CASE STUDY ANALYSIS PRIYANSHU ARORA

Case Study Analysis

Yorkville University

HUMN440 – Smart and Sustainable Cities

Submitted to : Mr. Humphrey Nartey

Submitted by : Priyanshu Arora

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CASE STUDY ANALYSIS PRIYANSHU ARORA

Case Study Analysis

The Concept of Sustainability in Smart City Definitions:

When it comes to urban sustainability issues, smart cities may be a viable answer. For a

sustainable future, they are deemed essential. Even while smart cities have recently gained in

popularity, research shows that there is a lack of conceptual clarity around the phrase owing to

the multitude of definitions already in place According to the environmental, economic, and

social sustainability components they address and the importance they assign to the notion, this

extensive literature study has found 43 definitions of smart cities. Based on the sustainability

elements they address, the research found common and opposing traits in the definitions and

highlighted the constraints they bring. Limitations like these seem to be linked to citizen

accessibility, inaccurate portrayal, and the uniqueness of the city's fabric as it now exists. We

need a new definition that takes into consideration these concerns, as well as how the smart city

concept is really being put into practice. Helping conceptual clarity and, in particular, calling

attention to assumptions about the role of sustainability in smart city development are some of

the contributions of this research to knowledge and practice.

Sustainability as One of the Strategic Goals of Smart Cities:

Inevitably, cities will face several difficulties as their populations soar and their demand for

resources soars. This statistic emphasises the need of paradigm shifts in urban planning for long-

term sustainability. It is critical to arrive at a consensus on what constitutes sustainability for the

purposes of this research. Setting an appropriate scale for assessing a system's sustainability is

critical. Global sustainability requires a distinct set of strategies than local sustainability. In terms

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of urban sustainability, there is no one best-established definition, although there is a commonly-

used collection of features. A wide range of issues are addressed here, including intergenerational

and intragenerational fairness (social, geographical and governance equity), conservation of the

natural environment, significant reductions in the use of non-renewable resources (economic

vitality), community autonomy, citizen well-being, and gratification of fundamental human

needs such as food and shelter.

All three aspects of sustainability are considered here: environmental, economic, and social. The

environmental dimension refers to issues pertaining to the natural world, such as the preservation

of flora and fauna, the conservation of natural resources, and the use of renewable energy

sources. As for the economy, it comprises of a city's ability to attract new businesses and retain

existing ones, as well as its ability to attract new residents. For the purposes of this study, an

urban setting may be considered sustainable if social fairness, environmental conservation,

economic vigour, and a high standard of living are all attained. Urban sustainability is a common

issue in smart city research, but how well is the notion incorporated and how completely is it

handled in the literature?

Smart Sustainable Cities:

From Digital Cities to Intelligent Cities to Smart Cities, there are many digital technology

models for cities, which are included depending on the city's level of digital technology

capability. For Intelligent Cities, the Digital City infrastructure serves as a platform for

developing intelligent buildings, transit systems, schools, companies and public spaces, as well

as integrating them into intelligent urban systems. Intelligent urban systems are used in Smart

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Cities to promote social, economic, and environmental progress, as well as to enhance quality of

life and address the root causes of urban social unrest.

The Smart Sustainable City:

This report's idea of Smart Cities – based on stakeholder participation and cooperation, and the

development of many kinds of human, institutional, and technological capabilities – best fulfils

the advantages of Smart Cities. By focusing on local goals such as economic growth and the

preservation of natural resources, cities can help their residents live better lives. Smart City

projects may assist overcome the limits of conventional urban planning, which tends to manage

infrastructure systems in silos. People, corporations, government and civil society groups are all

affected by a lack of information exchange because of the segmented structure. Digital

technologies like cloud computing, open data, and the Internet of Things may be used to link

municipal stakeholders and boost public engagement, as well as provide new or enhanced

services and give context-aware insights on city operations. A city-wide digital infrastructure

may assist integrate various urban infrastructure systems, such as electricity, water, sewage, or

transportation, and allow efficient administration, control, and optimization of these systems.

Environmental and human-capacity concerns are also addressed by these programmed. The

creation of a smart city is both intricate and difficult. An urban system capable of self-adaptation

and self-management must be difficult to integrate. Open government, citizen science, and other

programmes give a variety of quantitative and qualitative data sources, but the ability to link

such data to analytical models is limited due to the lack of system interoperability and data reuse.

Concerns about residents' privacy, government monitoring, and other digital rights are raised by

Smart Cities. Aside from this, there are concerns with tying urban sustainability challenges to

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practical solutions, with social and territorial cohesiveness necessitating customized methods to

governance, and with the divergent discourses used by technologists and politicians. Ultimately,

it is vital that Smart Cities be not driven by ideological stances or commercial interests but rather

embrace public value in all economic, social, environmental and political aspects. Smart City

efforts may be found in a broad range of locales, according to this research. With 37% of all

Smart City efforts, Europe is the most prominent, followed by Asia Pacific (28%), Africa (13%),

North America (13%), and Latin America and the Caribbean (12%). (9 percent ). Digital

technology is helping to improve people's health and well-being in the form of Smart Living

initiatives (25 percent), Smart Environment initiatives (21 percent), and Smart Economy

initiatives (19 percent). Smart Mobility (13 percent), i.e. technology-enabled transportation, was

the least popular Smart City initiative, with only 13 percent of respondents reporting that they

were interested in it. 40% of projects focused on one or two goals, whereas 8% attempted to

balance all six objectives in a single effort. There are 66% government efforts, followed by 19%

from the private sector and 9% from non-governmental organizations (15 percent ). 60 percent of

respondents were concerned with strategy, while the remaining 30 percent focused on tactics (40

percent ). Interestingly, top-down or government-led initiatives (83 percent) are clearly

dominating, while just 17 percent are bottom-up or citizen-driven initiatives, despite the

language in the literature that contrasts the two.

