229R_Beyond smart: How ICT is enabling sustainable cities of the future (research summary)

What is The Future for Cities?

Are you interested in how information systems help sustainability?

Our summary today works with the article titled Beyond smart: How ICT is enabling sustainable cities of the future from 2023 by Hanifa Shah, published in Sustainability journal.

This is a great preparation to our next interview with Ryan Jeffery in episode 230 talking about the information and communication technologies’ effects on urban development.

Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see how ICT can help the creation of smart sustainable cities. This article presents information and communication technologies, also known as ICTs, in a role supporting sustainability in smart cities, promoting effective collaboration and avoiding self-serving outcomes.

As the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects:

1. ICT can support sustainability in smart cities, but it must be integrated across all sectors and aligned with clear sustainability goals.
2. Effective alignment of ICT and sustainability requires shared understanding and collaboration between local government, ICT firms, and citizens.
3. Smart city initiatives should prioritize clarity, strong leadership, embedding sustainability in contracts, and enabling citizen participation to ensure ICT genuinely promotes sustainability rather than self-interests.

You can find the article through this link.

Abstract: Cities around the world face pressing sustainability challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, and unsustainable growth. Smart cities have emerged as a response to these challenges, leveraging information and communication technologies (ICTs) to create more efficient and liveable urban environments. However, the concept of smart cities is often defined in vague and ideologically driven terms that lack clear guidelines for promoting sustainability. In this study, we use qualitative methods to examine how the use of ICTs can support the goals of sustainability in smart city development, resulting in what we call a ‘smart sustainable city’. Drawing on a case study involving stakeholder analysis, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis, we investigate the key roles of local government, ICT firms, and citizens in shaping sustainable urban development through smart city initiatives. Our findings shed light on the potential of ICTs to promote sustainability in smart cities and provide insights for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars working towards creating more sustainable urban environments. The findings of this research showed that ICT’s role in supporting sustainability in smart cities relies on understanding the interests and priorities of civic, ICT firms, and citizens, promoting effective collaboration and avoiding self-serving outcomes.

Connecting episodes you might be interested in:

• No.002R - Intelligent cities;
• No.032R - Smart city implementation and discourses;
• No.070R - Citizen-centred big data analysis-driven governance intelligence framework for smart cities;

You can find the transcript through ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this link⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WTF4Cities⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wtf4cities.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ website where the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shownotes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠are also available.

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lesfm ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