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New Technologies for Smart City

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 22394

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Business Sciences, Management and Innovation Systems (DISA-MIS), University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy
Interests: business management; smart service systems; system thinking; complexity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Computer Systems and Communications, Faculty of informatics, Masaryk University, Botanická 68a, 60200 Brno, Czech Republic
Interests: smart service; smart cities; multi-contextual analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Smart cities have been a widely discussed topic over the course of the last decade. Their potential to solve challenges related to the growth of urbanization, environmental issues and the worldwide trend of population aging are motivating research in this area. The research initiatives of smart cities focus on different areas, whose range of research topics is widespread and driven by advances in new technologies, including urban planning, mobility and transportation, smart living and community, smart environment, emergency services, e-Health and government, to name a few.

The smart city can be explained in terms of a complex of digital services exchanged by a network of actors interconnected in order to share knowledge, resources, competences, and capabilities to perform better. New technologies and digital services have been considered as important components in smart cities since they are capable of connecting service providers, users, infrastructures, and communities in a common ecosystem to support value co-creation. There have been attempts to create overview models for smart cities, but some of them are quite complex, and the dependencies are usually missing in these models.

We believe that this missing piece can bring new insights into the smart city research, and help us to uncover new possibilities of interconnecting current services and providing value to citizens. This call for papers seeks foundation-building research on smart cities and smart services. We seek original and innovative contributions on both theoretical and practical aspects of the following themes:

  • The new value brought by smart devices (smartphones, computers, tablets, wearables, etc.) to the daily life of service customers;
  • The solutions and new approaches of technology usage related to the COVID-19 pandemic;
  • The contribution of innovation and the development of smart services improving the resilience of society as a whole;

New approaches, models, or frameworks that help the researchers and practitioners to foster the development of technology usage in smart city.

Dr. Luca Carrubbo
Dr. Leonard Walletzký
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

Keywords

  • smart services
  • smart city
  • new technologies for smart cities
  • Industry 4.0

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 835 KiB  
Article
Hierarchical, Attribute and Hash-Based Naming and Forwarding Aided Smart Campus of Things
by Sobia Arshad, Muhammad Awais Azam, Jonathan Loo, Muhammad Faran Majeed and Ali Haider
Sustainability 2023, 15(23), 16361; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152316361 - 28 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 958
Abstract
In order to provide universal ability to access information and communication among Internet-connected devices, the Sustainable Internet of Things (IoT) is on a mission to bring all objects or devices under one roof. Future Internet architecture, especially Information-Centric Networking (ICN), can easily handle [...] Read more.
In order to provide universal ability to access information and communication among Internet-connected devices, the Sustainable Internet of Things (IoT) is on a mission to bring all objects or devices under one roof. Future Internet architecture, especially Information-Centric Networking (ICN), can easily handle the connectivity offered and information created by the massive amount of devices to make it as sustainable IoT applications. Named Data Networking (NDN), one of the several future Internet designs that employ ICN as its foundation, shows promise. NDN integration with IoT-based applications gives solutions to numerous problems. However, this fusion makes accessing the IoT content easier, provided that an effective naming scheme is created to execute this operation. In this work, we build an innovative NDN-based naming scheme (NDN–NS) and put it into practise for consumer, producer, and content routers using our own secure forwarding schemes (NDN–NFS). Due to its scalability, heterogeneity, and security needs, IoT-based Smart Campus (IoT-SC) scenarios are taken into consideration for design and evaluation. We give a complete activity list based on NDN–NS that is split into two communication models (PusH Type Communication (PHTC) and PulL Type Communication (PLTC)) that can be applied to any IoT application. In terms of interest satisfaction rate (ISR), delay, and number of transmissions, we compare the NDN–NFS to legacy NDN. The outcomes demonstrate that NDN–NFS outperforms classic NDN in terms of performance and efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Technologies for Smart City)
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17 pages, 1274 KiB  
Article
An Overview of Urban Mobility: Revolutionizing with Innovative Smart Parking Systems
by Gaetano Rocco, Claudia Pipino and Claudio Pagano
Sustainability 2023, 15(17), 13174; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151713174 - 1 Sep 2023
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 6559
Abstract
This feasibility study aims to propose the design of a smart parking architecture that is able to offer new services by exploiting the latest IoT technologies. This innovative solution is designed for use by both public authorities and private individuals who need to [...] Read more.
This feasibility study aims to propose the design of a smart parking architecture that is able to offer new services by exploiting the latest IoT technologies. This innovative solution is designed for use by both public authorities and private individuals who need to manage urban parking areas efficiently. The contribution of this work is to attempt to define the requirements and technical choices that can be made for the design of a system that adheres to the paradigm of innovation and efficiency in smart parking. Indeed, there is a practical limit between the existing models and the best solutions to apply. For each technology, the following details are provided: the problem to be managed, the current state of the art on the market, the main solutions, and also the related commercial policies. We proceed with the “Outline Design”, which integrates the technical specifications and defines the main information flows between the functional blocks. The results of experimentation show that the proposed reservation-based parking policy has the potential to simplify the operations of parking systems, as well as alleviate cities’ traffic congestion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Technologies for Smart City)
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27 pages, 1606 KiB  
Article
Towards a Value Co-Creation Process in Collaborative Environments for TVET Education
by Salem Badawi and Monica Drăgoicea
Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 1792; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15031792 - 17 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2499
Abstract
The appearance of the COVID disruption has proved the need for rapid innovations in education, with new value proposition(s) able to capture the new activities involving value co-creation in the education service systems. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for skills building in [...] Read more.
The appearance of the COVID disruption has proved the need for rapid innovations in education, with new value proposition(s) able to capture the new activities involving value co-creation in the education service systems. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for skills building in collaborative TVET online communities that integrates the Collaborative Knowledge Sharing Environment (CKSEnv), an ontology-based collaborative development of knowledge-intensive services, as a possible main driver for value co-creation amongst actors in the after-pandemic TVET education. CKSEnv’s usability and usefulness in achieving its goals is evaluated. Quantitative and qualitative data collected through interviews have revealed respondents’ interest in topics such as the sustainability, usefulness, usability, value co-creation, and technical functionality of the proposed development. Both the utility and simplicity proved to have the most significant impact on CKSEnv adoption and usage. A new service design artifact is created, the smart service model canvas in the TVET online communities, to explain the new value co-creation process, which is able to fill gaps in describing the role of ICT in supporting the TVET training cycle. This research may ground further explorations related to the development of TVET online communities, while the CKSEnv is still in the evaluation stage. The practical implications of this study express the need for new value co-creation processes with specific activities that use technology-driven innovations, able to establish such newly created value, through smart educational services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Technologies for Smart City)
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18 pages, 688 KiB  
Article
Small-Town Citizens’ Technology Acceptance of Smart and Sustainable City Development
by Giovanni Baldi, Antonietta Megaro and Luca Carrubbo
Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 325; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010325 - 25 Dec 2022
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4894
Abstract
Citizens are an essential part of the process of smartification and sustainable development of cities as they must adopt, understand and interact with the enabling technologies of digital transformation of societies, cities, and public administration. Therefore, technology acceptance is crucial to creating smart [...] Read more.
Citizens are an essential part of the process of smartification and sustainable development of cities as they must adopt, understand and interact with the enabling technologies of digital transformation of societies, cities, and public administration. Therefore, technology acceptance is crucial to creating smart and citizen-centered cities. This is even more challenging in small towns that suffer from an aging population, desertification, lack of infrastructure, and especially the digital divide. The purpose of this research is to investigate the adoption of an Urban Services Technology (UST) in tourism management within a tourism-oriented small town in Southern Italy. A questionnaire was then constructed according to the 12-variable Urban Service Technology Acceptance Model (USTAM), and 216 responses were obtained from a defined group of 1076 subjects. Analyzing the data with a quantitative approach by conducting Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the assumptions of the initial model were all rejected and new five factors emerged. The path diagram shows that only the factors Sustainability, Ease and Value have a positive correlation with technology adoption. Future research might investigate the mediating role of socio-demographic variables on technology acceptance by considering geographical and cultural diversity among small towns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Technologies for Smart City)
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Review

