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A New Outlook for Sustainable Urban Development: Focus on Resilient Smart Cities

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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 (23 July 2023) | Viewed by 8632

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Antonio De Nicola

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Guest Editor

ENEA-Centro Ricerche Casaccia, Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Rome, Italy
Interests: Artificial Intelligence; computational creativity; linked data; ontology; ontology engineering; crisis management; resilience; risk assessment; smart city
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Maria Luisa Villani

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Guest Editor

ENEA National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00196 Rome, Italy
Interests: tools for risk assessment and resilience of critical infrastructures to natural hazards; ontologies; knowledge graphs; IoT system architectures for public security; smart cities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Raquel Sanchis

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Guest Editor

Research Centre on Production Management and Engineering (CIGIP), Universitat Politècnica de València, 03801 Alcoy, Spain
Interests: enterprise and supply chain resilience
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability is one of the major challenges for the practical implementation of resilient smart cities, which while having the ability to maintain continuity through all shocks and stresses, should also have the ability to uphold the balance of the ecosystem with, respectively, infrastructure and governance, energy and climate change, pollution and waste and, finally, social issues, economics and health. To achieve such a balance, decision makers and urban innovators must cope with the complexity and variety of available urban knowledge and data, exploiting them to define innovative urban services.

This Special Issue aims to provide a new outlook regarding (mathematical and/or conceptual) models, methods, innovative technologies, and cutting-edge implementations of smart city services, including concrete applications such as monitoring systems based on sensor/drone/satellite data or data-intensive urban platforms, methodological approaches such as analysis and assessment methods, and participatory and decision support approaches. We seek interdisciplinary papers considering both resilience and sustainability as inseparable aspects of urban development and other papers investigating how sustainable urban development could increase the resilience of smart cities. Experience-based papers addressing solutions for increasing preparedness for climate change and technological hazards are also welcome, as well as comprehensive literature reviews and surveys regarding smart city resilience and sustainability.

Dr. Antonio De Nicola
Dr. Maria Luisa Villani
Dr. Raquel Sanchis
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

adaptation
air quality monitoring
awareness
blockchain for smart cities
capacity building
conceptual models and ontologies for smart cities
co-creation approaches
crisis management
critical infrastructure resilience
crowd-based approaches
cultural heritage
drone solutions for urban planning
energy efficiency
energy management
environmental sustainability
innovation for cities
key performance indicators
model-based engineering for urban development
mitigation
pollution monitoring
prevention
open innovation
participatory approaches for urban planning
preparedness for climate change hazards
remote sensing
resilient communities
risk assessment
smart city applications of AI
smart city safety
smart decision making
social media
social network analysis
social vulnerability
sustainable urban logistics
sustainability
technologies for sustainability
traffic management
transportation
urban mobility
urban resilience
water systems
waste management

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 36125 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Scale Recursive Identification of Urban Functional Areas Based on Multi-Source Data

by Ting Liu, Gang Cheng and Jie Yang

Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13870; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813870 - 18 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 727

Abstract

The study of urban functional area identification is of great significance for urban function cognition, spatial planning, and economic development. In the identification of urban functional areas, most studies considered only a single data source and a single division scale, the research results have problems such as low update frequency or incomplete information in a single data set, and overfitting or underfitting in a single spatial resolution. Aiming at the above problems, this paper proposes a multi-scale recursive recognition method based on interactive validation for urban functional areas using taxi trajectory data and point of interest (POI) data as the main data sources. First, the dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm generates a time series similarity matrix, a CA-RFM model combining the clustering algorithm and random forest model is constructed. The model extracts significant feature regions as inputs through a K-medoid clustering algorithm, which are imported into the random forest model for urban functional zone (UFZ) identification. Then, to overcome the shortcomings of a single scale in expressing urban structural characteristics, a recursive model of different levels of urban road networks is established to classify multi-scale functional areas. Finally, cross-validation using the CA-RFM model and POI quantitative identification method obtains the final identification results of urban functional areas. This paper selects Shenzhen as the study area, the results show that the combination of clustering algorithm and random forest model greatly reduces the error of manual selection of training samples. In addition, the study demonstrates the superiority of the proposed method in two aspects, namely, faster delineation and improved accuracy in urban functional area identification. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A New Outlook for Sustainable Urban Development: Focus on Resilient Smart Cities)

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18 pages, 13221 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating the Characteristics of Urban Comprehensive Hospitals from a Supply–Demand Balance Perspective: A Case Study of Three Districts in Shenzhen Based on Multi-Source Data

by Da Huo, Quanyi Zheng and Lidong Pei

Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3327; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043327 - 11 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1174

Abstract

As an important public facility in cities, hospitals provide services that are vital to people’s lives. Big data is representative of geographic data from numerous sources. It has the advantages of large amounts of data, high timeliness, and abundant information, which may compensate for the inadequacy of traditional planning and design, which is overly subjective. Big data can be used to obtain large-scale human movement data to study hospital characteristics from a supply–demand balance perspective. Here, 182 comprehensive hospitals in three districts of Shenzhen were picked as an example, and multi-source data were introduced as a quantitative assessment tool to analyze them. First, the mobile public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) was researched and developed independently and used to collect volunteered geographic information (VGI) data, which was adopted to quantify hospital service supply. Second, the population’s demand for hospitals was characterized by the quantified point of interest (POI) data. Finally, the location entropy method was utilized to quantify the levels of supply and demand for comprehensive hospital services from a supply–demand balance perspective, which was used to guide the classification of the comprehensive hospitals. The result shows that: (1) the service scopes and the service pressure are different for the same type of comprehensive hospitals classified by the traditional method; (2) the spatial distribution of patients is related to land function; (3) the overlap area between the part with a high service pressure level in the comprehensive hospital and the part with high medical demand of the patient is prone to service blindness. This study paves a new way to optimize the spatial allocation of medical institutions or other types of public facilities, rationalize resource allocation, and alleviate urban transportation congestion. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A New Outlook for Sustainable Urban Development: Focus on Resilient Smart Cities)

