Tools and Technologies for Sustainable Territorial Development in the Context of a Quadruple Innovation Helix

Abstract

The study of the problem of sustainable development of urban areas led to the understanding of the important role that population involvement plays in solving the issues related to forming a comfortable urban environment. It is normal practice to take into account the proposals and recommendations of citizens and organizations when making decisions in the field of territorial development. Nevertheless, the implementation of participatory governance mechanisms faces significant difficulties. This is primarily due to the lack of effective tools for analyzing the opinion of citizens and technologies for integrating urban communities into existing institutions of governance. This article discusses the ways of organizing expert polls based on the principles of “Socratic dialogue”. The idea of using social networks for testing and promoting urban development projects by analyzing social reactions to various urban initiatives is considered. The possibility of predicting public opinion about a specific solution for urban development using historical data from social networks has been investigated. An approach to the gamification of work with a social response to the urban environment state through virtual interactions with infrastructure objects is proposed. The prospects for gamification to motivate civic participation and improve the efficiency of feedback mechanisms between the city and its residents are discussed.

1. Introduction

A city is a complex set of environmental elements, processes, and geographically-distributed systems and residents with their own values and preferences. Citizens are being increasingly considered at the heart of urban processes—i.e., improving citizens’ quality of life, creating quality jobs, etc.—and thus, they should be considered as co-creators of urban solutions that lead to a sustainable future and deliver long-term positive impacts.

Today we observe different concepts, such as a sustainable city, eco-city, smart city, and others. The ‘smart city’ paradigm has been endorsed as the primary means to deliver new and effective solutions to complex urban challenges in Europe, and across the world [1].

The smart city concept is typically implemented in cities as specific projects that address issues that make cities more sustainable and inclusive [2,3,4]. As the authors argue [5], it is essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of the impact of these projects on people, places, and urban issues. Such projects tend to have difficulty articulating social benefits [6]; it requires the development of new innovative approaches to increase the level of citizens’ involvement in the process of cooperation and collaboration.

The quadruple innovation helix model is a key principle of the smart city approach, in which innovations result from cooperation and seeking synergies among four groups of stakeholders: administration, business, science, and residents [7].

When it comes to the Quadruple Helix model, the inclusion of civil society has been considered crucial for urban development. The role of civil society is in playing a leading role in the innovation process and contributing to the development of social innovation [8]. Citizens are part of the fourth helix; as such, interaction with citizens is the most significant form of interaction that drives the innovation process. Furthermore, previous research has emphasized that the fourth helix supports an increase in legitimation and justification for innovations, and it fosters democracy in designing territorial development strategies [9,10,11,12].

The state and structure of the urban environment is determined by many explicit and hidden interrelationships of various factors [13]. These factors are directly related to the goals of the urban development actors, which are usually very difficult to reconcile. This problem becomes key in the implementation of strategies for sustainable urban development that are aimed at ensuring comfortable and safe living conditions, thereby limiting the negative impact on the environment in the process of doing business and the rational use of natural resources in the interests of present and future generations. The necessity and importance of solving the problems of sustainable urban development are reflected in many laws and regulations that have been adopted in various countries throughout the world.

“Ensuring openness, security, resilience, and sustainability of cities and towns” is defined by the eleventh paragraph of sustainable development goals (SDG-11), which were formulated by the UN General Assembly in 2015 [14]. Systematic work to improve the quality of life in cities is under way in Russia, but many sustainable development initiatives fail, primarily due to a lack of understanding and support from the population. Numerous studies have shown that there is a direct link between success in progress towards sustainable development and the level of involvement of urban communities and citizens in governance processes [15,16,17]. The heterogeneity of the city as a social system leads to the need to smooth out conflicts and harmonize the interests of various parties. Understanding the importance of taking into account the opinion of citizens when making certain decisions in the process of city management will create conditions for increasing the level of trust in municipal authorities and the inclusion of mechanisms for the self-organization of the city system. The involvement of residents in the process of city management is both a condition and a criterion for sustainable development.

The national project, “Housing and Urban Environment”, is being implemented in the Russian Federation from 2018 through 2024. One of the priorities is the creation of a mechanism for the direct participation of citizens in the formation of a comfortable urban environment [18].

The Ministry of Construction of Russia has developed “Basic and additional requirements for smart cities (Smart City standard)” [19]. The document reflects the main tasks of the state and municipalities in the field of digitalization of urban management. The need to take into account the opinions of citizens in the process of solving urban problems on the basis of the created platform is emphasized. The presence of a digital platform for involving citizens in solving urban development issues is one of the indicators for assessing urban governance [15].

