The 4th Industrial Revolution, Smart Cities, and Sustainable Urban Regeneration : A Perspective Study

Abstract

The 4th Industrial Revolution is a new wave of digital innovation. Driverless cars, smart robotics, internet of things (IoT), and other technological changes are happening in our daily life. The notion of smart cities is closely related to the new industrial revolution. We might think of the emergence of smart cities as the realization of the 4th industrial revolution in the spatial context. Many cities around the world are preparing to be smart cities via urban regeneration. In recognizing these changes, this paper tries to understand what the new industrial revolution brings to us, how the new digital revolution acts in our cities, and how urban regeneration can utilize the advent of the new wave of the groundbreaking innovation. This study illustrates why smart technologies are necessary in the urban regeneration process, and what the opportunities and threats in the decentralized and self-generating framework in the new era. We observe that the top-down decision-making procedure might be inefficient. Equally, the fully decentralized and fragmented system will increase the level of risk in the urban regeneration projects. The key element of success is the capacity of the central and local government to build the communication infrastructure and to facilitate the interplay among the participation in the projects.

Implementations of Smart Cities in USA, Europe, and the Far East Countries

“…The U-City "Ubiquitous City Act" was constructed to manage the transportation, environmental, and energy-related problems of cities. According to [45], the expression 'Smart City' has replaced the term 'U-City' after Apple released the iPhone in 2007. The smart city is the most popular concept that concerns building a low-cost, high-efficiency space to set up social capital since the U-City was created as an integrated system for effective use of information through the construction of ICT-based solutions [46].…”

Ecosystem for 4th Industrial Revolution to Accelerate Sustainable Development Goals in the South African Context: A Conceptual Framework

“…Internet of energy (Manda and Ben-Dhaou. 2019) Communication, Urban regeneration (Carvalho, et al 2018;Choi and. Kim, 2017;Okello, et al, 2019) Urban farming technologies (Lom, et al, 2016;Okello, et al, 2019. ;Thomaier, et al 2015) Customer or client centric, meeting needs (Moavenzadeh, 2015) Green change management programmes (Authors'contribution)…”

“…To expound on resources and infrastructure, the emergence or urban farming technologies were reported, which focus on green roof technology, mobile containers, and hydroponics (Thomaier, et al 2015). The evolution of smart cities gives rise to the emergence of smart connections, virtual and wired cities, and urban cybernetics (Thompson 2016), all of which help with urban regeneration (Choi and Kim, 2017). Such regeneration of urban areas includes spatial planning and sustainable transportation, digital information, autonomous vehicles and digital infrastructure and connectivity (Carvalho et al, 2018)…”

“…Automated heat from other building can be used to heat plants for growth, as is the case with a heating system adopted in New York (Thomaier, et al 2015). The Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Nsukka, Nigeria, 5 -7 April, 2022 revolution of urban regeneration includes spatial planning and sustainable transportation, digital information, autonomous cars, and connected digital infrastructure (Choi and Kim, 2017) . This must be linked to equal access to resources.…”

Digital Urban Regeneration and Its Impact on Urban Renewal Processes and Development

“…Urban regeneration must take into consideration these digital innovations and harness the emerging technological changes into new development of urban renewal processes and decision-making approaches. Choi and Kim (2017) mention that many cities around the world are preparing to be smart cities via urban regeneration. In addition, these technological changes can also strengthen housing and urban reaction to future pandemic influence, which will improve the urban environment.…”