Solutions for the Infrastructure and Transport of Smart City 4.0

Dear Colleagues, 

The aim of the Smart City is to find the right solutions to improve the comfort and safety of living in cities while reducing its expenses. Improving the living standard of residents and increasing their participation in making important decisions requires the ability to specify their current and future needs, as well as flexible adaptation of the city development strategy to the constantly changing external and internal conditions. Smart cities base their strategy on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Modern ICT tools enable data collection, e.g., on the current state of resources and problems of the city and sharing these data in real time. 

The opportunity to constantly analyze data is important in the context of the constant shrinking of resources and the growing costs of obtaining them. An extremely important factor is therefore the provision of an appropriate communication infrastructure. A properly planned, developed or modernized communication infrastructure may contribute to reducing the consumption of natural resources without worsening the living standards of the inhabitants. It is estimated that thanks to the technology of the fourth industrial revolution, the advantages of a smart city will outweigh its expenses.  

Changes in the communication infrastructure of smart cities force progress in terms of new materials and technology. Due to the fact that smart cities require a properly planned and configured communication infrastructure, as well as new solutions in the field of materials and technology, enabling the production or broadly understood modernization of the existing infrastructure, it is necessary to develop research in the context of contemporary challenges. New solutions should take into account the requirements of both an aging society and the broadly understood influence of climate change, as well as economic benefits. The search for a new solution very often requires a flexible approach and cooperation of authors from various research fields.          

Therefore, the study summarizes the latest solutions of research teams concerning new functions of buildings, urban spaces as well as new materials and transport technologies, taking into account contemporary and forecasted needs of users. This study presents the developed technical and technological solutions for the creation and modeling of Smart City 4.0 infrastructure in various regions around the world. The presented solutions have utilitarian values and are characteristic of a given region or city.

Prof. Bożena Szczucka-Lasota
Guest Editor

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