Creating conditions for dialogue with residents is not an easy task. A suitable solution can be found with the help of technology, which is based on working with active communities on social networks. The mechanism of expert searching in small social groups can be considered as tools for determining the key tasks of urban development. The technologies for analyzing the links and activity in social networks can be implemented to check the relevance and promote urban projects [20]. This knowledge can offer arguments that are understandable and reflect the interests of each target audience group [21].

The involvement of residents in the development of the city can be realized using a number of mechanisms. However, the organization of public hearings, hotlines, and surveys cannot fully reveal the real needs of residents, especially since such events are not popular. Therefore, it is difficult to count on attracting a sufficient number of people to solve urban problems and implement socially significant projects.

New approaches and tools are needed to study the patterns of behavior of various social groups, in order to identify values and interests. Some particularly difficult tasks are the problems associated with organizing interactions between different participants in the system, creating a system of motivation and conditions for attracting residents as experts, and creating collective knowledge. A wide range of stakeholders allows for the accumulation of intellectual, financial, and technological resources, thereby providing a high level of expertise and harmonizing the interests of different parties.

2. Background

The International Global Bangemann Challenge program first appeared in Europe in the 1990s [22]. The key idea of the project was the need to introduce information technology to improve the lives of citizens. Cities were to become leaders in building the information society. The proposed project structure covered all spheres of human life. It reflects the role that information and communication technologies play in transforming the economy, culture, social services, personal development, and the involvement of citizens in the process of constantly increasing changes.

However, even earlier, in the 1960s, the principles of urban planning were formulated in America, which focused on the sustainable development of territories and considered the real needs of residents [23,24]. These approaches have been rethought and supplemented by taking into account modern technological trends over the past sixty years [25,26,27]. Moreover, the issues of urban design and planning have firmly entered the practice of management in cities around the world [28,29,30,31]. The issues surrounding sustainable urban planning continue to be the subject of scientific research [32,33], which is especially important in the context of the deep penetration of information technologies into the field of urban computing and human communication.

The rapid development of network communication technologies has led to a real transformation of human interaction in recent decades. The city authorities, businesses, and residents themselves joined the process of creating tools for promptly informing each other about the existing problems and tasks of urban development [34]. More and more services for interaction with city authorities and city services, as well as for attracting residents to solve problems related to the development of the city and improve the quality of life, appear every year. The objectives of such services are to provide open access and encourage stakeholder participation; strengthen individual, group, and collective innovative creativity; expand the formats of interaction between the authorities and the population; and support the convergent thinking, collective decision-making, and assessment of these decisions with regard for integrative urban policies.

Many cities have services for organizing citizens’ participation in urban planning and resource allocation. For example, New York City has unveiled datasets of city processes and is working with civil society activists to create a city-wide platform so that residents can propose projects and prioritize city development [35]. In addition, smart cities have local innovation incubators, accelerators and programs (e.g., Slush in Helsinki [36]), and business platforms, as well as Web 2.0-style forums and virtual creative communities focused on networking to create grassroots innovation [37].

With the help of systems of electronic polls, such as “Active Citizen”, residents can participate in voting on a variety of issues of urban planning, and it has been operating in Moscow since 2014. Developers use a variety of incentives to motivate. First of all, points are awarded, which the user can exchange for tangible and intangible prizes. An interactive service for reporting deficiencies in the work of housing and public utilities and budgetary institutions has been implemented in the “Our City” project. The citizen who sent the message receives a photo confirmation of the solution to the problem. All messages are georeferenced, which allows the administrator to receive internal data on the efficiency of services. Similar mechanisms are implemented in the Moscow region on the “Dobrodel” portal. The project, “Managing Together”, is aimed at informing residents about the implementation of priority measures for the development of the Perm Territory. Another service project for communication with residents was implemented in Novosibirsk and is aimed at informing citizens about planned and emergency shutdowns, repair work, etc. [38,39].

The new class of services is focused on an active local community. Stakeholder group preferences are formulated remotely and implemented here and now. Citizens can choose where to set up bike parking with the New York City Bike Share in New York City. Tools that allow responding to and monitoring of the situation in a city or a residential area appeared with the development of projects such as FixMyStreet (UK), SeeClickFix (USA), and StreetJournal (Russia) [40]. The model of these services implements the elements of management of the complex improvement of urban areas.

