Search results

The widespread lockdown restrictions brought by the global COVID-19 epidemic inculcated a culture of “work-from-home”. However, most rural areas lack reliable and effective community amenities including transportation, health and education, thereby impeding healthy living and productive employment. Therefore, the underlying goal of this research is to investigate the development of smart infrastructure (SI) in non-urban areas. However, governments' resource limitations must be addressed to develop SI, which urges the research on the potential for public-private partnerships (PPP) to supplement public sector resources when necessary.

This paper examined and evaluated the “benefits and enablers” and “barriers” to deploying PPPs to create SI in non-urban areas, using a thorough literature review, five expert interviews and analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based questionnaire responses. The AHP technique and content analysis were used to analyse the results and generate the conclusions.

The availability of a favourable investment climate and legal framework were identified as the significant factors among the “benefits and enablers” of adopting PPP in SI developments in non-urban areas, while low community acceptance of the private sector involvement, and community culture and values were identified as the significant factors among the “barriers”. These highlight the significance of removing barriers connected to community culture and “values”.

The findings and conclusions of this study provide a strong foundation to support the growth of SI in non-urban settings, facilitating more sustainable development that is more evenly distributed in the post-COVID-19 future.

Today, the rapid increase in the population living in cities and new developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) increase the demand for smart cities day by day. It is thought that limited public resources and crowded cities will be managed better by making more use of the opportunities offered by smart technologies. At this point, many countries around the world are turning to smart city applications. Especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, local governments have started to give importance to smart city projects due to the advantages of smart cities. It is thought that urban planning against epidemics will gain more importance in the coming years.

With rapid urbanization, cities are facing various ecological and environmental problems. Living in harmony with nature is more important than ever. This paper aims to evaluate the ecosystem and ecological features of Azheke village, a key component of the Hani Rice Terraces World Cultural Heritage in China. The focus is on exploring effective ways to improve the relationship between humans and the natural environment through urban design in order to create a livable and sustainable city that can promote the development of sustainable smart urban ecology design.

This study conducted a systematic literature review to answer the following research questions: (1) How does Azheke design achieve harmony between humans and nature? (2) What are the effective approaches to improve the relationship between humans and nature within urban ecosystems? (3) How can urban design learn and integrate from Azheke’s ecological features to improve the relationship between humans and nature?

Azheke sustains long-term human-nature harmony through traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and efficient natural resource use. By incorporating biophilic design and nature-based solutions from Azheke, along with biodiversity-friendly urban planning, we can boost urban ecosystem health and create unique Azheke-inspired urban designs.

This research primarily focuses on the human-nature relationship, exploring design strategies based on biodiversity without delving into the interactions between other components of urban ecosystems, such as social-cultural and economic components.

This paper provides a new perspective and strategies for developing sustainable and smart urban ecology design. These findings can provide theoretical references for urban planners, designers and decision-makers.

This study aims to explore the potential dynamics between performance measurement at the organisational level and emerging urban development projects at the macro-institutional field level of sustainability governance and accountability.

Using a theoretical triangulation between three theories, namely contingency theory, institutional theory and social cognitive theory, this study investigates not only the macro-micro dynamics, but also the (recursive) micro-macro dynamics between performance measurement and urban development. Using an Egyptian public sector urban development organisation and its sustainable energy project as an empirical example, interviews, documents and observations were collected.

The dynamics emerged between field urban development projects and the (unintended) organisational implementation of the performance measurement system, the sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) reporting system. Contributing to previous literature, these dynamics have been institutionalised through (three) interrelated levels: the (macro-field) urban development contingencies and pressures for sustainability KPIs reporting, the (organisational) institutionalisation of the urban development performance measurement system and then the (micro-organisational) cognitive role of sustainability KPIs reports in (re)making political urban development decisions.

This study faced some limitations that paved the way for future research axes. For political and security reasons, difficulties were encountered in conducting interviews with government actors in the sustainable energy project under study. Also, due to the practical separation of the environmental sustainability system from the sustainability KPIs reporting system in this case study, environmental sustainability is outside the scope.

Sustainability reports may influence public sector decision-making processes in a specific urban development context. These KPIs reports may also increase public sector management opportunities for urban auditing, transparency, accountability and sustainability governance. These KPIs may also guide public sector management to lower prices in poor villages to increase smart energy consumption and improve community health.

Sustainability reports may increase decision-makers' understanding of consumer behaviours and societal changes. This may help in making appropriate political decisions to improve their welfare and regular smart energy consumption. Not only urban citizens, but this social advantage may also extend to urban development employees through employees' promotion, training and access to government-funded academic and professional scholarships.

This study is an attempt to develop current public sector performance measurement analyses in the emerging urban development field using a triadic analytical approach. This study also fed the literature with an extended case study that clarified the (multi-level) and (two-way) dynamics between performance measurement and urban development.

Women's travel pattern is different from those of men. Women who have both paid employment and unpaid care work have more complex travel patterns. However, land-use policies and urban mobility strategies in the Egyptian context do not consider these differences. This paper analyzes and discusses the travel patterns of the Egyptian working women with children. It examines the difference between men's and women's travel behavior in different income levels. The paper aims at determining the main factors that affect working women's travel patterns within the care economy framework and suggesting recommendations for enhancing women's travel patterns in Greater Cairo Region (GCR).

