Smart City and Crisis Management: Lessons for the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 shocked cities around the world and revealed the vulnerability of urban lives and functions. Most cities experienced a catastrophic disturbance that has lasted for a long time. Planning plays a critical role in responding efficiently to this crisis and enabling rapid functional recovery in the post-disaster era. Cities that have implemented digitalization initiatives and programs are likely to have more capacity to react appropriately. Specifically, digitalized cities could ensure the well-being of their residents and maintain continuity of urban functions. This research aims to analyze the role of technology in crisis management in the last two decades and provide appropriate policy recommendations for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Systematic literature review and subjective content analysis are employed to investigate the effects of technology on community well-being and making cities more resilient in past crises. This study shows that different technology-driven policies and actions enable crisis management, enhance community well-being, and increase urban resilience. Technology has enhanced coping and recovery capacities by increasing participation and social connectedness, enhancing physical and mental health and maintaining the functionality of education and economic systems. These have been achieved through various solutions and technologies such as social media, telehealth, tracking and monitoring systems, sensors and locational applications, teleworking systems, etc. These solutions and technologies have also been used during the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance community well-being and sustain urban functions. However, technology deployment might have adverse effects such as social exclusion, digital divide, privacy and confidentiality violation, political bias and misinformation dissemination, and inefficient remote working and education. It is suggested that to mitigate these side effects, policymakers should liberate the process of digitalization, increase the accessibility to digital services, and enhance digital literacy.

Effects of the built environment and human factors on the spread of COVID-19: A systematic literature review

“…The third group of review papers just focused on the actions and policies that could be implemented to control the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the adverse effect of this pandemic. For example, Sharifi et al (2021) and Hassankhani et al (2021) analyzed the importance of smart technologies and the deployment of technological devices to deal with the adverse effects of COVID-19 in cities. These review papers just focused on smartness and technology deployment without mentioning other factors.…”

“…Overall, these literature reviews have focused on different aspects such as urban planning factors ( Hussein, 2022 ; Rojas-Rueda and Morales-Zamora, 2021 ; Harris et al, 2022 ), urbanization ( Wu, 2021 ), density ( Zhang and Schwartz, 2020 ), transport and travel behavior features ( Shortall et al, 2021 , Shortall et al, 2022 ), environmental factors ( Azuma et al, 2020 ; Valsamatzi-Panagiotou and Penchovsky, 2022 ; Kumar et al, 2021 ; Weaver et al, 2022 ), smart city deployment ( Sharifi et al, 2021 ; Hassankhani et al, 2021 ), and social determinants of health ( Brakefield et al, 2022 ). These papers have discussed the driving factors of COVID-19 spread, how this pandemic has affected nature, settlements, and residents, and how urban planning can mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic.…”

Infrastructural Development of Smart Cities as the Background of Digital Transformation of Territorial Units

“…40 Nº 73 (2022): 233-250 discussions need to be expanded on the role of Smart City projects in health emergencies (Yang and Chong, 2021). The introduction of technology can, however, have adverse consequences, such as social exclusion, digital gap, privacy and confidentiality, political bias and disinformation, and inefficient teleworking and distance study (Hassankhani et al, 2021).…”

COVID-19: a challenge for smart cities in the decalogue of public health

“…La COVID-19 se ve afectada por factores ambientales como la deforestación, el calentamiento global y la contaminación atmosférica. Todos los aspectos mostrados traen consigo la necesidad de plantearse conceptos de salud urbana, ya ampliamente debatidas, centradas en la tecnología en plena consideración de la planificación y diseño de comunidades sostenibles e inteligentes (Capolongo et al, 2020;Trinca, 2020;Hassankhani, 2021;Ali et al, 2021;Hassan et al, 2021;Ferraz, 2022;Guo et al, 2022).…”