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This chapter examines the teaching practice of the author in the Faculty of Education, University of Malta, taking sessions in smart learning as part of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) study units in Bachelors of Education and Masters in Teaching and Learning degree programs between 2017 and 2019. My teaching sessions ran concurrent with undertaking separate doctoral research investigating how participants experience “smart learning journeys.” Smart learning journeys in the research were conceptualized as real-world journeys, with geo-spatially relevant points of interest forming a journey of locations related to a topic of learning, providing context-aware content via digital interactions. Research was not connected to teaching practice, though students who took TEL units also participated in the same smart learning journey activity as part of their syllabus.

Though teaching sessions were not part of my research, my classroom practice modified as a result of emerging research findings, and my teaching benefited as I gained deeper understanding about smart learning activities and the role of the learner in them. Using dialogic learning methods and techniques inspired from my research interview methodology, class sessions became noticeably more effective as students engaged directly in discovering their own learning from having participated in the smart learning journey.

A study conducted by UN Habitat (2020) revealed that financing of investment in African growing cities has become an impediment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Close to USD 93 billion is needed to finance urban development in Africa. The prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic impacted negatively on the independence of African cities to raise revenue or incur long-term debt to finance their development. Several local governments in African cities are not positioned enough to ensure quality standards of living for their people. This is because many local authorities in African cities cannot intervene in various emergencies or crises which pose a danger to people given the COVID-19 pandemic era where strategic government interventions are essential to save the lives of the people. Burdened by the need to respond to COVID-19, many African governments have diverted their attention from the smart city ideology which demands stable financial revenues and redirected their efforts towards mitigating the scourge of the pandemic. Drawing from this background, therefore this chapter reports on the three selected African cities (Johannesburg, Lagos and Accra) because of their experiences regarding COVID-19, and their responses to the pandemic towards achieving a smart city in Africa. The chapter is guided by the following specific objectives: To examine the unintended consequences of COVID-19 on the achievement of Smart Cities in three African Cities; to assess the opportunities and challenges of achieving smart cities amid COVID 19 in three African Cities; and to determine how rapid urbanisation affects the achievement of Smart Cities amid COVID-19 in three African Cities. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyse data acquired from secondary sources.

For decades, the fast population growth worldwide was interrelated with the adopted rapid lifestyle behavior that relies on the extensive use of fossil fuels. This primary energy source has caused various urban and environmental impacts, such as global warming, air pollution, and so forth. Consequently, the identified circumstance issues have caused many health, social, and economic hindering effects for global citizens. It poses an existential threat to humanity and the global earth's ecosystem. The alarming levels of urban pollution emissions are putting enormous challenges to the related stakeholders (governments, businesses, investors, automakers, and citizens) to admit the need to decarbonize the global economy and reach sustainable development goals (SDGs) for cleaner and smarter cities across borders. As such, a vital part of a smart city is the transport sector. The road transport sector, precisely, is one of the primary consumers of fossil fuels that contribute to high carbon dioxide emissions. Accordingly, it is essential to adopt novel and sustainable urban transport solutions and promote the achievement of the SDG's eleventh goal for sustainable cities and communities. This chapter provides insight into the present global energy situation with particular attention to the road transport sector. Indeed, it highlights different emerging technologies for a sustainable and smart urban mobility future that will mitigate the environmental situation thanks to the development of drive and internet telecommunication technologies. Furthermore, we aim in this chapter to study the international progress of the transition project using the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal (PESTEL) analysis methodology. This study is to pinpoint opportunities for project development and the challenges that set back its evolution.

Informatization of all human activities is reflected in areas of the Republic of Belarus economy. And although the concept of “smart” cities is not formulated as a standard or regulation for any city of Belarus, the main indicators of urban services and the quality of life indicate a high degree of territories development in the direction of automating the urban environment management, energy saving, and improving social services quality for the population. Due to high proportion of the population living in the cities of the Republic of Belarus the development and implementation of the smart city concept both for the city of Minsk and other cities will improve the quality of life of almost 80% population. All the prerequisites at the level of technology development and the availability of information resources and specialists, the smart city concept has already been created from the government bodies and the population point of view.

The concept of sustainable performance is gaining attention from researchers all over the world for the betterment of society as a whole. Pollution and climate change has instigated an awareness to switch to sustainable built environment. The present research aims to analyze the indicators of adoption of smart buildings and their impact on dimensions of sustainability, namely, economic, social and environmental performance.

Data was collected from 332 respondents staying in smart buildings. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the data.

The results of the study indicated adoption of smart buildings depicted a stronger perceived sustainable environmental and economic performance while social performance emerged as a weak outcome variable as compared to the other two performances.

The study thus has tremendous implications for construction companies so that they may design smart buildings by adequately using artificial intelligence. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the initial studies to understand the perception of residents of smart buildings using smart technology in India.

