In this edited volume, academics and practitioners from various disciplines investigate the challenges, opportunities and frameworks in the implementation of Smart Cities in the Gulf.The volume presents insightful analyses and identifies key lessons learned through case studies covering four main themes including smart city frameworks and governance, resources and infrastructure, information and communication technologies, and the social perspective. In doing so, the book provides policy recommendations related to smart governance, as well as overall frameworks that cities can adopt in their process of transition, and knowledge that is integral to bridge the gap between various stakeholders in the Smart City milieu. This edited volume comprises extended versions of papers presented at a workshop held at the University of Cambridge, UK titled “Smart Cities in the GCC: Current State, Opportunities and Challenges.”

As populations have continued to grow and expand, many people have made their homes in cities around the globe. With this increase in city living, it is becoming vital to create intelligent urban environments that efficiently support this growth and simultaneously provide friendly and progressive environments to both businesses and citizens alike. Smart Cities and Smart Spaces: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is an innovative reference source that discusses social, economic, and environmental issues surrounding the evolution of smart cities. Highlighting a range of topics such as smart destinations, urban planning, and intelligent communities, this multi-volume book is designed for engineers, architects, facility managers, policymakers, academicians, and researchers interested in expanding their knowledge on the emerging trends and topics involving smart cities.

In a rapidly urbanizing world, the concept of “smart cities” represents the future of urban living. These cities aim to harness advanced technologies to create environments that are efficient, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of their inhabitants. But what does it take to build a smart city? And what challenges must be overcome to realize this vision? Smart Cities - Foundations and Perspectives is a comprehensive guide that explores the intricate process of developing smart cities. The book is organized into two key sections. The first section, “Smart Cities Opportunities and Challenges”, takes you through the initial stages of smart city development, with a focus on real-world examples like Saudi Arabia’s ambitious smart city projects. It discusses the critical areas of energy, mobility, and waste management, offering a clear view of the evolution of these cities and the hurdles they face. In the second section, “Smart Cities Technologies”, the book delves into the technological backbone of smart cities. From the Internet of Things (IoT) to renewable energy solutions and cybersecurity measures, it covers the cutting-edge innovations that are essential for creating intelligent urban environments. Written by leading experts in the field, this book provides invaluable insights for policymakers, urban planners, technologists, and anyone interested in the future of cities. Smart Cities - Foundations and Perspectives is not just a blueprint for building smart cities—it is a call to action for creating urban spaces that are secure, sustainable, and inclusive.

This edited volume discusses the socioeconomic, environmental, and policy implications of smart cities. Written by international experts in energy economics and policy, the chapters present wide range of high quality theoretical and empirical studies at the nexus of social, entrepreneurial, governmental and ecological transformation. The book covers a wide range of topics, with a view towards providing empirical evidence of the benefits of smart cities as well as practical frameworks for smart city initiatives. Topics discussed include: smart city transition pillars, innovation for smart and sustainable cities design and implementation, smart city governance, smart mobility within cities, and smart cities in emerging economies. This volume will be of use to students and researchers interested in resource economics, energy economics, sustainability, ICT, and governance, as well as policymakers working on smart city initiatives. This is an open access book.

This book aims to contribute to the conceptual and practical knowledge pools in order to improve the research and practice on the sustainable development of smart cities by bringing an informed understanding of the subject to scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. This book seeks articles offering insights into the sustainable development of smart cities by providing in-depth conceptual analyses and detailed case study descriptions and empirical investigations. This way, the book will form a repository of relevant information, material, and knowledge to support research, policymaking, practice, and transferability of experiences to address aforementioned challenges. The scope of the book includes the following broad areas, with a particular focus on the approaches, advances, and applications in the sustainable development of smart cities: • Theoretical underpinnings and analytical and policy frameworks; • Methodological approaches for the evaluation of smart and sustainable cities; • Technological developments in the techno-enviro nexus; • Global best practice smart city case investigations and reports; • Geo-design and applications concerning desired urban outcomes; • Prospects, implications, and impacts concerning the future of smart and sustainable cities.