The forms of citizen participation in the life of the local community are becoming paramount. The globalization of world processes and the improvement of communication means gave rise to the illusion of participation in the solution of abstract problems (national, universal), which is disproportionate to the human scale. Society needs to re-develop the mechanism of internal interaction to develop consolidated and sustainable solutions for the benefit of all its representatives. The return to a self-interested interest in ensuring the quality of the environment begins with the most primitive responses to problem situations. The Code for America program has fostered the development of advanced information systems for the operation of government planning and management tools over the web. “Tutelage for the fire hydrant” or advice to neighbors for dealing with wild animals are examples of services for joining the efforts of local residents. Easy-to-use tools with a clear purpose allow the real-time tracking of events in the local community, thereby forming a responsible attitude to events happening around them and actually exercising self-government [41].

One of the key mechanisms for the influence of a person on social processes is the expression of will on certain issues, such as voting and elections. It is an important element of e-government systems and is equally necessary for building electronic self-government [42].

For example, Estonia has a successful solution for the development of “e-democracy” on a national scale [43]. Experience shows that achieving the desired results depends on involving as many people as possible in the process. However, simply using information technology in management is ineffective until the management procedures themselves are changed in the process of digital transformation.

Paper [44] presents a planning and project evaluation methodology for smart cities that combines citizen participation and minimum viable product creation through adaptive project management. This methodology increases people’s engagement. Citizens should be consulted through interviews and surveys, the purpose of which is to find out the real needs and create processes, products, and services that meet those needs, but also make the city smart.

The practice of gamification is used to involve citizens in the discussion of urban development projects. For example, the “Urban Shaper” application invites participants to implement activities related to the elimination of specific problems (repair broken lighting or road surfaces, replace heating systems in municipal buildings, etc.) or make positive changes by adding new objects in specific areas (install a playground, open a community center for residents, etc.) in a playful way based on the provided virtual “budget” [45].

The review of existing approaches to organizing the participation of residents in the process of implementing sustainable urban development made it possible to identify tools and technologies for supporting various A–F stages of management (Figure 1):

• Monitoring of Indicators—in this case, it is meant to study the change in the value of indicators based on the analysis of the quantitative values of the implementation of the needs of life activity according to the systems of objective accounting of the actions of users of urban services;
• Participatory Assessment Tools—information tools intended for the end user and allowing stakeholders to express their attitude to the issue under consideration intentionally (choosing decisions, entering information, etc.) or indirectly (for example, during the game process);
• Social Media Monitoring—technologies for studying the reaction of the social network community to ongoing events (happened or planned), and identifying the tone of discussions, opinion leaders, the relationship of reactions with the composition and structure of the social groups involved in the discussion, etc.;
• Sociological Surveys—classical tools and methods for studying public opinion, including using accounting automation tools (electronic forms, express accounting services and opinion analytics, robotic voice polls with artificial intelligence technologies, etc.);
• Expert Evaluation Procedures—technologies for organizing the work of specialists designed to identify and coordinate the opinions of individual professional communities and citywide key stakeholders, especially at the stage of goal-setting and identifying alternative development paths;
• Social Response Formation—tools for the mass or targeted dissemination of information and accounting for quantitative indicators of reactions using online social participation tools (number of views, clicks, likes, reposts, etc.) and/or analysis of user reactions in natural language.

However, it can be argued that most of the analyzed services are focused on informing residents and organizing their communication with authorities. Functions related to the crowdsourcing of ideas and support of grassroots initiatives are practically absent. The problem of integrating various services has not yet been resolved, and the mechanisms and methods of motivating residents to participate in the transformation of the city have not been sufficiently studied.

3. Methods and Results

As noted above, ensuring the possibility of participatory management is one of the new functions of urban development management. This is a necessary condition for the inclusion of mechanisms of self-organization of the urban system. Participatory city management implies the involvement of residents in solving issues related to the functioning and transformation of the urban environment. The regulation of public relations carries out a competent information policy, create conditions that motivate the population to participate in transformations, and allow the circle of participants in the decision-making process to not only expand, but also to increase the level of trust in the authorities [46].

Enhancing civic participation, increasing civic responsibility for the state and development of the city, analyzing social needs and their reflection in strategic plans, and using the intellectual potential of residents are important conditions for achieving planned results while implementing the development strategy. To do this, it is necessary to create modern services based on information and communication technologies, which will allow for analyzing the preferences of residents and will become the basis for obtaining agreed decisions.

Modern projects in the field of information technology and online services are aimed at providing the user with the most relevant data in relation to the satellite coordinates of their location in space, to the history of their network information activity, and to the integration of their social network contacts. Using network functionality to support the process of managing the development of municipalities presents a dynamic format of interaction to users, as well as residents of local communities, and can expand the potential of information systems in terms of increasing the efficiency of local self-government. The use of approaches related to the class of technologies, Social Response Formation (6), is an open and accessible solution that requires the use of a wide range of approaches to the collection and processing of network information. The tools proposed in this study partially deal with the problems of taking such information into account when making decisions, but it is proposed to study them in more detail separately.

