Leveraging AI and Deep Learning for Smart Cities: Challenges, Opportunities, and Applications to Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will investigate the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning in smart cities and sustainability, focusing on how AI can optimize resource utilization, enhance data-driven decision-making, and foster innovation across diverse sectors.

This Special Issue will specifically examine the applications of AI and deep learning within key domains such as urban planning, energy management, environment, urban farming, and healthcare, demonstrating their potential to address the complex global challenges around Smart Cities and sustainability. In addition, this Special Issue will explore the ethical, legal, and regulatory dimensions associated with the implementation of AI in sustainability contexts. The scope of the articles may include, but is not limited to, the following:

• Overview of AI and deep learning in sustainability and Smart Cities;
• Studies mapping AI applications directly to specific SDGs (e.g., SDG 2: Zero Hunger; SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy; SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities);
• Energy: climate modeling, carbon footprint analysis, and biodiversity monitoring;
• Novel AI or deep learning models tailored for sustainability-related data (satellite imagery, time series, IoT data, street view imagery);
• Energy systems: smart grids, demand forecasting, optimization, renewable energy integration;
• Healthcare: early disease detection, health resource allocation, and epidemic modeling;
• Urban farming and food security: precision farming, crop yield prediction, pest detection, soil health monitoring;
• Smart Cities and the 15-minute city;
• Urban planning and mobility: traffic management, pollution control, and green infrastructure design;
• Environmental cost of large AI models: carbon footprint of training deep models;
• Low-resource or energy-efficient AI techniques for sustainable applications;
• Supply chain management: inventory management, resilience and risk prediction in supply networks, traceability, and circular economy models;
• Challenges and ethical considerations: analysis of the ethical and social implications of AI;
• Future directions and policy recommendations: barriers to scaling and lessons learned from pilot programs.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Sustainability.

Dr. Rachid Belaroussi
Dr. Nuno Datia
Dr. Javier J. Sanchez-Medina
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Smart Cities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.