomes of conducted review in the paper.

The Introduction section presents general data on smart cities with some selected examples while the second section deals with the six fundamental domains of smart cities in brief. The third section also deals with IoT, Big Data, ML and AI, and security issues in brief. The technical aspects are not clearly and comprehensively described in these sections. The presented information cover mostly societal aspects of smart city concept rather than its technical infrastructure.

Authors should provide a detailed representation on applied infrastructures of smart cities in a close related connection instead of addressing sample city concepts. The discussion and conclusion sections should be improved in this regard also.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

There are some statements loosing the meaning. English proofreading may be useful for this manuscript.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper presents a comprehensive survey on smart cities with the technologies, applications, and their future perspectives. The paper is well-written and structured.

Comments:

1. Write the full form of ICT in the abstract.
2. In the organization of the paper, the author stated that the paper is divided into four sections and a conclusion. In contrast, the paper consists of 6 sections. Rectify it.
3. In section 3 (Smart Cities’ Technologies), provide a discussion the technical terms in detail instead of providing basic definitions.
4. Write the technical contributions in the Introduction section in a separate paragraph.

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper introduces various aspects of smart cities, including smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, smart people, smart living, and smart governance, and explores the benefits of the technological applications in smart cities. It references over 250 articles, presenting a lot of content.

 

However, the overall organization of the article is not very clear. Apart from Figure 1, which is an overly simplistic schematic diagram, there are no other diagrams to illustrate the relationships and explanations of the overall and individual sections. Additionally, the article does not discuss the differences and novelties of this review paper compared to other previously published reviews on smart cities.

 

As a technical review article, the introduction to the technologies is not in-depth. For example, in the "smart people" section, there is hardly any discussion of specific technical cases. Moreover, important communication technologies for the infrastructure and technology of smart cities, such as 5G, 6G, NB-IoT, WiFi, Bluetooth, and emerging related technologies like energy harvesting and blockchain, are rarely mentioned. The smart economy section also lacks technical discussions, and important components of smart cities like smart factories and the digital economy are not addressed. Furthermore, topics like smart homes, smart healthcare, smart warehousing, and smart education are not discussed, and there is not a comprehensive overview diagram.

 

If this article is to be submitted as a review to a journal focused on applications and technologies, the content needs to be significantly enhanced.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The article contains several grammatical errors, and it is recommended to have it improved by a professional.

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. The manuscript should explicitly highlight the main contributions and innovations of this research. 

2. Each part of section 2, such as smart economy, smart travel, and smart environment, discusses related topics in detail, but the transition between some paragraphs is not smooth enough. It is recommended that the author add transition sentences or paragraphs between each section to enhance the coherence of the article.

3. The structure of the manuscript's section 3 is generally clear, with detailed classification and discussion of different aspects of smart city technology. However, it is recommended to add a short introduction at the beginning of each section, such as 3.1 to 3.7, outlining the main content to be discussed in that section, so that readers can better understand the logical relationship between sections.

4. Section 3 mentions various applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence in smart cities, but lacks specific practical cases and effect evaluations. It is recommended to add some successful application cases and discuss the actual effects and potential challenges of these technologies.

5. Section 4 mentions the diversity of definitions of smart cities, but does not delve into how this diversity specifically affects research and practice. Please further analyze the challenges and opportunities brought by the diversity of definitions.

6. Section 4 mentions the public-private partnership model as a possible solution to the problem of funding and resources, but does not provide specific examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of this model. It is recommended that the authors supplement relevant cases to enhance their persuasiveness.

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper has been revised with more contents and figures. But this revised article still hasn't provided a clear response to the two questions raised earlier:

1. The article does not discuss the differences of this review paper compared to other previously published reviews on smart cities.  The authors added "Additionally, most other reviews focus on the technical and technological aspects of a smart city, while our review aims to show on how smart cities can impact society and the life of its citizens.".What are these other articles specifically? Why not cite and compare them in this paper?

If this article specifically discusses the impact on society and citizen, then the title is too broad and should be revised. Additionally, the article contains subjective judgments and opinions, but it needs to provide sufficient objective data support in the analysis and discussion.

2. Important communication technologies for the infrastructure and technology of smart cities, such as 5G, 6G, NB-IoT, WiFi, Bluetooth, and emerging related technologies like energy harvesting and blockchain, are rarely mentioned. It has not been revised.

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

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Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx