Can cities become smart without being sustainable? A systematic review of the literature

Yiğitcanlar, Tan; Kamruzzaman, Md.; Foth, Marcus; Marques, Jamile Sabatini; Costa, Eduardo Moreira da; Ioppolo, Giuseppe

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2018.11.033

Cited by 467 publications

(259 citation statements)

References 127 publications

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“…Finally, governments in developing countries should incorporate environmental sustainability as part of the policy narratives in smart city development [99]. While many eco-cities in the world advocate for this vision, the actual results of providing an environmentally friendly, comfortable urban life that is inclusive of all segments of the population remain ambiguous [34,45,48,80].…”

Section: (Vii) Promoting Environmental Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart City Governance in Developing Countries: A Systematic Literature Review

2020

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Smart cities that make broad use of digital technologies have been touted as possible solutions for the population pressures faced by many cities in developing countries and may help meet the rising demand for services and infrastructure. Nevertheless, the high financial cost involved in infrastructure maintenance, the substantial size of the informal economies, and various governance challenges are curtailing government idealism regarding smart cities. This review examines the state of smart city development in developing countries, which includes understanding the conceptualisations, motivations, and unique drivers behind (and barriers to) smarty city development. A total of 56 studies were identified from a systematic literature review from an initial pool of 3928 social sciences literature identified from two academic databases. Data were analysed using thematic synthesis and thematic analysis. The review found that technologyenabled smart cities in developing countries can only be realised when concurrent socioeconomic, human, legal, and regulatory reforms are instituted. Governments need to step up their efforts to fulfil the basic infrastructure needs of citizens, raise more revenue, construct clear regulatory frameworks to mitigate the technological risks involved, develop human capital, ensure digital inclusivity, and promote environmental sustainability. A supportive ecosystem that encourages citizen participation, nurtures start-ups, and promotes public-private partnerships needs to be created to realise their smart city vision.

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Section: (Vii) Promoting Environmental Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart City Governance in Developing Countries: A Systematic Literature Review

2020

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“…Other AV stakeholders such as software operators, data aggregators and ride-sharing companies are motivated by different profit incentives that can create systemic effects for safety and discrimination, which have not been explored in the literature. Given their key role in shaping "smart cities agendas and policies" [7], more action is required to align AV stakeholders' incentives with sustainability objectives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept of smart cities goes beyond earlier concepts of "information city", "digital city", "sustainable city" and "intelligent city" by emphasising the use of technology to serve the needs of people [52,55]. Scholars argue that a city can only be considered truly smart when technological solutions are utilised not only for greater economic efficiency but also social and environmental sustainability [7].…”

Section: Algorithmic Decision-making In Avs For Smart and Sustainablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Smart and sustainable cities have been increasingly emphasised around the world to resolve the challenges associated with rapid urbanisation and population growth [1][2][3][4]. Amid the proliferating initiatives to develop smart cities, conceptions of the latter have emerged as a point of contention among scholars, who have pointed out the heavy emphasis of smart city concepts on technologically driven solutions and economic imperatives and the lack of evidence demonstrating their alignment with environmental and social sustainability [4][5][6][7]. In the transportation industry, these initiatives take the form of smart mobility solutions ranging from shared mobility services, electric vehicles and bikes, autonomous vehicles (AVs) and the integration of multiple transportation modes such as rail and cycling to attain safer, more efficient and environmentally sustainable transportation [8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Algorithmic Decision-Making in AVs: Understanding Ethical and Technical Concerns for Smart Cities

