Artificial Intelligence and Data-Driven Analytics in Smart City Systems

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and large-scale data analytics within urban environments is reshaping how modern cities operate, optimize resources, and deliver public services. This Special Issue will bring together advanced research on data-driven systems, simulation-based analysis, sensor data processing, smart governance, and intelligent decision-making frameworks that support the development of resilient, sustainable, and citizen-centered smart cities.

(1) Introduction

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue, titled “Artificial Intelligence and Data-Driven Analytics in Smart City Systems”. Rapid urbanization, increasing environmental pressures, and growing demands on public services require new technological solutions. AI-driven automation, advanced simulation models, machine learning algorithms, and real-time sensor data analysis have become critical tools for city planners, policymakers, and researchers.

This research area is gaining strategic importance as cities transition toward intelligent infrastructures for mobility, energy management, environmental monitoring, public safety, and digital public services. Understanding how AI and data analytics can deliver measurable impact, through simulation studies, predictive modeling, NLP-driven citizen feedback analysis, or optimization techniques, is essential for designing the next generation of sustainable and adaptive urban systems.

(2) Aim of the Special Issue and Relevance to the Journal’s Scope

This Special Issue seeks to bring together cutting-edge research, advanced data-driven methodologies and applications that leverage artificial intelligence to enhance the design, modeling, simulation, and evaluation of smart city systems. It aligns with the journal’s focus on computational methods, intelligent algorithms, and data-centric approaches that advance modern technologies.

The objective is to build a coherent collection of high-quality studies exploring how AI improves urban sustainability, decision-making, and quality of life.

(3) Suggested Themes and Article Types

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

• AI-driven simulation studies for smart city planning and evaluation;
• Machine learning and deep learning for sensor data and IoT networks;
• Predictive models for mobility, traffic, pollution, and energy optimization;
• Natural language processing and sentiment analysis applied to urban communication;
• Social media analytics for real-time city feedback and event detection;
• Computer vision for surveillance, safety, and environmental monitoring;
• Digital twins and multi-agent simulations for city-scale modeling;
• Data-driven decision support systems for urban governance;
• Intelligent resource allocation and optimization in transport, energy, or public services;
• Ethical, transparency, and governance challenges in AI-based urban systems.

We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.

Prof. Dr. Razvan Daniel Zota
Prof. Dr. Bogdan Oancea
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. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.

• smart cities
• artificial intelligence
• simulation modeling
• machine learning
• sensor analytics
• data-driven governance
• NLP
• sentiment analysis
• urban computing
• decision support systems