Enhancing City Sustainability through Smart Technologies: A Framework for Automatic Pre-Emptive Action to Promote Safety and Security Using Lighting and ICT-Based Surveillance

Abstract

The scope of the present paper is to promote social, cultural and environmental sustainability in cities by establishing a conceptual framework and the relationship amongst safety in urban public space (UPS), lighting and Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based surveillance. This framework uses available technologies and tools, as these can be found in urban equipment such as lighting posts, to enhance security and safety in UPS, ensuring protection against attempted criminal activity. Through detailed literary research, publications on security and safety concerning crime and lighting can be divided into two periods, the first one pre-1994, and the second one from 2004–2008. Since then, a significant reduction in the number of publications dealing with lighting and crime is observed, while at the same time, the urban nightscape has been reshaped with the immersion of light-emitting diode (LED) technologies. Especially in the last decade, where most municipalities in the EU28 (European Union of all the member states from the accession of Croatia in 2013 to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom in 2020) are refurbishing their road lighting with LED technology and the consideration of smart networks and surveillance is under development, the use of lighting to deter possible attempted felonies in UPS is not addressed. To capitalize on the potential of lighting as a deterrent, this paper proposes a framework that uses existing technology, namely, dimmable LED light sources, presence sensors, security cameras, as well as emerging techniques such as artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled image recognition algorithms and big data analytics and presents a possible system that could be developed as a stand-alone product to alert possible dangerous situations, deter criminal activity and promote the perception of safety thus linking lighting and ICT-based surveillance towards safety and security in UPS.

Increasing the Livability of Open Public Spaces during Nighttime: The Importance of Lighting in Waterfront Areas

“…Although social behavior requires inevitable support and control through design [17], the development and design support for nighttime open public space usage still does not follow the rate of urban growth, leading to declining quality of everyday life [18]. Existing studies consider nighttime leisure activities mainly from the aspect of social sustainability, economic contribution [19], development of sociability and socialization [20], public safety [21][22][23][24][25], and health [26,27]. Furthermore, nighttime leisure activities in open public spaces have a broad impact on economic growth [28], urban competitiveness [29], urban vitality [30], and social equality [31,32].…”

“…Cultural and ecological sustainability are addressed through encounters with cultural heritage and learning about the environment [33,35,36], controlled energy consumption, cost-saving, and the preservation of existing resources [37,38]. The technical and economic aspects of lighting and the sustainable aspects of energy efficiency and savings, as well as carbon dioxide emissions, were not considered in detail in this paper, keeping in mind that LED technology in lighting has already been extensively researched [23,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]. The recent scientific research further expands into the field of economic efficiency and energy security through the concept of smart cities [23,25,41,[44][45][46].…”

“…The technical and economic aspects of lighting and the sustainable aspects of energy efficiency and savings, as well as carbon dioxide emissions, were not considered in detail in this paper, keeping in mind that LED technology in lighting has already been extensively researched [23,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]. The recent scientific research further expands into the field of economic efficiency and energy security through the concept of smart cities [23,25,41,[44][45][46]. In addition, outdoor lighting has been researched and studied in terms of safety and security while driving.…”

“…In addition, outdoor lighting has been researched and studied in terms of safety and security while driving. The topic of artificial lighting in scientific research has been focused mainly on technical characteristics and street lighting, while the relationship between space usage and artificial lighting quality in open public spaces has been focused on urban safety and crime prevention [21][22][23][24][25].…”

Defining and measuring the effects of digital technologies on social sustainability: A systematic literature review

“…Safety and crime prevention: Focus on the physical safety of individuals in a society, like using technologies for preventing crime, cybercrime, and the impacts of attacks on, or failure of, critical-infrastructure systems. For example, a study on the promotion of safety and security with ICT-based surveillance(Vogiatzaki et al, 2020). ix.…”