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Buildings
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Advances in Sustainable and Smart Cities
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Advances in Sustainable and Smart Cities

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction Management, and Computers & Digitization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2024) | Viewed by 31699

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francesc Pardo-Bosch

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Project and Construction Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Interests: sustainability; smart cities; construction and building materials; business model innovation; circular economy; decision making
Prof. Dr. Marcel Macarulla Marti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Group of Research and Innovation in Construction (GRIC), Department of Project and Construction Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: energy efficiency; energy districts; modelling; indoor air quality; thermal comfort in buildings; life cycle assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Pablo Pujadas Álvarez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Project and Construction Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Barcelona Tech (UPC), 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: construction and building materials; smart, sustainable, circular and digitalised built environment; decision making
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The demand for more liveable, workable, and sustainable cities due to the global push towards net-zero targets, combined with the growing population and rapid urbanisation, presents a major modern and future challenge. Smart cities may have substantial unrealised potential, representing the way forward in addressing such challenges while achieving a sustainable city model.

This Special Issue will contribute to the body of evidence on smart sustainable city development, embracing an integrated vision of a climate-neutral, circular, and digitalised built environment approach. In this regard, examining recent trends and applications related to (a) energy efficiency and the environment; (b) buildings and infrastructure; (c) mobility and intermodality; and (c) governance may help researchers and practitioners identify new successful approaches and solutions to current challenges and limitations as well as potential users in understanding how can they effectively apply these trends in order to realise sustainable and smarter city development.

Papers may address a wide range of methodological and technical approaches. In addition to theoretical and applied papers, review articles are welcome.

Dr. Francesc Pardo-Bosch
Prof. Dr. Marcel Macarulla Marti
Dr. Pablo Pujadas Álvarez
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. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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.

Keywords

  • energy efficiency and environment
  • buildings and infrastructure
  • mobility and intermodality
  • sustainable city
  • smart city

