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Sustainability
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Towards Smart and Sustainable Cities: An Interdisciplinary Approach
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Towards Smart and Sustainable Cities: An Interdisciplinary Approach

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (8 December 2023) | Viewed by 3606

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maria José Palma Lampreia Dos-Santos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Social Sciences, Escola Superior de Comunicação Social, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, 1549-020 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: smart cities; smart and sustainable cities; sustainability; eco-efficiency; environmental efficiency; sustainable urban agriculture; SDGs; short supply chains
Prof. Dr. Sandra Miranda

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Social Sciences, Escola Superior de Comunicação Social, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, 1549-020 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: smart and sustainable cities; sustainability and activism; sustainable organizations; sustainable consumption; sustainability, climate change and communication

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, the world population is expected to total 9.7 billion people by 2050, more than 70% of whom will live in urban areas, mainly in the huge metropolises. The challenges associated with this high pressure imply that smart cities are increasingly relevant and in need of actualization in the literature.

From their inception, smart cities were associated with information and communications technology (ICT) and have been formulated via a variety of methods and models to achieve compromise/multicriteria solutions which mobilize all knowledge centres and ICT capacities into innovation hubs in order to strengthen global socio-economic progress.

Hence, cities should become not just smart but consequently sustainable, including social, economic, environmental and institutional dimensions, in order to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Additionally, these principles should be applied beyond how we can the automate routine functions serving some 70% of the world population in urban areas, buildings, and traffic systems, such as in ways that enable us to monitor, understand, analyze and plan how a city can improve the quality of life of its inhabitants, maximize equity a d optimize environmental efficiency

Therefore, the present Special Issue promotes a multi-perspective approach arrives in the literature, covering multiple disciplinary areas and topics, namely, sustainable production and consumption, the attitudes of the inhabitants towards issues like climate change, decent work and employment, the sustainable organization of communications strategies and activism, as well as communication strategies and campaigns to enhance smartness and sustainability. Ultimately, we aim toward encouraging compromise on the main problems and from stakeholders in smart and sustainable cities for the people who live there.

We invite researchers to submit a scientific paper to this Special Issue, which aims to bring together new expertise, from different complementary and non-complementary fields related directly to the topic of smart and sustainable cities and based on a multi-dimensional framework that also includes the perspective of the inhabitants.

Furthermore, we welcome papers that analyze the main social, economic, environmental and institutional aspects that are faced or are expected to be faced by citizens and inhabitants of smart cities. This covers many multidisciplinary areas since, from economics and business to communication, science and technology, and social sciences, among others. The present Special Issue, entitled “Towards Smart and Sustainable Cities: An Interdisciplinary Approach”, aims to provide new insights into research, presenting directions to tackle the present concerns based on the sustainable development goals of the United Nations related to urban areas, urban issues and the needs of people living in smart cities that urgently need to become sustainable.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

  • Environmental efficiency in sectoral smart cities;
  • Eco-efficiency in sectoral smart cities;
  • Smart and sustainable cities: main challenges;
  • Sustainable consumption in smart cities and urban areas;
  • Sustainable consumer attitudes towards smart cities;
  • Sustainability and activism;
  • Sustainability, climate change and communication;
  • Sustainable organizations, employability and work environment;
  • Communication strategies and campaigns to enhance sustainability;
  • Short supply chain of food in smart cities;
  • Innovation and technology promoting smart and sustainable cities;
  • Sustainability and pro-environmental behaviours;
  • Sustainable urban lifestyle;
  • Environmental efficiency and smart cities;
  • Eco-efficiency and smart cities;
  • Urban agriculture and innovation promoting smart and sustainable cities;
  • Urban and peri-urban agriculture and innovation promoting smart and sustainable cities.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Maria José Palma Lampreia Dos-Santos
Prof. Dr. Sandra Miranda
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Sustainability 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 2400 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.

Keywords

  • smart cities
  • ICT
  • SDGs
  • sustainable cities
  • smart and sustainable cities
  • communication
  • innovation and technology
  • climatic change
  • attitudes of consumers
  • urban agriculture
  • innovation and management
  • eco-efficiency