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15 pages, 1104 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Role of Biogas in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Rohingya Refugee Camps in Bangladesh

by Hemal Chowdhury, Tamal Chowdhury, Ayyoob Sharifi, Richard Corkish and Sadiq M. Sait

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 11842; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141911842 - 20 Sep 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2317

Abstract

Energy is an essential need of people; however, people living in displacement settings are often deprived of this basic need. Connecting refugee camps through the main grid is challenging due to their locations. Biogas is an energy source that can be implemented to address the energy need of refugee camps. Implementation of biogas technology can help to reach sustainable development goal-7 (SDG 7) and its synergies in refugee camps. Therefore, in this study, the contribution of biogas in achieving sustainable development goals is presented to address the current gap in the literature. For this, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh were considered as a case study. The waste situation in Rohingya refugee camps is highlighted and considered. Generated biogas from the organic fraction municipal solid (OFMSW) was used to determine the LPG cylinder reduction potential in Rohingya refugee camps. Approximately 497,587 LPG cylinders can be replaced if biogas is used in cooking activities. Moreover, compared to wood fuel, biogas used in cookstoves emits 85% less greenhouse gas. This study underlines the importance of further research to determine the prospective use of biogas in clean cooking in refugee camps. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A New Outlook for Sustainable Urban Development: Focus on Resilient Smart Cities)

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22 pages, 4421 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing the Economic Energy Level of the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle: An Integrative Perspective of “Field Source” and “Field”

by Chengfu Wang, Lijun Song, Haoqi Lu, Shuxin Zheng and Chengfeng Huang

Sustainability 2022, 14(16), 9945; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14169945 - 11 Aug 2022

Viewed by 1154

Abstract

As a densely overlapping area under the national overarching development strategy, the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle (CCEC) possesses a significant strategic location. However, compared with the other three growth pillars, the economic energy of the CCEC is still at a low level and in urgent need of improvement, which has to be implemented step by step in a systematic manner. At present, the focus remains on the two central cities—Chengdu and Chongqing. In contrast to the traditional evaluation of the regional economic energy level (EEL) solely from the “internal comprehensive development level”, this paper takes an angle on the interdependence and co-existence of “field source” and “field” to construct a preliminary index system which accounts for the “external economic connection level” as well. We then calibrate and validate the proposed model from both statistical and empirical angles. Finally, by optimizing the model, this paper evaluates the EELs of the Chengdu–Chongqing twin cities by fuzzy integrals of comprehensive weights. The results show the following: (1) From the perspective of overall indicators, the EELs of Chengdu and Chongqing have been rising from 2000 to 2018. In 2019, due to deglobalization and the Sino-US trade war, both cities appeared to reach an inflection point. (2) In terms of horizontal comparison, the EELs of the two cities basically coincide with each other, in line with the positioning of Chengdu–Chongqing as the two leading cities in Western China. However, their EELs have been lagging behind those of Beijing, indicating more room for further improvement. (3) From the point of view of sub-indexes, Chongqing has the advantage in the “external economic connection level” while Chengdu has the advantage in the “internal comprehensive development level”. The dislocation and complementarity of Chongqing and Chengdu has become an opportunity to break away from the stiff competition and jointly improve their EELs. (4) By comparing our evaluation with the traditional assessment, we note that the EEL tends to be misestimated if comprehensive factors regarding the “external economic connection level” are not taken into account. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A New Outlook for Sustainable Urban Development: Focus on Resilient Smart Cities)

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24 pages, 3515 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Coupling Coordination Development of the Logistics Industry, New Urbanization and the Ecological Environment in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

by Chong Ye, Jiawei Pi and Hanqi Chen

Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5298; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095298 - 27 Apr 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2101

Abstract

Achieving the coordinated development of the logistics industry, new urbanization and the ecological environment is significant for improving the efficiency of the logistics industry, urbanization level and environmental quality, but there are few studies that consider all three together. Based on the panel data of 11 provinces and municipalities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2009 to 2019, this paper constructs the evaluation index system of the logistics industry, new urbanization and the ecological environment. The entropy method, coupled coordination degree model and exploratory spatial data analysis method are used to empirically analyze the spatial and temporal evolution patterns of the coupled coordination of the three systems in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The results show that: (1) during the study period, the comprehensive development level of each subsystem and composite system in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has been improving, but there are some differences in the development among the systems in each region; (2) the coupling coordination degree of the three shows a smooth upward trend and an overall transition from near incoordination or basic coordination to the level of primary coordination or intermediate coordination, showing a spatial distribution pattern of downstream > midstream > upstream; (3) the spatial agglomeration characteristics show significant positive spatial correlation and agglomeration and are dominated by high–high agglomeration and low–low agglomeration. These reflect the enormous spatial and temporal differences in the coupling coordination of the three systems in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The study takes the perspective of the coupled and coordinated development of the logistics industry, new urbanization and the ecological environment, which can provide references for enterprises and governments to make sustainable industrial and urbanization development strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A New Outlook for Sustainable Urban Development: Focus on Resilient Smart Cities)

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