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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26 pages, 1130 KiB  
Article
Analysis and Comparison of the Infrastructure Report Cards as a Decision Making Tool for Sustainable Development
by David Boix-Cots, Francesc Pardo-Bosch and Pablo Pujadas
Buildings 2023, 13(9), 2166; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13092166 - 26 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1814
Abstract
Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in a nation’s economic and societal progress. However, due to the substantial expenses and the constraints of a limited government budget, the need to assess the condition of each infrastructure and identify those requiring utmost attention has become [...] Read more.
Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in a nation’s economic and societal progress. However, due to the substantial expenses and the constraints of a limited government budget, the need to assess the condition of each infrastructure and identify those requiring utmost attention has become imperative. To address the challenge of assessing and prioritizing infrastructure, national civil engineering associations have developed infrastructure report cards (IRCs) following diverse methodologies. The objective of this paper is to present and compare the existing IRCs, analysing their key characteristics and comparing them through the developed comparison guidelines. The findings offer valuable insights into IRCs, encompassing general knowledge, diverse practices, and areas for improvement. Furthermore, it provides guidance to civil engineering associations in nations lacking an infrastructure report card, as well as to governments and national infrastructure planners. Recommendations highlight the importance of government collaboration without direct control, transparent methodology explanations, and accessible results presentation. Enhancing IRCs based on these recommendations can facilitate structured, rational, realistic, and sustainability-based decision making. The study acknowledges limitations, including the challenge of assessing IRCs’ real impact and the limited dataset. Despite these limitations, this paper provides a crucial step toward improving IRCs and fostering informed infrastructure decisions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable and Smart Cities)
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24 pages, 3194 KiB  
Article
Redevelopment Initiatives on Brownfield Sites: An Evaluation Model for the Definition of Sustainable Investments
by Francesco Tajani, Pierluigi Morano and Felicia Di Liddo
Buildings 2023, 13(3), 724; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13030724 - 9 Mar 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2891
Abstract
With reference to brownfield sites redevelopment interventions, an innovative model for the definition of effective and financially sustainable initiatives is proposed and tested. The model borrows the operative logic of the break-even analysis (BEA). It neglects the basic assumption of BEA related to [...] Read more.
With reference to brownfield sites redevelopment interventions, an innovative model for the definition of effective and financially sustainable initiatives is proposed and tested. The model borrows the operative logic of the break-even analysis (BEA). It neglects the basic assumption of BEA related to revenue linearity, by considering the real trend of the revenues. In fact, in specific contexts characterized by a real estate over supply—e.g., in small urban centers, or where a new plan includes a relevant increase in new buildings and/or the functional reconversion of existing disused complexes—the BEA hypothesis on revenue linearity could be inconsistent, as prices will tend to become depressed. In the mentioned situations, discount mechanisms on the unit prices could occur. These phenomena determine a reduction in the unit selling price in correspondence of the amount of gross floor area (GFA) increase. Taking into account the current and cogent needs of effective strategies for brownfields renovation, the innovative evaluation model is developed for supporting public and private investors’ decision processes. It could represent a valid reference in the preliminary phases of decision-making processes for public and private subjects, able to ensure the break-even point of the initiative balance sheet is reached. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable and Smart Cities)
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25 pages, 572 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Citizens’ Participation Level on Smart Sustainable Cities Outcomes: Evidence from Saudi Arabia
by Abood Khaled Alamoudi, Rotimi Boluwatife Abidoye and Terence Y. M. Lam
Buildings 2023, 13(2), 343; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13020343 - 26 Jan 2023
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3234
Abstract
It is imperative to expand the concept of smart cities beyond merely focusing on technology to include human, social, and environmental capital investing to develop smart sustainable cities (SSC). In recognition of smart cities’ advantages, several cities have adopted smart city labels. Although [...] Read more.
It is imperative to expand the concept of smart cities beyond merely focusing on technology to include human, social, and environmental capital investing to develop smart sustainable cities (SSC). In recognition of smart cities’ advantages, several cities have adopted smart city labels. Although citizens’ engagement in public urban development and decision-making has been acknowledged globally in many countries, evaluating the outcomes that allow citizens to contribute does not measure and compare with other factors. This study examines the impact between the citizens’ participation level (CPL) and the smart sustainable cities outcome (SSCO). Four factors were extracted from the literature review and interviews were conducted with 12 decision and policymakers to establish the importance of these factors and to suggest any other additional factors. In addition, a questionnaire survey was utilised to assess and validate the result by experts in the field of the built environment. The mean score (MS) ranking was used to confirm the importance of these predicted correlations with SSCO. Endogeneity tests and multivariate regression analysis were adopted to validate the causality between CLP and SSCO. The results suggest that a positive significant correlation exists between the CPL and SSCO. A higher CPL leads to a higher level of SSCO, but this does not apply the other way around. The four significant factors of CPL to engage and empower citizens are accountability and responsibility, transparency, participation, and inclusion. This paper contributes to knowledge by identifying the measures of CPL and SSCO that can support the implementation of SSC by understanding what can be expected from the government and decision-makers and what can be expected from the citizens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable and Smart Cities)
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23 pages, 1529 KiB  
Article
Citizen Perception and Ex Ante Acceptance of a Low-Emission Zone Implementation in a Medium-Sized Spanish City
by Montaña Jiménez-Espada, Francisco Manuel Martínez García and Rafael González-Escobar
Buildings 2023, 13(1), 249; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13010249 - 16 Jan 2023
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2671
Abstract
The public decision-making process at the municipal level becomes extremely complicated for government managers when unpopular measures must be adopted. In this sense, citizen participation processes become a tool of undoubted added value that allows municipalities to adapt their policies to the needs [...] Read more.
The public decision-making process at the municipal level becomes extremely complicated for government managers when unpopular measures must be adopted. In this sense, citizen participation processes become a tool of undoubted added value that allows municipalities to adapt their policies to the needs and feelings of their inhabitants. The aim of this research was to focus on addressing the point of view of the citizens of a medium-sized Spanish city in the face of the imminent implementation of a low-emission zone, in order to identify which aspects were of concern to citizens. The methodology used in the research was based on a declared preferences survey that allowed us to determine the daily behaviour of the user in terms of urban mobility and to anticipate the citizen’s reaction to the implementation of socially unacceptable initiatives, such as restrictions on access, circulation, and the parking of vehicles. The results obtained in relation to the consultation on alternative measures to tackle pollution, noise and traffic jams showed that citizens are receptive to improvements in universal accessibility, subsidies for public transport, increased road safety for PMV’s infrastructure, subsidies for the purchase of environmentally friendly vehicles and PMV, and the promotion of pedestrianisation. However, there are undoubted threats to the implementation of the LEZ, such as the lack of acceptance of the measure. Therefore, it is considered imperative for public administrations to work on the search for sustainable actions that contribute to improving the degree of compliance with the measure, while at the same time making an effort to disseminate the advantages of the LEZ for the quality of life and health of citizens (through information campaigns). There is a knowledge gap in scientific research on the ex ante assessment of the effects of possible transport measures to improve air quality in city centres and consultation through citizen participation. It is estimated that the resolution of this research gap could contribute to a more feasible, reasonable, and effective implementation of various urban mobility policies in medium-sized Spanish cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable and Smart Cities)
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23 pages, 13589 KiB  
Article
Detecting Changes in Perceptions towards Smart City on Chinese Social Media: A Text Mining and Sentiment Analysis
by Aobo Yue, Chao Mao, Linyan Chen, Zebang Liu, Chaojun Zhang and Zhiqiang Li
Buildings 2022, 12(8), 1182; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12081182 - 8 Aug 2022
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4201
Abstract
Examining the public’s attention and comments on smart city topics in social media can help enable a full understanding of the development characteristics of smart cities, and provide a realistic reference for improving the level of public participation and citizens’ sense of acquisition [...] Read more.
Examining the public’s attention and comments on smart city topics in social media can help enable a full understanding of the development characteristics of smart cities, and provide a realistic reference for improving the level of public participation and citizens’ sense of acquisition in smart city construction. Based on Sina Weibo, a well-known social media platform in China, over 230,000 public comments related to smart cities were extracted to analyze. Using LDA (Latent Dirichlet Assignment) and CNN-BiLSTM (Convolutional Neural Network and Bi-directional long and short memory) models, a topic mining and sentiment analysis model for user comments was constructed to study the current state of public perception of smart city concepts. The results demonstrate that public discussions on smart cities were macro-oriented, focusing on strategic layout and technical applications. As public awareness of smart cities deepens, topics about application scenarios and social services are gradually emphasized. The public’s positive sentiment toward smart cities dominates and varies in sentiment intensity across years; the positive sentiment intensity of individual users on smart city ideas is significantly lower than that of official certified Weibo users, such as government departments and corporate organizations, which reveals the identity and temporal characteristics of public participation in cyberspace. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable and Smart Cities)
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Review

