The Concept of Sustainability in Smart City Definitions

Abstract

Smart cities have emerged as a possible solution to sustainability problems deriving from rapid urbanization. They are considered imperative for a sustainable future. Despite their recent popularity, the literature reveals the lack of conceptual clarity around the term of smart city, due to the plethora of existing definitions. This comprehensive literature review has identified 43 smart city definitions assessed according to the dimensions of sustainability that they consider, environmental, economic or social, and the priority in which they accord the concept of sustainability. The study revealed the common and opposite characteristics of the definitions according to the sustainability dimensions they consider and discussed the limitations they present. Such limitations appear to be related to citizen accessibility, misrepresentation and the particularity of existing urban fabrics. Taking into account these issues, as well as the difference between the smart city vision and its actual implementation, a new updated definition is proposed. The findings of the present study contribute to knowledge and practice by aiding conceptual clarity and, in particular, by drawing attention to underlying assumptions about the role of sustainability in smart city development.

Data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future: urban computing and intelligence for strategic, short-term, and joined-up planning

“…This will enable sustainable cities to leverage their collective intelligence in making actual progress towards integrating and balancing the dimensions of sustainability. This is owing to the core enabling and driving technologies of big data computing offered by smart cities in relation to or for sustainability (e.g., Angelidou et al 2017;Bibri, 2019a;Bibri & Krogstie, 2020b, 2020cNikitin et al, 2016;Perera, Qin, Estrella, Reiff-Marganiec, & Vasilakos, 2017;Petrovićand Kocić2020;Stübinger & Schneider, 2020;Thakuriah, Tilahun, & Zellner, 2017;Toli & Murtagh, 2020;Trencher, 2019).…”

Exploring the Smart Future of Participation

“…industry, planners, policy analysts, etc. ), but the overarching aims of these settings are to be more sustainable, equitable, and livable (Toli & Murtagh, 2020). There are many conceptions of what constitutes a smart city.…”

Making the Gold Coast a Smart City—An Analysis

“…The literature on smart cities has grown exponentially in the last decade, e.g., [10][11][12][13]. However, despite the growing body of knowledge, no universally accepted definition currently exists for smart cities [14][15][16][17][18]. Several terms such as "smart," "smarter," "digital," "intelligent," "knowledge-based," and "ubiquitous" are used interchangeably in the smart city literature [10,19].…”