The methodology relies on conducting a quantitative and qualitative analysis using questionnaires and interviews with working women and men from different social/economic levels in two different workplaces in GCR.

The results demonstrate that income level, workplace locations, schools locations, and schools typologies greatly affect working women's travel patterns in GCR.

The study findings will help urban planners and decision-makers to improve working women's mobility to make their daily trips shorter and more accessible to achieve equitable cities through understanding the conducted affecting factors and considering the suggested recommendations.

The goals of the contemporary environment in this new era of the Internet of Things (IoT), digital technologies (DTs) and smartisation are to enhance economic, social and environmental sustainability while also concentrating on the citizens' quality of life. As these initiatives advance, more determination is required to offer effective approaches to the problem posed by the accomplishment of the Sustainable City Project in Nigeria as a developing nation. To address these problems and facilitate the process for Nigeria's major cities to become ‘smart cities’, universities, research institutions and other stakeholders must collaborate alongside. This chapter aims to establish a model or framework that addresses urban intelligence, social inclusion, resilience and technological innovation, mobility, urbanisation and residents' quality of life. The reviews of the characteristics and management of smart cities in developed countries were documented to serve as a comparison study of the cities in African sub-Saharan regions. This will assist in building models that can produce predictions about possible smart solutions in the areas of mobility, urban infrastructure and ecological problems brought on by climate change in African cities. This chapter brings attention to the body of knowledge by envisioning the benefits to the government and citizens in making appropriate decisions to enhance sustainable development, a better resilience environment, improved infrastructure, smart city environments and residents' quality of life. The study's implications centre on how the government could prioritise urban features and services as indicated in the smart cities framework.

The United Nations (UN) adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); agenda 2030 focuses on Climate Action (goal 13), targeting climate adaptability, as well as resilience, awareness and improving policy mechanisms on climate change. In order to enhance climate adaptability, climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAP) is a necessary step. CSAP is a sustainable agriculture approach with a strong focus on climate dimensions. The three pillars of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) are ‘Adaptation’: adapting to climate change; ‘Resilience’: building resilience against it and ‘Remove’: reducing carbon emissions. The new world economy uses Industry 4.0 technologies for sustainable advancement, including blockchain technology, big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality, industrial Internet of Things (IoT) and services. Hence, technology plays a significant role in climate sustainable agriculture practices. This chapter shall consider three technologies consisting of IoT, AI and blockchain technology which contribute to CSAP in pre-harvesting (monitoring climate as well as fertility status, soil testing, etc.), harvesting (tilling, fertilisation, seed operations, etc.) and post-harvesting (predicting weather factors, seed varieties, etc.) periods of agriculture. All these three technologies work like the human nervous system; IoT helps in converting various information regarding demography, climate change, local agricultural needs, etc. into world data; AI works like a brain in combination with IoT, helps predict the use of climate-smart technology and blockchain, the memory part of the nervous system which deals with supply-side and ensures traceability as well as transparency for consumers as well as farmers. Hence, this chapter shall contribute to the importance of these three technologies in adopting CSAP in three stages of agriculture.

This study aims to identify the determinants that influence citizen’s behavioural intention and continuous usage intention of smart mobility services in Indian smart cities with the help of an extended technology acceptance model.

This study uses a quantitative methodology to analyse the data collected from 509 residents of smart cities in India. The study used the partial least squares structural equation modelling approach to test the proposed hypotheses.

The study highlights the importance of perceived usefulness and ease of use in influencing citizens’ attitudes and intentions towards smart mobility services. Positive attitudes significantly impact behavioural intentions, which, in turn, link to continuous usage intentions.

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on smart cities and technology adoption, specifically in the area of smart mobility. The study’s findings will help service providers and policymakers to develop more robust strategies for the future.

The purpose of this study is to analyse Benidorm, San Sebastián, Gijón, Málaga, Tenerife Island and Santander smart tourist destinations (STDs) as a touristic model and example to follow by other destinations in Spain and all over the world.

To fulfil the stated objective, this study follows several phases that introduce and classify a set of measures implemented by the six Spanish smart destinations to be designed as a STD.

Findings suggest that being a STD requires a high cost, and this is only accessible to big destinations with enough resources. Of the 50 Spanish provinces, eight are STDs, and these are localised in coastal areas. Obviously, this challenge is not within the reach of any Spanish city. Moreover, findings of the current study prove that the six Spanish smart destinations have a good air accessibility through their six airports, but the accessibility in a STD is not just physical; this must provide digital accessibility to tourists through destination marketing organisation’s website and app that will supply them with information on a wide range of services, including accommodations, tourist attractions, restaurants, public transport, museums and monuments’ locations, amongst many others.

From a resident point of view, a STD cannot be only focused on a technological and tourism context; a STD also requires knowing and meeting the needs of local residents and having a voice in decision-making processes. Hence, this study shows a new perspective on STDs that will benefit the literature on STDs.

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.