The involvement of residents in the development of a city can be realized through a number of mechanisms. First of all, this is the creation of conditions for the participation of citizens in elections, voting, discussions, polls, and referendums through organization of public and supervisory councils, various societies, and informal associations. The study of the summary information obtained by such approaches can be attributed to the above group of Sociological Surveys tools (4). These methods have long established themselves and have a long history of application experience; therefore, they will not be affected in this study.

Another direction is the identification of preferences, needs, and typical patterns of behavior in real time based on the accounting of operational information collected by means of sensors, recorders, and mobile devices. Such technologies make it possible to form a completely unique database of static data, which, unlike formal statistical reviews, is always relevant and reflects the real behavior of people—the users of services in the urban environment. Modern information services based on intelligent network infrastructure, combined with the movement towards open data and applications, can significantly simplify and speed up the process of collecting and processing information. Real-time data analysis results can be used to monitor and control traffic flows, utilities, track energy consumption, and more. In addition, this will make it possible to more reasonably approach the choice of directions for the development of the city. Such solutions belong to the class of Monitoring of Indicators instruments (1), which are indicated in the second section and are the subject of a separate direction of our research [47].

Communities focused on promoting ideas for the improvement and reorganization of urban spaces have begun to organize in recent years. As a rule, the initiators of such projects count on drawing attention to the problems of the city and involving residents in the process of urban development. Various associations of initiative citizens for improving the quality of the urban environment are becoming the driving force behind many socially significant changes. The formation of a comfortable urban environment requires not only the prompt elimination of violations, but also the creation of new public spaces, as well as obtaining up-to-date data on the preferences of residents and the effectiveness of the use of territories.

This study focuses on a bundle of technologies that can support the entire chain of this process for finding solutions for sustainable urban development. A description of the proposed implementation of Expert Evaluation Procedures (5), Social Media Monitoring (3), and Participatory Assessment Tools (2) is provided below. The order of application of these tools is not linear, as shown in Figure 1. However, an example of their application in the framework of this study considers the sequence of stages in which expert procedures, thanks to the proposed methodological tools, allow for solving the problem of goal setting for a managed system. Further application of class-2 and -3 tools is designed to solve the problem of verifying the chosen direction and monitoring its compliance with the needs of stakeholders in the process of achieving sustainable development.

3.1. Implementation of the Expert Evaluation Procedures

3.1.1. Description of the Expert Opinions Harmonization Procedure

The tasks of goal-setting and the choice of directions for urban development can be solved on the basis of organizing the work of expert groups online [46]. The extraction of knowledge about the preferences and problems of citizens and their attitude to ongoing projects should be carried out indirectly, for example, through social networks.

The opinion of experts representing various social, professional, and political communities, as well as interest groups, should be used to formulate urban development objectives and identify structural links. This requires a special discussion environment that provides a common format for data processing, validation, and agreement of decisions. Furthermore, this activity can be organized with expert-sourcing. Expert-sourcing is an organized expert support of state, municipal, corporate, and public activities in a network society [48].

Expert work involves the active or even proactive participation in the process of working on specific case studies. This implies the formation of communities of interest in the case of urban problems. These communities are led by practitioners focused on promoting specific ideas. They are organized using specialized resources or online social media tools (groups, public pages, events) based on network mechanisms. The number of users who can bring the greatest effect when building specialized expert groups can be determined based on the analysis of group activity. Taking into account specialized expert communities makes it possible to continue the formation of multidisciplinary expert associations.

The two-tier approach suggests using the idea of “Socratic dialogue” to organize interaction in expert groups [49]. The use of this idea:

• facilitates the organization of intensive group work of experts;
• has a predictable time frame for the research cycle, which is directly related to the volume of analyzed information and the number of members of the working group;
• has no restrictions on the range of practical and theoretical knowledge, as well as no restrictions on the value orientations of the members of the working group;
• neutralizes the emotional and behavioral aspects of group work, thereby maintaining the value of the differences in the views presented.

The advantages of “Socratic dialogue” includes the possibility of solving the problem with a concentration of specialists on purely private issues of their professional activities. Participants can be people directly related to internal management processes or those who ensure the functioning and consumption of urban life activity support systems—i.e., the unemployed, businessmen, managers, administrators, social workers, law enforcement agencies, etc. Dialogue processing of open questions is used to work with text information. “Text” refers to the main component of any information flow that is expressed in symbols or a multimedia format. Socratic dialogue has a generalized structure and a set of exercises aimed at solving specific problems of text processing. The dialogue is poorly formalized, but it is widely used in face-to-face research groups. A moderator organizes the discussion process and the end result using cycles of open-ended questions based on the opinions of the participants.