Lim

Taeihagh

2019

Sustainability

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Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are increasingly embraced around the world to advance smart mobility and more broadly, smart, and sustainable cities. Algorithms form the basis of decision-making in AVs, allowing them to perform driving tasks autonomously, efficiently, and more safely than human drivers and offering various economic, social, and environmental benefits. However, algorithmic decision-making in AVs can also introduce new issues that create new safety risks and perpetuate discrimination. We identify bias, ethics, and perverse incentives as key ethical issues in the AV algorithms' decision-making that can create new safety risks and discriminatory outcomes. Technical issues in the AVs' perception, decision-making and control algorithms, limitations of existing AV testing and verification methods, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities can also undermine the performance of the AV system. This article investigates the ethical and technical concerns surrounding algorithmic decision-making in AVs by exploring how driving decisions can perpetuate discrimination and create new safety risks for the public. We discuss steps taken to address these issues, highlight the existing research gaps and the need to mitigate these issues through the design of AV's algorithms and of policies and regulations to fully realise AVs' benefits for smart and sustainable cities.Sustainability 2019, 11, 5791 2 of 28 surroundings and algorithms that process the data, make, and execute driving decisions through the vehicle's actuators. The quality of data retrieved by the AV's sensors is critical for decision-making [21], and the efficiency, precision and reliability of decision-making algorithms allows AVs to surpass the typical human driver in performing driving tasks [22]. A major component in AVs is machine-learning (ML) [23] algorithms that continuously learn and adapt to new information, which is essential for responding to unexpected situations and providing on-demand transportation services [24]. Algorithms' independence from human input and ML's data-driven nature allows AVs to significantly reduce or eliminate human errors that have been responsible for 90% of road fatalities, such as speeding, alcohol impairment, distractions and induced fear [25,26].However, an overemphasis on technological solutions alone for economic development could risk neglecting social and environmental considerations and thus hinder true "smartness" [27]. Scholars have cautioned against rushing to develop smart mobility solutions such as AVs without being prepared to manage their potential "negative externalities" [1,28]. In particular, issues in algorithmic decision-making in AVs can have undesirable effects on safety and equity. Firstly, data mining processes in AVs are susceptible to biases that lead algorithms to prioritise the safety of certain groups of road users over others and thus, perpetuate discrimination [29,30]. Secondly, many scholars stress the need to design algorithms with ethical considerations to ensure that AVs make ethical driving dec...

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“…The smart city has the goals of urban planning reflected in a new philosophy and approach, but the two concepts cannot be considered in contrast, although it was stressed that the principle should be aligned with sustainable development. Yigitcanlar et al [58] reviewed 35 academic works about smart cities and insisted that cities could not be smart without sustainability. They highlighted that smart cities need to have appropriate technology, complex city management, and consensus on concepts of sustainability for future sustainable cities.…”

Section: The Concept Of the Smart Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparison of a Smart City’s Trends in Urban Planning before and after 2016 through Keyword Network Analysis

2019

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The aim of this study was to explore the keywords related to smart city concepts, and to understand their flow. This research used a keyword network analysis by collecting keywords from papers published on the web from Scopus, which is an international scholarly papers engine. The data were collected from before and after 2016, and since the amount of data has been growing rapidly after global agreements such as the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, we attempted to focus on adjacent years of publication. In order to understand the flow of research, we conducted a central analysis, which is widely used in quantitative research relating to social network analysis, and performed cluster analysis to identify relationships with related research. The results of the analysis are represented in the form of network maps, and the role of each keyword was clarified based on these network maps. In addition, the overall flow explained the change of flow through discarded and emerging keywords, and the relationships with related fields were explained through cluster analysis. The findings could serve as a basis for policymakers, urban managers, and researchers seeking a comprehensive understanding of the smart city concept in urban planning areas.Sustainability 2019, 11, 3155 2 of 25 adaption to environmental issues such as climate change and global warming, and efficiently utilizing and managing energy. In addition, Information and Communication Technologies (hereafter ICT) will extensively and effectively help cities achieve a comparative edge [4,8,9], and be used as the tools and means to develop Intelligent Transport Systems (hereafter ITS) with mobility information and the Internet of Things (hereafter IoT) [10][11][12], as well as to achieve urban policy making based on governance and open data [13][14][15]. Accordingly, in improving the urban quality of future urban areas, the term smart city is considered as an umbrella concept that includes various sub-concepts such as sustainable smart environments, smart technology, smart energy, smart transportation, smart mobility, and smart government [16][17][18][19][20][21].

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Can cities become smart without being sustainable? A systematic review of the literature

Cited by 467 publications

References 127 publications

Smart City Governance in Developing Countries: A Systematic Literature Review

Smart City Governance in Developing Countries: A Systematic Literature Review

Algorithmic Decision-Making in AVs: Understanding Ethical and Technical Concerns for Smart Cities

A Comparison of a Smart City’s Trends in Urban Planning before and after 2016 through Keyword Network Analysis

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