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 5395 KiB  
Article
A Fuzzy Ballast Water Risk Assessment Model in Maritime Transport
by Konstantina Mouchtoglou, Paraskevi Zacharia and Grigoris Nikolaou
Sustainability 2024, 16(8), 3166; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083166 - 10 Apr 2024
Viewed by 687
Abstract
Recent years have witnessed a growing awareness of the critical role that maritime transport plays in global sustainability, given its significant environmental, economic, and social impacts. Central to this concern is the management of ballast water, which, if not properly treated, can lead [...] Read more.
Recent years have witnessed a growing awareness of the critical role that maritime transport plays in global sustainability, given its significant environmental, economic, and social impacts. Central to this concern is the management of ballast water, which, if not properly treated, can lead to the introduction of invasive species, biodiversity loss, and substantial economic and health repercussions. Traditional risk assessment models often fail to capture the complex uncertainties inherent in environmental risks associated with ballast water. This study introduces an innovative fuzzy logic-based risk assessment model designed to enhance decision-making processes in maritime operations by accurately assessing and mitigating the environmental risks of ballast water discharge. The model, structured using three fuzzy systems, integrates human reasoning with mathematical precision, providing an effective tool for sustainable maritime practices. The integrated fuzzy system employs 18 variables as inputs and yields three outputs (ballasting, ballast exchange, and de-ballasting risk). To evaluate the performance of the developed system, various data sets are used and tested through the MATLAB Fuzzy Toolbox. By aligning maritime operations with sustainability principles, this research contributes to the preservation of marine ecosystems, supports the economic stability of marine-dependent industries, and safeguards public health, underscoring the interconnectivity of maritime transport management with overarching sustainability objectives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Smart and Sustainable Cities: An Interdisciplinary Approach)
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26 pages, 568 KiB  
Article
Fostering Smart Citizens: The Role of Public Libraries in Smart City Development
by Battulga Buyannemekh, Mila Gasco-Hernandez and J. Ramon Gil-Garcia
Sustainability 2024, 16(5), 1750; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16051750 - 21 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1092
Abstract
With rapid urbanization, cities worldwide have sought innovative, sustainable solutions such as smart city initiatives to leverage technology and data to better manage this growth and the challenges it brings. Developing smart cities requires multi-stakeholder collaboration, including citizens who, as smart citizens, are [...] Read more.
With rapid urbanization, cities worldwide have sought innovative, sustainable solutions such as smart city initiatives to leverage technology and data to better manage this growth and the challenges it brings. Developing smart cities requires multi-stakeholder collaboration, including citizens who, as smart citizens, are aware and capable of using technologies to improve their quality of life and actively and equally contribute to making their cities smarter. This study examines how smart citizens are developed by focusing on the underexplored role of public libraries as community organizations in such efforts. To this end, we use comparative case studies of four U.S. public libraries informed by thirty-seven in-depth interviews with representatives from these libraries, local governments, and external partners. Our findings indicate that by providing inclusive access to advanced technology and training, facilitating civic engagement, and promoting innovation, public libraries can develop citizens who, as smart citizens, have the digital skills, agency, and creativity to actively contribute to smart city development. In doing so, public libraries can bridge digital and social divides and thereby develop smart citizens in a way that furthers inclusive and representative participation of their communities in smart city initiatives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Smart and Sustainable Cities: An Interdisciplinary Approach)
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21 pages, 6575 KiB  
Article
DFA-SAT: Dynamic Feature Abstraction with Self-Attention-Based 3D Object Detection for Autonomous Driving
by Husnain Mushtaq, Xiaoheng Deng, Mubashir Ali, Babur Hayat and Hafiz Husnain Raza Sherazi
Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13667; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813667 - 13 Sep 2023
Viewed by 970
Abstract
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) play a crucial role in enhancing urban mobility within the context of a smarter and more connected urban environment. Three-dimensional object detection in AVs is an essential task for comprehending the driving environment to contribute to their safe use in [...] Read more.
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) play a crucial role in enhancing urban mobility within the context of a smarter and more connected urban environment. Three-dimensional object detection in AVs is an essential task for comprehending the driving environment to contribute to their safe use in urban environments. Existing 3D LiDAR object detection systems lose many critical point features during the down-sampling process and neglect the crucial interactions between local features, providing insufficient semantic information and leading to subpar detection performance. We propose a dynamic feature abstraction with self-attention (DFA-SAT), which utilizes self-attention to learn semantic features with contextual information by incorporating neighboring data and focusing on vital geometric details. DFA-SAT comprises four modules: object-based down-sampling (OBDS), semantic and contextual feature extraction (SCFE), multi-level feature re-weighting (MLFR), and local and global features aggregation (LGFA). The OBDS module preserves the maximum number of semantic foreground points along with their spatial information. SCFE learns rich semantic and contextual information with respect to spatial dependencies, refining the point features. MLFR decodes all the point features using a channel-wise multi-layered transformer approach. LGFA combines local features with decoding weights for global features using matrix product keys and query embeddings to learn spatial information across each channel. Extensive experiments using the KITTI dataset demonstrate significant improvements over the mainstream methods SECOND and PointPillars, improving the mean average precision (AP) by 6.86% and 6.43%, respectively, on the KITTI test dataset. DFA-SAT yields better and more stable performance for medium and long distances with a limited impact on real-time performance and model parameters, ensuring a transformative shift akin to when automobiles replaced conventional transportation in cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Smart and Sustainable Cities: An Interdisciplinary Approach)
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