The expert analysis method was developed to formalize the moderator functions. The proposed method includes an algorithm that takes into account the basic elements of the structure of the Socratic dialogue and allows it to be implemented in the form of an information complex. The method of expert analysis of information consists of the following steps (Figure 2), which provide the structural identification of a complex system [50]:

• Statement of the problem for the working group—setting a common goal that determines the direction of work, and familiarization with the requirements for the final result;
• Filling in with information about the system under study—familiarization with the initial data, which is provided in the form of printed or visual–sound materials, special documents, or general messages with a description of the problem domain;
• Primary structuring of information about the system under study—the formation of a set of discussion questions that determine the main areas of discussion and are characterized by the specialization of experts;
• Determination of the initial set of required system components (element, relationships, etc.)—fixing group responses to the main areas that were identified in the previous step;
• Accounting of contradictory positions in the identified system components—identifying disagreements in a qualitative formulation or quantitative assessment;
• Forming a generalized opinion on contradictory positions—procedure for multi-stage dialogical clarification of identified contradictions;
• Calculation of the final quantitative assessment for the agreed components—finding the average value for each of the defined and approved concepts.

A feature of the developed algorithm is the ability to adjust the depth of theses analysis put forward by the expert group. In addition, “manual control” mechanisms can be used to further explore key aspects of the problem.

3.1.2. Expert-Sourcing Implementation Case Study

An interdisciplinary expert group of eight people was formed within the framework of research to develop recommendations for a strategy for the development of the Volgograd transport system [51]. The task of identifying the interrelation of elements in the urban transport system, by taking into account the specifics of Volgograd, was posed to the experts in accordance with the proposed method of expert information analysis (step 1). Materials reflecting the current state and development prospects of the transport industry in the city were offered to the participants at the stage of delivering information (step 2). For example, such documents as the State program for the development of the transport system of the region, were used [34]; the documents describe the existing approaches to the regulation of the transport policy of the city, region, and country, and the characteristics of current conditions and future events (matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup™).

The experts formulated four main questions for the studied system for the initial structuring of knowledge (step 3):

• How to take into account the passenger traffic in the city?
• How to improve the efficiency of public transport?
• How to regulate the use of private cars?
• What are the interrelationships between the elements of the transport system and urban development in general?

The problem of identification relations in the research system was solved in two iterations with the repeated passing of steps 4–6 from the proposed method of expert information analysis. The initial set of elements of the system was compiled by experts at the first iteration based on 87 answers to previously-identified questions. The consideration of the inconsistent position (step 5) indicated the existence of discrepancies among the experts on 54 elements of the wording. Dialogue clarification (step 6) made it possible to completely exclude 46 of them due to duplication (76%) or low relevance for the issues under consideration. For example, it was decided to exclude the factors, “Development of bicycle traffic” or “Creation of an Aeroexpress train on the railway track”, in the context of the initial data obtained. Generalized opinions were formulated for the remaining eight elements. A set of 41 elements was agreed upon for the resulting description of the urban transport system [52].

The experts directly solved the problem of identifying relationships for the identified elements of the system at the second iteration. The relationships between the elements should have been presented in the form of simple logical constructions “A to B negative/positive with W”, where A and B are the compared elements of the system and W is the impact strength on a scale from zero to one [53]. Each expert in the group initially established (step 4) 92 to 151 such relationships. The algorithm found in the automatic mode (step 5) of 68 relationships of elements that were equally established by all experts in the group. The rest of the relationships are ranked automatically based on the predefined depth analysis:

• Identified by 60% or more experts in the group or all in the group, with a difference in the assessment of the positive/negative impact of 60 percent or more in one direction—such relationships were automatically reconciled, taking into account the opinion of the majority;
• A 40–60% mismatch in identification—relationships have passed the procedure of dialogical clarification (step 6);
• Identified less than 40% of experts—relationships were excluded from consideration.

A hundred and twenty-five relations of elements in the structure of the urban transport system were identified as a result of the second iteration. Eighty-four of them characterize the direct mutual influence of elements and 41 have the opposite. The final estimates were automatically calculated (step 7) for the relationships agreed upon by the expert group. The combined result is a model of the Volgograd transportation system.

3.2. Implementation of Social Media Monitoring

The goals, objectives, and other conceptual issues of urban development can be analyzed at the stage of expert-sourcing. Technologies focused on the study of social processes are needed to analyze the demand for services and promote significant urban projects. Currently, the most promising approaches are based on the analysis of activity in social networks [54].