Smart Sustainable Cities – Reconnaissance Study:

In underdeveloped nations, a lack of research capability makes it difficult to contextualize Smart

Sustainable City efforts. Only 12 percent of the most published researchers are from developing

countries, 33 percent of the most prolific Smart City research institutes are located in developing

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countries, and only 13 percent of the countries leading Smart City research are located in

developing nations.

Furthermore, in rich nations, most of the work on smart city policy is done, with just eight

percent of it being done in emerging countries such as Chile or China or India or Russia, where

most policy organisations are situated (37 percent) and (14 percent). Development nations prefer

to embrace policy frameworks that have been established and proven in developed countries,

which is not ideal for different country contexts and risks promoting the interests of the supplier

countries above the interests of the developing countries.

As a result, developing nations are less likely to focus on the most critical aspects of smart

government: smart people and smart governance. According to the survey, Smart City projects in

underdeveloped nations tend to focus on the Smart Environment, Smart Living, and Smart

Economy aspects. Locally driven non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are critical in

achieving a sustainable balance between commercial interests and the needs of the general

public, but a new study finds that the number of NGOs involved in Smart City initiatives in

developing countries is half that of developed countries.

In contrast to the one-to-one ratio in wealthy nations, smart city efforts in developing countries

have a two-to-one planning to implementation ratio. This shows the necessity for study in

underdeveloped nations to guide Smart City design. Top-down (government-led) projects in

developing nations are more common than bottom-up (citizen-driven) initiatives, raising

questions about their relevance and long-term viability.

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Sustainable urban development and smart city:

Despite the fact that the term "smart city" has been around for a few years, it may be considered

as a successor to information cities, digital cities, and sustainable cities. In spite of this, the word

has been more popular, particularly after 2013, when it surpassed the frequency with which other

concepts, such as sustainable city, were used . In spite of this, the word has been more popular,

particularly after 2013, when it surpassed the frequency with which other concepts, such as

sustainable city, were used. The notion of a "smart city" continues to be debated, but no one

seems to agree on what it mean. These descriptions are not conflicting but rather somewhat

overlapping, even if many writers have trouble conceptualising them. In general, however, it is

understood that smart cities use ICT extensively to help cities build their competitive advantages

or that it is a conceptual model where urban development is achieved through the use of human,

collective and technological capital. There are several sub-themes under the phrase "smart city,"

such as "intelligent urbanism," "intelligent economy," "sustainable environment and smart

technology, and so on".

Conclusion:

As a result of this extensive literature study, many emergent themes were discovered in the

concept of smart cities. Soft and hard capital, such as human and social capital, may be used

together to create a sustainable, livable, and efficient city in order to achieve this end goal. On

the other hand, definitions that aren't concerned with sustainability tend to place greater emphasis

on the value of information and communications technology (ICT) in maximizing the efficiency

of municipal resources and making the city a better place to live.

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The environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainability were all considered as part of a

holistic approach to creating a smart city. Most definitions of "smart cities" that are geared

toward the environment and society concentrate on the ways in which technology and

government work together to enhance quality of life and lessen urbanism's effect on the

environment. However, a few economic-oriented definitions recommended the combination of

physical infrastructure and soft capital in order to create competitive cities and to promote

sustainable economic growth. It can be shown that definitions of smart cities tend to overlook the

role of economic sustainability in their implementation. Contrary to current implementation

plans and the rapid expansion of the smart city sector, this is not the case

In contrast to most sustainability-related literature, smart city definitions seemed to emphasize

sustainability's social dimension, even though many of them excluded people with limited access

to technology and failed to take into account the unique characteristics of the existing urban

fabric, in a manner that could be compared to gentrification in some ways. As a result, it was not

obvious if economic progress and a better quality of life are linked, or whether they are

conflicting goals.

A new definition has been developed in response to the points of interest discovered and

explored in the current literature. Some of the most important concerns stated above have been

addressed in this definition, which focuses on holistic sustainability, inclusion, and respect for

places and their residents. This definition is updated to meet these issues.

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It is critical to do further study on the role that smart cities play in attaining long-term

development. As a result of the absence of publications on technical solutions from computer

science, engineering, and mathematics, this research has a significant constraint. Including

definitions from other domains may be included in future publications to remedy this. A major

objective of smart city projects is to enhance quality of life, but no definition has been provided

to describe what this means and how this development would affect the environment and society.

As a result, future efforts to define a smart city should take into account the link between the use

of contemporary technology and an increase in quality of life, as well as whether all aspects of

sustainability are represented.

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References

 Austin, R. D. (2013). Project management simulation: Scope, resources, schedule V2.

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