Smart Cities for People: Innovative Paradigms of Information Behavior and Urban Interaction

Dear Colleagues,

The aim of this Special Issue is to advance a transformative vision of smart cities that prioritizes human needs, behaviors, and experiences over purely technological imperatives. Traditional smart city frameworks have largely emphasized infrastructure, connectivity, and data-driven optimization. However, as urban environments become increasingly complex and digitally mediated, there is an urgent need to reorient these models toward human-centric paradigms. This Special Issue seeks contributions that explore how personalized services, adaptive information systems, and participatory urban interaction can foster inclusive, sustainable, and resilient cities, ultimately enhancing quality of life and social well-being.

Scope

We invite interdisciplinary research that bridges urban planning, information science, behavioral studies, and emerging technologies. The scope includes, but is not limited to:

• Information Behavior in Smart Cities: Investigating how citizens access, interpret, and utilize urban data and digital platforms for decision-making.
• Personalized Urban Services: Designing adaptive systems that tailor mobility, energy, healthcare, and cultural services to individual preferences and contextual needs.
• Urban Interaction and Engagement: Developing frameworks for participatory governance, co-creation, and community-driven planning supported by digital technologies.
• Ethics and Privacy in Human-Centric Design: Addressing challenges of personalization while safeguarding data protection and ethical standards.
• AI and IoT for Human-Centric Solutions: Leveraging artificial intelligence and Internet of Things to create responsive, context-aware urban ecosystems.
• Social Inclusion and Equity: Ensuring that smart city innovations reduce digital divides and promote equitable access to services.
• Behavioral Insights for Urban Sustainability: Applying behavioral science to encourage sustainable mobility, energy use, and resource management.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, conceptual papers, and case studies that contribute to theoretical advancements and practical applications. Submissions should highlight interdisciplinary perspectives, methodological innovations, and real-world implications for urban policy and planning. We particularly encourage studies that integrate human-computer interaction, data ethics, and socio-technical systems design to create cities that are not only smart but also empathetic and inclusive.

By focusing on human-centric approaches, this Special Issue aims to inspire new paradigms that redefine urban intelligence as a collaborative, adaptive, and ethical process. Authors are invited to propose frameworks, models, and empirical studies that demonstrate how technology can serve as an enabler of human flourishing rather than as an end in itself. Contributions that address global challenges—such as climate change, social inequality, and digital transformation—through the lens of human-centric smart cities are especially welcome.

Prof. Dr. Maria Victoria De-la-Fuente
Dr. Diego Ros-McDonnell
Dr. Álvaro Bernabeu-Bautista
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. Urban Science 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 1800 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.

• human-centric smart cities
• information behavior
• personalized urban services
• urban interaction
• participatory governance
• digital inclusion
• AI and IoT applications
• privacy and ethics
• behavioral urban design
• sustainable urban mobility