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24 pages, 1061 KiB  
Review
Integrated Operation Centers in Smart Cities: A Humanitarian Engineering Perspective
by Basem Almadani, Farouq Aliyu and Abdulrahman Aliyu
Sustainability 2023, 15(14), 11101; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151411101 - 17 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2286
Abstract
The United Nations predicted that 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. Currently, the resources in urban areas are barely enough to cater to the inhabitants’ needs. Scientists believe that automation is the solution. Hence, they believe that [...] Read more.
The United Nations predicted that 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. Currently, the resources in urban areas are barely enough to cater to the inhabitants’ needs. Scientists believe that automation is the solution. Hence, they believe that Smart Cities could offer a sustainable solution for the increasing rural-to-urban migration because they improve the quality of service by efficiently managing the limited resources the citizens share. However, community laws stipulate when and who governs the cities. These officials are responsible for decision making, which limits the quality of automation and smartness of the city. Integrated Operation Centers (IOCs) help to minimize this limitation. They gather information, process it, and visualize it for the managers. Thus, IOCs enable them to make informed and quick decisions on critical issues. This paper processed 64 conferences and journals on IOCs using the PRISMA method. The systematic literature review investigates the applications of IOCs, and we present a taxonomy for them. Also, we looked at how they impact humanity and environmental sustainability. We found that IOCs help to coordinate automation, disaster response, and security. They also help to conserve natural resources. Finally, we uncover some challenges of implementing IOCs and possible research directions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Technologies for Smart City)
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Other

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19 pages, 581 KiB  
Concept Paper
Rethinking the Role of Technology for Citizens’ Engagement and Sustainable Development in Smart Cities
by Francesco Caputo, Pierpaolo Magliocca, Rossella Canestrino and Erika Rescigno
Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10400; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310400 - 1 Jul 2023
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3915
Abstract
Recognizing the interdisciplinary debate about the digital devices and infrastructure needed to support the emergence and viability of smart cities, the latter can be considered one of the most challenging topics within recent decades due to its relevant role in supporting and enhancing [...] Read more.
Recognizing the interdisciplinary debate about the digital devices and infrastructure needed to support the emergence and viability of smart cities, the latter can be considered one of the most challenging topics within recent decades due to its relevant role in supporting and enhancing citizens’ participation in public management. Using a deductive approach, in this paper, we propose a sustainability-based conceptual framework to support both policymakers and managers in better understanding at which level to act to improve citizens’ engagement as a way to ensure sustainable development in smart cities. The purpose of this paper is to explore how citizens’ involvement in smart cities can be steered toward positive attitudes and behaviors within the context of sustainable development. Drawing on a managerial perspective, we aim to provide preliminary reflections about the key role that digital technologies on which smart cities are based can play in promoting effective sustainable development for all. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Technologies for Smart City)
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