An approach using the analysis of social network posts related to urban development issues is proposed to solve the first problem. These posts can be written by influential social media users or major media.

The following criteria were used to determine the importance of urban problems:

• The popularity of a specific urban problem (which is expressed in a large number of posts related to the problem);
• A significant number of “likes” and “shares” of posts related to the problem;
• High user activity in discussing the problem (which is expressed in a large number of comments on posts related to the problem).

An approach to finding dependency that shows how influential users of social networks can influence the attitude of users to a particular problem is developed to solve the second problem. There is an approach to predict the attitude of users to a particular post using real-time sentiment analysis and clustering methods [20]. This approach is combined with other approaches to identify influencers in the social graph to determine how the tone of the discussion changes.

The following types of discussion topics stand out after applying this approach:

• Topics that found a positive response among social media users (average tone of posts is highly positive);
• Topics of greatest rejection among users of social networks (average tone of posts is sharply negative);
• Topics that did not cause a strong reaction from users (average tone—about 50%, with a very low percentage of sharply positive or sharply negative comments);
• Topics that caused a storm of public debate (middle tone—from 30–70%, a large number of comments with opposite views).

The method of identifying users who have the greatest influence on the dissemination of information about urban problems and on public opinion includes the following stages.

3.2.1. Building a Social Graph of Users Participating in Discussions

An analysis of user profiles in social networks, as shown in [55], makes it possible to identify users by many parameters, such as city of residence, age, gender, etc. In addition, social networks are very popular among the urban population of developed countries. The number of Facebook users living in Europe is more than 400 million people, which, according to statistics for 2021, is more than 50% of the total population of Europe [56]. People actively use social networks and often use them to express their opinions about various events taking place in their city, and to criticize (positively or negatively) the decisions taken by city authorities.

Social networks are used in this study to identify the most pressing problems for the city and to study public opinion about the development of the city. The investigated approach offers a mechanism for analyzing social networks for solving the following problems:

• Identification of the most pressing current urban problems (according to the opinion of residents using social networks);
• Identifying the topics that cause the most controversy among users of social networks;
• Determining the reaction of users to current events in the city;
• Identification of agents of influence (i.e., people who have the greatest influence on the dissemination of information on topical issues, as well as on the formation of public opinion on these issues).

The solution to these problems in this study was initially tested on the example of Facebook users. Comments on the selected post are collected at the first stage. The social graph of users participating in the discussion is built at the second stage. The vertices of the graph are the users, and the edges of the graph are the connections between them. The social graph is directed and weighted. Figure 3 shows an example of building a social graph of Facebook users participating in a discussion.

3.2.2. Identification of Agents of Influence in the Social Graph

There are various approaches to identifying the most influential vertices. The eigenvector centrality and PageRank approaches assign relative scores to all nodes in the network based on the concept that connections to high-scoring nodes contribute more to a node’s score than equal connections to low-score nodes.

The approach helps to identify hidden agents of influence in the social graph [55]. These approaches identify the users who have the greatest influence on the dissemination of their ideas during the discussion.

3.2.3. A Study of Changing the Tone of Comments after the Emergence of Influencers

The relationship between the average tone of comments at a particular point in time and the appearance of influential users in a discussion is the next stage of study.

The experiments were carried out with discussions on social networks of decision-making in the field of transport policy of the city of Volgograd. The decision to abolish the large number of private route taxis, which are one of the most popular forms of public transport in the city, was one of the most pressing issues at the time of these experiments. The city authorities have proposed using municipal buses as an alternative to private route taxis. This decision caused a wide public response among the residents of the city and was actively discussed in social networks.

The social network, VKontakte, which is popular among the residents of Russia, was chosen to analyze the discussions on this topic. Two posts in public communities were selected as the data source for the analysis [57,58]. These posts generated a wide response from social media users. A program for parsing user comments to these publications using the VKontakte open API was developed.

Information was collected on the number of likes, comments, and responses to each comment. A graph of users participating in the discussions was built using this information. The influence of each user was calculated using the algorithm from [55]. The next step was to conduct an analysis of the sentiment of the comments. Sentiment analysis was implemented using the NLTK library [59]. The existing set of Russian words [59] for the analysis of sentiments was partially used in the study. Some words that were specific to discussions related to the analyzed topics were added.

The analysis results were visualized in the form of a line diagram using the Matplotlib library [60]. The results are presented in Figure 4 and Figure 5. The sentiment values for each comment range from −1.0 (highly-negative attitude) to +1.0 (highly-positive attitude).

