Understanding Sustainable Energy in the Context of Smart Cities: A PRISMA Review

Abstract

In the context of smart cities, sustainability is an essential dimension. One of the ways to achieve sustainability and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in smart cities is through the promotion of sustainable energy. The demand for affordable and reliable electrical energy requires different energy sources, where the cost of production often outweighs the environmental factor. This paper aims to investigate the ways smart cities promote sustainability in the electricity sector. For this, a systematic literature review using the PRISMA protocol was employed as the methodological approach. In this review, 154 journal articles were thoroughly analyzed. The results were grouped according to the themes and categorized into energy efficiency, renewable energies, and energy and urban planning. The study findings revealed the following: (a) global academic publication landscape for smart city and energy sustainability research; (b) unbalanced publications when critically evaluating geographical continents’ energy use intensity vs. smart cities’ energy sustainability research outcomes; (c) there is a heavy concentration on the technology dimension of energy sustainability and efficiency, and renewables topics in the literature, but much less attention is paid to the energy and urban planning issues. The insights generated inform urban and energy authorities and provide scholars with directions for prospective research.

A comprehensive overview on demand side energy management towards smart grids: challenges, solutions, and future direction

“…It is an evidence-based minimum set of guidelines meant to help scientific writers publish different kinds of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PRISMA focuses on the methods through which authors may ensure accurate and comprehensive reporting of this type of research (Cortese et al 2022). The PRISMA standard superseded the previous QUOROM standard by demonstrating the high review's quality, allowing review process replication, and allowing readers to assess the review's benefits and drawbacks.…”

Public Perceptions About Smart Cities: Governance and Quality-of-Life in Hong Kong

“…Operationalizing the concept of ‘quality-of-life’ can be done numerous ways, and for this study centers on five dimensions of the public user experience with smart cities: technologies for smart buildings, energy and the environment, mobility and transportation, education, and health. 3 The literature exploring how smart cities contribute to these operationalizations is growing: buildings (Chang et al, 2020 ; Kumar et al, 2017 ; Kylili & Fokaides, 2015 ; Moreno et al, 2014 ; Morvaj et al, 2011 ; Roccotelli & Mangini, 2022 ), energy (Anthony et al, 2020 ; Brenna et al, 2012 ; Calvillo et al, 2016 ; Cortese et al, 2022 ; Strielkowski et al, 2020 ), natural environment (Bacco et al, 2017 ; Lin & Cheung, 2020 ; Montori et al, 2017 ; Nold, 2020 ; Viitanen & Kingston, 2014 ; Zhang, 2023 ), mobility and transportation (Al Nuaimi et al, 2015 ; Cassandras, 2017 ; Oliveira et al, 2020 ; Persaud et al, 2017 ; Rani & Sharma, 2023 ), education (Gomede et al, 2018 ; Hughes, 2014 ; Namiot et al, 2017 ; Sadeh et al, 2020 ; Tham & Verhulsdonck, 2023 ), and health (Hilal et al, 2022 ; Paolini et al, 2016 ; Pérez-Roman et al, 2020 ; Pramanik et al, 2017 ; Sampri et al, 2016 ; Singh, 2022 ; Solanas et al, 2014 ). These applications of smart city technologies arguably encompass most facets of urban life, and their relevance as a policy issue is clearly expressed in the literature.…”

Smart City Assessment in Developing Economies: A Scoping Review

“…At present, developing economies, once referred to as lesser developed economies, are characterized by a poor infrastructure, inferior growth rates, an imbalanced economy, and extremely low personal incomes. These economies lack the knowledge and assets required to shift away from an excessive reliance on production [23,24]. The goal of a smart city in developing economies would be to identify and prioritize areas where smart city initiatives could improve the city's efficiency and livability.…”

“…Dr. Mohan Munasinghe developed the concept of environmentally sustainable development (Figure 2), wherein the concept focuses on the integration of economic, social, and environmental factors in development planning and decision making. The concept further stressed that smart city technologies are found to provide the balance among these three aspects of inclusive growth, which is balanced and anchored on green development [23]. While the smart city concept focuses on the use of technology and data to improve the quality of life for urban residents while minimizing resource consumption and environmental impact, Dr. Munasinghe's concept of environmentally sustainable development aims to ensure that development meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.…”