Smart Cities for Sustainable Development, Volume II

Dear Colleagues,

Smart Cities concept is being evolved towards Sustainable and Resilience Cities; as an evolution of the challenges as a result of energy costs increase, overpopulation of cities since half the global population lives in cities–a figure that’s expected to rise to 80% by 2050; >7 billion people are projected to be living in urban areas, extreme weather events are driven by climate change, mobility new ecosystems, post-COVID lifestyles with the promotion of remote work; and all the new investments in the co-existence of digital, virtual and physical ecosystems.

The development of sustainable infrastructures, with a strong awareness of their impact, is crucial; current buildings account for 30% of global energy consumption and 28% of energy-related carbon emissions. City leaders must act with urgency against a worldwide pandemic, climate crisis, economic uncertainty, and budget constraints to make urban infrastructure more resilient. Markets are increasingly pressuring cities to reduce carbon emissions, respond to extreme weather events, reduce waste, and preserve natural resources while still providing critical infrastructure and resources–and citizens expect this as well, increasingly demanding greater transparency.

Digital technologies such as the Internet of Things are enablers for cities and public facilities seeking to transform into more sustainable operations while continuing to ensure functionality, comfort, safety, and efficiency. Five trends are underpinning the need for digital transformation, each of which can be met with a sustainable solution that can generate significant savings on time and cost, improve the reliability of core assets, and reduce response times and energy use:

1. Connectivity with introducing service networks requires greater operational agility and resiliency as LoRa, 5G, 6G and beyond.
2. Resilience funds and green deal funds to overcome this crisis with improved operational efficiency
3. Digital and remote workforces, including also the automation of tasks.
4. Infrastructure regeneration for mobility, urban development, waste, environment etc., to improve reliability and safety
5. Sustainability focus, making net zero emissions more achievable and cost-effective.

For understanding the challenges of the economic model vs social impact and environment, we can use as a reference the "doughnut effect"; which cities as Cartagena, Murcia, Amsterdam, Brussels, Melbourne and Berlin are examples of cities joining using these models for paving the way towards social and environmental sustainability.

The theory of the Doughnut formula is a change of economic model within the means of the planet's limited natural resources. The one in the centre is the social foundation, which includes basic fundamental rights, and the outer ring is the ecological ceiling, which cannot be exceeded if we are to guarantee the prosperity of humanity.

This Special Issue aims to collect all the innovations based on technologies such as platforms, digital twins, the Internet of Things, and innovative sensors related to policies, ussssssss, best practices, experiences and resilience solutions.

Dr. Antonio J. Jara
Guest Editor

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