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Dear Colleagues,

Some societies have difficulties achieving sustainable development, despite their best effort to actively seek and work towards this goal. In this context, a transition to future sustainable cities necessarily involves the implementation of Information and Communication Technologies, which have demonstrated to be capable of securing economic prosperity and improving quality of life while tackling the existential threats posed by sustainable challenges. Smartening up our cities, so the rhetoric goes, promises to deliver ‘sustainable’, ‘efficient’, ‘secure’, ‘liveable’, and ‘equitable’ outcomes. Digital technologies should serve people and improve public services and working conditions, especially in the governance and management of cities, rural areas, and regions.

One of the main outcomes of smart governance should be to assist societies in developing effective government within a democratic system, and to implement sustainable development principles through global partnership. Nonetheless, the lack of empirical evidence on the positive outcomes of smart governance in cities, rural areas, and regions on the achievement of sustainable development goals motivated us to conduct this Special Issue.

Therefore, we invite papers that analyze the link between smart governance systems implemented in cities, rural areas or regions, and their sustainability. These papers can be focused on the impact of different smart governance models in the achievement of sustainable development goals and/or higher citizens’ quality of life. Also, scholars are invited to submit papers analyzing the institutional and/or contextual conditions of smart governance and their impact on the achievement of sustainable development goals. In any case, this Special Issue will put its attention on empirical papers, including case studies, comparative case studies (that involve different countries, disciplines, or sustainability challenges), and surveys. Finally, empirical studies about smart governance in vertical or horizontal integrations of public organizations for achieving sustainable development goals will be welcome.

Prof. Dr. Manuel Pedro Rodriguez Bolivar
Guest Editor

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 papers will be 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 1900 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 Governance
Smart City
Sustainable Cities
Sustainable Development Goals
Quality of life

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Toward Sustainable Governance: Strategic Analysis of the Smart City Seoul Portal in Korea

Yejin Yoo

Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5886; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115886 - 24 May 2021

Viewed by 500

Abstract

Currently, the efforts of many cities around the world, including Seoul, are aimed at transforming themselves into smart cities under a governance vision. Thus, the purpose of this study is to propose a reinforcement plan for the ’Smart Seoul’ portal to develop into a cooperative, participatory, and network governance. We select four representative smart city portals from Barcelona, Amsterdam, Columbus, and Singapore and evaluate their main features and roles. We sort the features analyzed in each portal based on certain governance strategies, employing their key features as part of our evaluation criteria model. These evaluation criteria are used to analyze the ‘Smart Seoul’ portal and create a strengthening plan. The plan comprises a set of actions intended to improve the portal’s capabilities in terms of disclosure of information, the participation of stakeholders, and civil petition services. When this plan is implemented, the resulting optimal information disclosure through the ‘Smart Seoul’ portal will ensure the transparency of Seoul’s administration and create an environment in which citizens can actively participate in solving urban problems and making decisions. In addition, the results of this study will be an important guideline for the design and operation of smart city portals, and the catalogs for key features are expected to be used to make smart city portal design regulations in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Governance for Smart Cities, Rural Areas or Regions and Sustainable Development)

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Open AccessArticle

Comparison of Smart City Standards, Implementation and Cluster Models of Cities in North America and Europe

Milan Kubina

Dominika Šulyová

and

Josef Vodák

Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3120; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063120 - 12 Mar 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 672

Abstract

Sustainability in Smart Cities is a current and trendy topic in a global sense. The primary impetus for writing this article was to create a general implementation model for the smart governance of European Smart Cities based on the American best practice. The ambition is to be able to modify the generally created model to meet the local conditions of all countries. The aim of the article is to point out the essential elements and differences between the implementation standards, models and clusters in the cities of North America and Europe, including their benefits and limitations. This article compared standards, implementation and cluster models for Smart Cities in North America and Europe through a secondary analysis from Arcadis and IDC consultants, standards agencies, and relevant sources. In addition, comparisons and summaries of the results were used. The results of this article point out the fundamental differences between the American and European approaches to building Smart Cities. American models are more centrist-oriented to people and complex in their simplicity, thus achieving a higher degree of reputation. Europeans are less consistent and top-down oriented. The new model will make European Smart Cities more focused on the needs and expectations of all stakeholders. The main results of this article are the answers to the research questions and the general implementation model, the verification of which will take place in practice in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Governance for Smart Cities, Rural Areas or Regions and Sustainable Development)

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