The values of user influences correspond to the weights of the nodes in the user graph. The weight of each node was calculated as a percentage of the total weight of all nodes for presentation purposes. Therefore, the influence of each user participating in the discussion is measured in the range from 0.0 to 1.0.

The moving average of discussion sentiment was calculated and presented as a red line in the figures.

The graphs in Figure 4 are related to the discussion of the post [57]. This post describes the new buses that are being proposed to replace the private route taxis. The moving average tone of the discussions is generally positive (see Figure 4), although the trend was negative at the beginning of the discussion for a few minutes. There are also some users with quite a lot of influence among other participants. Trend changes coincide with the moments when influencers join the discussion.

The discussion of the post [58] is related to the news about the cancellation of a large number of private route taxis in the city. Figure 5 shows that the moving average of the discussion is negative for almost the entire duration of the discussion. At the same time, there are no users with an impact indicator that is significantly higher than average among the participants in the discussion. These results suggest that the presence of influential participants in the discussion can significantly change the overall sentiment of the discussions. However, this conclusion needs to be confirmed as not enough data were collected for analysis. Data collection was hampered by the fact that the topic of urban development is not very popular for discussion on social networks.

3.3. Implementation of the Participatory Assessment Tools

There are many ways in which a city municipality can use the social needs of citizens to adjust decisions to transform the urban environment. As many citizens as possible should be involved in discussions on a variety of issues: from the concept of a new public space project and design options for a playground, to assessing the long-term social benefits of the introduction of waste recycling technologies or electronic voting. The use of gamification is one of the ways to achieve this goal. This term in the context of urban development can be interpreted as the use of game elements in non-game systems [61] in order to increase the involvement of citizens in the developed platform for collecting information about the urban space [62].

Gamification according to the Gamification Research Network [63] is “the use of game elements in non-game systems to improve user experience (UX)”.

The main principle of gamification is to receive constant, measurable feedback from the user, which provides the opportunity to dynamically adjust user behavior. Gamification has proven itself to be a successful tool in many areas, including sales, healthcare, and education [64]. Gamification for smart cities is an important addition to the processes of involving residents in solving urban problems [65]. Citizens can help create and improve their urban environment with little cost and effort for everyone involved in the planning process through the use of simple and easy-to-learn computer games.

Every city dweller should be given the opportunity to contribute to the development of city initiatives. Supporting and ensuring participation through urban design games can be a viable idea. At the same time, people and communities should be at the center of this process [66].

The main principles of gamification are the following [67]:

• dynamics—the use of scenarios that require user attention and response in real time;
• mechanics—the use of scenario elements that are characteristic of the gameplay, such as statuses, points, virtual rewards, and goods;
• aesthetics—creating an overall gaming experience that fosters emotional engagement;
• social interaction—techniques that provide inter-user interaction that is characteristic of games.

K. Werbach and D. Hunter provide a model on which a gamification system should be built. It consists of the following aspects [68]:

• identify business goals, the achievement of which will determine the success of the developed system;
• identify and describe the type of players;
• loops of activity, which are divided into loops of involvement (perception at the micro-level: motivation for action-action-feedback, which is a kind of motivator for new actions) and progress loops (globally united loops of involvement);
• the presence of an entertaining component (the user should not be bored);
• progress indicators, for example, the use of scoring among users will help in creating a competitive environment, a component of current progress will make the system more transparent (the user will always see how much he has left before reaching a new level), as well as elements such as difficulty and skill levels, achievements, rating tables, virtual currencies, competitions between participants, and awards.

The Urban Street Wars game application was developed to improve interaction in the exchange of information on urban projects in Volgograd and increase the motivation of citizens to participate in the city development planning processes [69]. The Django framework, which is written in Python, was chosen to implement the server side. The Django Rest Framework module was used for API development. Django provides a token framework for developing authentication. It allows them to check the permissions of users and determine the ability to access certain resources. This makes it possible to flexibly configure the parameters of the lifetime of tokens, as well as block them at the application level in the event of a leak of personal data of users. The React framework, which is based on the popular React library in the world of web development, was chosen for the front-end development.

The basis of the play space is an interactive map with city objects. Information about an object can be obtained by clicking on its icon on the map (Figure 6).

The player can move around the city and add markers on the map in accordance with the selected objects of the city infrastructure. The new label, the position of which the user can change, is fixed when the object is added in the application. The name of the object, the type of the object, the address (filled in automatically based on the current geolocation), and the state of the object (state level), which is an element of quality monitoring, must be specified when adding a new object. The user who created the object becomes its “owner”.

