Redefining Smart Cities, Urban Energy, and Green Technologies for Sustainable Development

Introduction

The smart city is a relatively new concept that has been on policymakers' agenda since there are rising problems due to rapid urbanization, population growth. The fact is that modern cities have been struggling with providing high living habitats with a quality environment due to limited resources and space. Since city planners cannot propose to reduce the population density per square kilometer to meet the needs of the residents, they suggest improving energy efficiency, applying more renewable resources, increasing productivity, and public awareness. In many metropolises, offices are automatically turned off lights if not necessary, thermostats are set to higher temperatures to decrease the energy need from air conditions, and streetlamps are changed to LED from mercury vapor. Furthermore, the adoption of renewable energy sources is obligated to reduce the dependence on oil and coal consumption both in heating/cooling and transportation (Cram, 2019:3).

The smart city is found to be a good solution to the problems that stem from lack of energy efficiency, insufficient energy supply to increasing demand, waste management, migration, and mobility. Hence, smart cities include power management, reducing environmental pollution footprints, improving public safety, and offering better services to residents. Cities that deploy ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) are the pioneer ones embossing digital systems and infrastructure. Those cities were first called “wired cities” by Dutton et al. (1987). Ishida and Isbister (2000) introduced the “digital cities” concept and today this concept became “smart cities”. During the improvement of the smart city concept, there has been a deepening relationship between ICT and urbanization. Policymakers utilized ICT on infrastructure forming, urban modeling, and modes of living and established the basics of “smart city”, a term that is the subject of business, government, and academia. Aguilera et al. (2013) defined the smart city as a broad concept that includes not only physical infrastructure but also human and social factors. Kourtit et al. (2012) emphasized the development of a knowledge economy for a city to have “smart” notions. With a broader definition, a smart city is a city that offers a sustainable and efficient urban environment with its high quality to its inhabitants through optimal energy management and a livable environment (Calvillo, Sanchez-Miralles, and Villar, 2016:273-274). European Commission (2021a) defines the smart city as a place where traditional networks and services are provided by digital solutions for the benefit of citizens and companies. The commission also points out the usage of digital technologies for better resource use and less greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, urban transport networks, better water supply, and waste management, disposal facilities as well as efficient lighting and heating/cooling mechanisms are included in the smart city definition. Similarly, Su, Li, and Fu (2011) addressed the technological aspect of smart cities and focused on how next-generation information technology is the key to the future of cities. The authors described the smart city as an important strategy that mainly focuses on applying the next-generation information technology to all means of life by embedding sensors and equipment to railroads, highways, hospitals, power grids, bridges, buildings, water and sanitation systems, dams, oil and gas pipelines, and forming the “Internet of Things” via the Internet”. Furthermore, a smart city is expected to have a balance between environmental, economic, and social goals of integrated processes to reach long-term sustainable development goals. Such a balance contains greener, fairer, and more energy-efficient systems. In other words, there must be a harmonization between three cornerstones: equity, economy, and ecology. As illustrated in Figure-1, three cornerstones may conflict with each other during sustainable development processes offering a green, fair, and livable environment (Bibri and Krogstie, 2020b:3).

Figure 1.

Conflicts among cornerstone contributors to achieve sustainability

Source: Bibri and Krogstie (2020b:3).