Cities are becoming smarter and more optimized because of digital transformation, reducing costs, increasing safety, attracting investment, ensuring sustainability, and increasing viability. As a result of this optimization, they are becoming smart cities. Smart cities use the Internet of Things’ devices, such as connected sensors, lights, and smart meters, to improve infrastructure and design by gathering and analyzing real-time citizen data. In this research, different conceptions of smart cities and their interconnections with digital transformation are presented. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to analyze how digital transformation may help manage smart cities. As a result, a thorough and integrated evaluation of the SCOPUS database will be conducted in order to address the following questions: (1) What are smart cities? (2) What is digital transformation? (3) How does digital transformation help to manage smart cities? The results point out that technologies and digital abundance, which include artificial intelligence, blockchain, and Internet of Things, play a crucial role in managing a controlled and automated infrastructure in smart cities. These favor the development of suitable places to live, work, and have fun, with a better quality of life for everyone.

One prominent force behind sustainable growth is the growth of smart cities. Governments worldwide are beginning to concentrate on the Smart City System (SCS) towards a sustainable future. The construction sector plays a significant role in the development projects for smart cities. Hence, paying attention to research initiatives for smart cities is necessary because of the need for cooperation between the construction industry and SCS in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the SCS on the construction industry in Sri Lanka.

This study used a mixed approach comprising a series of expert interviews and two rounds of a questionnaire survey. Content and statistical analyses were used to analyse and validate the empirical data collected during the study.

The five most significant smart city elements affecting the construction industry were identified: technology and information technology infrastructure, environment, people, economy and governance, along with 15 significant enablers and 17 significant barriers of those smart city elements. Further, 18 significant strategies that can be adopted to overcome the barriers and enhance the enablers of those smart city elements were identified.

This study’s findings reveal that the synergy between the construction industry and the SCS would be a valuable reference for future studies in similar contexts. The construction industry in Sri Lanka will also benefit from the study findings, as the findings would help to improve the link between construction and smart cities. This study significantly benefits the society by revealing cost-effective ways to accelerate construction processes and develop cities sustainably.

This study investigates the underlying indicators for measuring the smartness of buildings in the construction industry; where the Smart Building Technology (SBT) concept (which incorporates elements of the Zero Energy Building (NZEB) concept) could ensure efficient energy consumption and high performance of buildings.

An overarching post-positivist and empirical epistemological design was adopted to analyze primary quantitative data collected via a structured questionnaire survey with 227 respondents. The mean ranking analysis and one-sample t-test were employed to analyse data.

Research findings revealed that the level of knowledge of smart building indicators is averagely high in the Ghanaian construction industry. Future research is required to evaluate the awareness level of Smart Building Technologies (SBTs) by construction professionals and identify barriers to its adoption.

A blueprint guidance model (consisting of significant indicators for measuring building smartness) was developed to help improve building performance and inform policymakers.

This chapter examines the transition from traditional cities to smart cities, with a focus on integrating digital technologies, data, and services into the urban environment. The concept of a smart city aims to create urban spaces that are more efficient, sustainable, and livable by fostering collaboration among stakeholders such as government, businesses, and citizens. This chapter highlights that this transformation encompasses not only technological advancements but also significant social, cultural, and economic implications. It emphasizes the need to rethink urban governance, citizen engagement, and public service delivery. By leveraging data for decision-making, smart city technologies enable cities to optimize urban services and streamline internal operations. Strategically, smart city development aims to attract businesses, investors, and visitors through improved services, sustainability, and accessibility. This chapter also explores how smart cities can enhance their competitiveness by promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, and a dynamic environment for residents and tourists. Moreover, it discusses how digital technologies enable smart cities to offer personalized and interactive experiences to visitors. Overall, this chapter provides a comprehensive perspective on the potential benefits and opportunities arising from smart city transformations, encompassing efficiency, sustainability, economic growth, and enhanced visitor experiences. It serves as a valuable resource for interpreting and understanding various aspects of the book.

Introduction: With the accelerated process of building metropolitans, more and more people tend to live in cities. So, to deal with this, the need has arisen to make smart everything that we have around us even when we arrived at the term of the smart city. All of this produces data we call big data that is generated by citizens.

Aim: So, cloud computing is the main idea implementation which we can use ineffective from all of these services which we call smart. And taking into account all of this, in this literature review, we have used different techniques to extract the most relevant papers on our topic. Mainly, we focus on smart cities and their taxonomy of it such as smart homes, smart buildings, traffic monitoring, security and emergencies, and so on. For a smart city, we discussed different proposed system architectures which represent the real work of researchers.

Results: In this way, we mention services that are offered and have the base services cloud services. Also, the articles we used are extracted and analysed from the most powerful and relevant databases such as IEEE, ACM, Elsevier, Science Direct, and so on. In total, we take 88 papers, and from all of these papers we have extracted 53 with different methods. This Systematic Literature Review presents building and using smart cities inside of cloud computing services.

Conclusion: However, a different implementation idea to do better life for all of us is by converting our lifestyle into a new form of living. The only form of implementation is by digitalising and implementing everything around us which means making every service in one place, where you can have access from anywhere, anytime. So, the smart city is the future.

Originality/value: This systematic literature review contributes to everyone who expresses interest to implement and provides additional evidence for existing studies in smart city patterns which used cloud services. Researchers offer various implementation forms of different models and express the impact of cloud services, especially for placements, where there are more people populated. Also, this study identifies a major weakness in existing smart city implementation by using cloud services, which have identified the main obstacles now and it needs to reanalyse the form of implementation for more complex systems in the future.