Object verification is carried out through the actions of other players. Users can “serve” objects during gameplay. The object lock timer is updated after the player starts the maintenance function. Each object has its own service counter. The principle of blocking an object is as follows: if the object is served by the owner, then it is blocked for 5 days. The object is “owned” for 180 days, if all the conditions for maintaining its state are met. Otherwise, the object becomes free and any user can “capture” it.

The object needs to be serviced in order to interrupt the capture cycle if external conditions appear in the form of actions of other players. The object must be serviced three times in a row to capture the object. Moreover, the current owner must not have time to interrupt the capture cycle through personal service.

A “race” condition occurs when different users are serving the same object. The new owner of the object is the user who completed the service series earlier than anyone else. The current capture series for all other users is reset in this case.

Gamification is supported by a system of points (rating) for actions performed by users. Game points are displayed when viewed on a profile in the “money/experience” format. Users’ experience and money can only accumulate. The number of objects of ownership at the same time can increase and decrease (for example, when they are captured by other users).

The functionality of uniting users into gaming corporations is provided in the game. Corporations have their own money account, which is replenished when users join them (100% of the total number of users’ coins).

The application allows a comprehensive analysis of the state of objects in a given area. The area of analysis of the state of urban objects can be highlighted by the user on the map (Figure 7).

Figure 8 presents a histogram, where the X-axis represents the types of city objects and the Y-axis represents the number of city objects of a certain type. A pop-up window with information about the state of urban objects of a particular type appears when the user hovers the cursor over the bar of the histogram. Histogram bars differ in color, where red indicates that the object is in poor condition; orange, the object is in a satisfactory condition; and green, the object is in excellent condition.

4. Discussion

There is a wide acceptance in the literature for the need to implement the Quadruple Helix Innovation model in order to create sustainable territorial development and growth [8,9,10,70,71,72,73], which requires the involvement of civil society in decision-making processes. Nevertheless, present practice fails to reflect these aims [73,74,75,76] primarily because of the absence of practical tools and methods to provide such participation in getting civil society groups involved. The presented study is aimed at bridging this gap.

The paradigm of sustainable urban development is aimed at transforming the urban environment and social practices in order to increase the adaptability of management processes and create social value. The theory of sustainable urban development management is just beginning to emerge. It is very important not to miss the opportunity to join the new principles of urban planning that determine global trends. Enhancing civic participation, increasing civic responsibility for the state and development of the city, analyzing social needs and their reflection in strategic plans, and using the intellectual potential of residents are an important condition for achieving the planned results during sustainable development. Urban development projects can only be successful if they are understood and accepted by the urban community. This requires the creation of modern services based on information and communication technologies, which will allow the analysis of the preferences of residents and will form the basis for obtaining agreed decisions.

Approaches to creating practical tools for analyzing the opinions of residents and social reactions of users of social networks in the process of discussing topics related to the transformation of the urban environment are proposed in this study. The introduction of the presented technologies will allow objective information for making decisions on the sustainable development of the city to be obtained. Furthermore, a more accurate method for analyzing and predicting public opinion about a specific decision using historical data from social networks is planned to be developed in further research.

In addition, the proposed solutions in terms of expert procedures based on dialogic coordination suggest the possibility of structuring the idea of the urban systems under study, and, as a result, goal setting for the development of systems by considering the estimated potential and existing growth factors. Often, the work of the authorities with the request of stakeholders for development is limited to this stage in one form or another. The further involvement of residents in the formation and refinement of the image of the desired future and current development tasks is a strong-willed decision of the authorities. The key element of the proposed technological and methodological approach for defining and achieving sustainable development goals is seen in the associated application of expert procedures and participatory tools that can ensure that the goals and methods of achieving them meet the actual needs of all stakeholders, and, first of all, citizens, who are essentially all stakeholders are.

Our research suggests that increasing the participation of citizens in urban development can promote Quadruple Helix Model implementation into practice, enhance the democracy of territorial development, and ensure the UN sustainable development goals are achieved. Additionally, attention should be paid to encouraging new participants from civil society. This is crucial, as civil society consists of a heterogeneous group of participants; the opinions of different groups of citizens are not yet equally visible in urban life, despite the possibility being present.

For policymakers, our research contributes to enhancing the participation of civil society in urban life by providing motivation, giving further information, and setting transparent rules and regulations for citizens’ participation. It also helps to implement the bottom-up approach to territorial development. The establishment of transparent rules and regulations for participation and their systematic implementation is used to ensure that citizens have equal opportunities in decision-making on urban priorities. This is increasingly important for achieving a more sustainable society.