Over the last years, sophisticated policy making propositions for sustainable rural and urban development have been recorded. The smart village and smart city concepts promote a human-centric vision for a new era of technology-driven social innovation. This Special Issue offers a useful overview of the most recent developments in the frequently overlapping fields of smart city and smart village research. A variety of topics including well-being, happiness, security, open democracy, open government, smart education, smart innovation, and migration have been addressed in this Special Issue. They define the direction for future research in both domains. The organization of the relevant debate is aligned around three pillars: Section A: Sustainable Smart City and Smart Village Research: Foundations • Clustering Smart City Services: Perceptions, Expectations, and Responses • Smart City Development and Residents’ Well-Being • Analysis of Social Networking Service Data for Smart Urban Planning Section B: Sustainable Smart City and Smart Village Research: Case Studies on Rethinking Security, Safety, Well-being, and Happiness • Exploring a Stakeholder-Based Urban Densification and Greening Agenda for Rotterdam Inner City—Accelerating the Transition to a Liveable Low Carbon City • The Impact of the Comprehensive Rural Village Development Program on Rural Sustainability in Korea • Analyzing the Level of Accessibility of Public Urban Green Spaces to Different Socially Vulnerable Groups of People • Consumers’ Preference and Factors Influencing Offal Consumption in the Amathole District Eastern Cape, South Africa • Sustainable Tourism: A Hidden Theory of the Cinematic Image? A Theoretical and Visual Analysis of the Way of St. James • Future Development of Taiwan’s Smart Cities from an Information Security Perspective • Towards a Smart and Sustainable City with the Involvement of Public Participation—The Case of Wroclaw Section C: Sustainable Smart City and Smart Village Research: Technical Issues • Detection and Localization of Water Leaks in Water Nets Supported by an ICT System with Artificial Intelligence Methods as a Way Forward for Smart Cities • A Study of the Public Landscape Order of Xinye Village • Spatio-Temporal Changes and Dependencies of Land Prices: A Case Study of the City of Olomouc • Geographical Assessment of Low-Carbon Transportation Modes: A Case Study from a Commuter University • Performance Analysis of a Polling-Based Access Control Combined with the Sleeping Schema in V2I VANETs for Smart Cities.

Internet and World Wide Web platforms, big data analytics, software, social media and civic technologies allow for the creation of smart ecosystems in which connected intelligence emerges and disruptive social and eco-innovation flourishes. This book focuses on three grand challenges that matter for any territory, no matter where it is located: (i) smart growth, a path that more and more cities, regions and countries are adopting having realised the unlimited potential of growth that is based on knowledge, innovation and digital technologies; (ii) safety and security, which is a pre-requisite for quality of life in a world of intense social, natural and technological threats; and (iii) sustainability, use of renewable energy, protection of living ecosystems, addressing climate change and global warming in a period of rapid urbanisation that makes established sustainability models and planning patterns quickly obsolete. The core argument of the book is that problem-solving and novel solutions to these grand challenges emerge in smart ecosystems through connected intelligence. It is the broadest form of intelligence that combines capabilities from heterogeneous actors (humans, organisations, machines) and propel problem-solving through externalities and resource agglomeration, user engagement and collaboration, awareness and behaviour change. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of urban and regional studies, innovation studies, economic geography and urban planning, as well as urban policy makers.

This book both analyzes and synthesizes new cutting-edge theories and methods for future design implementations in smart cities through interdisciplinary synergizing of architecture, technology, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Implementation of IoT enables the collection and data exchange of objects embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity. Recently IoT practices have moved into uniquely identifiable objects that are able to transfer data directly into networks. This book features new technologically advanced ideas, highlighting properties of smart future city networks. Chapter contributors include theorists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and interdisciplinary planners, who currently work on identifying theories, essential elements, and practices where the IoT can impact the formation of smart cities and sustainability via optimization, network analyses, data mining, mathematical modeling and engineering. Moreover, this book includes research-based theories and real world practices aimed toward graduate researchers, experts, practitioners and the general public interested in architecture, engineering, mathematical modeling, industrial design, computer science technologies, and related fields.

This book offers a fascinating exploration of the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and spatial planning, expanding the concept of “urban smartness” from the usual scale of buildings or urban projects to the regional dimension. In particular, it presents the outcomes of research undertaken at Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with Telecom Italia, that had three principal goals: to investigate the use of ICTs for the representation, promotion, management, and dissemination of an integrated system of services; to explore the spatial impacts of digital services at different scales (regional, urban, local); and to understand how a system of mobile services can encourage new spatial uses and new collective behavior in the quest for better spatial quality of places. Useful critical analysis of international case studies is also included with the aim of verifying the opportunities afforded by new digital services not only to improve the urban efficiency but also to foster the evolution of urban communities through enhancement of the public realm. The book will be a source of valuable insights for both scholars and local administrators and operators involved in smart city projects.

This book examines smart cities through the lens of the information and communication technology (ICT)-driven transformation of the economy and economic systems and the resulting changes influencing organizations (public, private, and voluntary) and citizens in the smart city. In this context, the chapters included in this book address very specific questions pertaining to modes and models of economic collaboration, interest aggregation, and determinants of sustainable growth and development in the smart city. To this end, the circular economy, the sharing economy, the platform economy, and open innovation in the smart city are discussed. The notions of economic performance, competition, and business model innovation (BMI) are elaborated in detail. Finally, the question of the fragility of labor markets, including the availability of talent, is explored. By applying conceptually sound, inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches, frequently including case studies, this book provides a thorough insight into the complex question of how tools specific to the fields of economics, business management, innovation management, strategic management, entrepreneurship, and human resource management can be useful in view of understanding and harnessing the intrusion of ICT in the city space.