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22 pages, 1575 KiB  
Review
The Making of Smart Campus: A Review and Conceptual Framework
by Ken Polin, Tan Yigitcanlar, Mark Limb and Tracy Washington
Buildings 2023, 13(4), 891; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13040891 - 28 Mar 2023
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 15858
Abstract
Smart campus is an emerging concept enabled by digital transformation opportunities in higher education. Smart campuses are often perceived as miniature replicas of smart cities and serve as living labs for smart technology research, development, and adoption, along with their traditional teaching, learning [...] Read more.
Smart campus is an emerging concept enabled by digital transformation opportunities in higher education. Smart campuses are often perceived as miniature replicas of smart cities and serve as living labs for smart technology research, development, and adoption, along with their traditional teaching, learning and research functions. There is currently a limited understanding of how the smart campus is conceptualized and practiced. This paper addresses this gap by using a systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach. The study uses four major domains of the smart campus, i.e., society, economy, environment, and governance, to classify existing research. These domains are each aligned to the central smart campus concepts of digital technology and big data. The analysis found little evidence of a comprehensive real-world application of the smart campus towards addressing all four domains. This highlights the infancy of the current conceptualization and practice. The findings contribute to the development of a new conceptual foundation and research directions for the smart campus notion and informs its practice through a conceptual framework. The findings reported in this paper offer a firm basis for comprehensive smart campus conceptualization, and also provide directions for future research and development of smart campuses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable and Smart Cities)
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