Defining and Debating on Smart Cities or Smart Buildings

A special issue of Smart Cities (ISSN 2624-6511). This special issue belongs to the section "Smart Buildings".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 10533

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Management and Innovation Systems, University of Salerno, 84084 Salerno, Italy
Interests: smart grids; energy management; power systems; demand response
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

What is a smart city or smart building? It is a commonly asked yet unanswered question both in daily life and in the scientific literature. A smart city or building according to one person would not be considered smart by another. This situation applies not only to smart or smartness, but also to a variety of other commonly used terms such as sustainable or sustainability, resilient or resilience, beautiful or beauty, and even good or goodness. We call for papers that define and debate smart cities or smart buildings, incorporating the following two distinct views. The first view considers that modernist cities or tall buildings equipped with internet and smart devices (e.g., tracking or surveillance) are smart (Talari et al, 2017). They are commonly considered to be smart, sustainable, or even green. The second view focuses on structural aspects, which are capable of sustaining and nurturing people in the presence of the cities and buildings (e.g., Alexander 2004, Jiang 2019). For example, all traditional cities and buildings are able to trigger good feelings such as pride, belonging, healing, and well-being. Out of these two distinct views, there may be a third view that compromises on these two. We solicit papers that define and debate smart cities or smart buildings from all perspectives All authors are invited to review other accepted articles, so the Special Issue will be considered as a coherent whole rather than independent pieces.

Prof. Dr. Bin Jiang
Prof. Dr. Pierluigi Siano
Guest Editors

References:

  1. Alexander C. (2004), Sustainability and Morphogenesis: The birth of a living world, Schumacher Lecture, Bristal, October 30, 2004, https://www.livingneighborhoods.org/library/schumacher-pages-1-28.pdf
  2. Jiang B. (2019), A recursive definition of goodness of space for bridging the concepts of space and place for sustainability, Sustainability, 11(15), 4091; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11154091
  3. Talari S., Shafie-khah M., Siano P., Loia V., Tommasetti A., and Catalão J. P. S. (2017), A review of smart cities based on the internet of things concept, Energies, 10, 421–443.

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Smart Cities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2000 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.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 5177 KiB  
Article
Design and Implementation of an Interoperable Architecture for Integrating Building Legacy Systems into Scalable Energy Management Systems
by Aristotelis Ntafalias, Sotiris Tsakanikas, Spyros Skarvelis-Kazakos, Panagiotis Papadopoulos, Antonio F. Skarmeta-Gómez, Aurora González-Vidal, Valentina Tomat, Alfonso P. Ramallo-González, Rafael Marin-Perez and Maria C. Vlachou
Smart Cities 2022, 5(4), 1421-1440; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/smartcities5040073 - 19 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2083
Abstract
The building sector is responsible for a significant amount of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Thus, the monitoring, control and optimization of energy consumption in buildings will play a critical role in the coming years in improving energy efficiency in the [...] Read more.
The building sector is responsible for a significant amount of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Thus, the monitoring, control and optimization of energy consumption in buildings will play a critical role in the coming years in improving energy efficiency in the building sector and in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, while there are a significant number of studies on how to make buildings smarter and manage energy through smart devices, there is a need for more research on integrating buildings with legacy equipment and systems. It is therefore vital to define mechanisms to improve the use of energy efficiency in existing buildings. This study proposes a new architecture (PHOENIX architecture) for integrating legacy building systems into scalable energy management systems with focus also on user comfort in the concept of interoperability layers. This interoperable and intelligent architecture relies on Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to increase building efficiency, grid flexibility and occupant well-being. To validate the architecture and demonstrate the impact and replication potential of the proposed solution, five demonstration pilots have been utilized across Europe. As a result, by implementing the proposed architecture in the pilot sites, 30 apartments and four commercial buildings with more than 400 devices have been integrated into the architecture and have been communicating successfully. In addition, six Trials were performed in a commercial building and five key performance indicators (KPIs) were measured in order to evaluate the robust operation of the architecture. Work is still ongoing for the trials and the KPIs’ analysis after the implementation of PHOENIX architecture at the rest of the pilot sites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Defining and Debating on Smart Cities or Smart Buildings)
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23 pages, 3695 KiB  
Article
Soft Assets Consideration in Smart and Resilient City Development
by Eiko Wataya and Rajib Shaw
Smart Cities 2022, 5(1), 108-130; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/smartcities5010007 - 26 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3429
Abstract
For a smart city, soft or non-physical assets share an important capital component with many impacts in different contexts. They enable a city to deliver and mainstream a people-centered policy in addition to the benefits provided by traditional, hard infrastructure. Soft assets can [...] Read more.
For a smart city, soft or non-physical assets share an important capital component with many impacts in different contexts. They enable a city to deliver and mainstream a people-centered policy in addition to the benefits provided by traditional, hard infrastructure. Soft assets can involve social and human capital, knowledge, participation, and innovative approaches that drive value in the city. However, it is always a challenge for city policy makers to identify and strengthen these soft assets using a systemic approach due to their inherent characteristics. This paper argues that soft assets should be strategically integrated into the development process of smart and resilient cities. Therefore, exploring various approaches to prioritize soft asset consideration would provide helpful guidelines to city policy makers for municipal value creation, and identify where the greatest needs for soft or intangible assets lie. This paper examines how to identify and decide which soft assets should take priority in smart and resilient cities. The findings can assist policy makers in their consideration of an optimal mix and balance of soft assets required in the city to improve living structures for a people-centered approach. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Defining and Debating on Smart Cities or Smart Buildings)
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21 pages, 8653 KiB  
Article
Making a Building Smart with a Co-Created and Continuously Evolving Enjoyable Service Entity—Insights from a Collaborative Study
by Maaria Nuutinen, Eija Kaasinen, Jaana Hyvärinen, Airi Mölsä and Sanni Siltanen
Smart Cities 2022, 5(1), 1-21; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/smartcities5010001 - 24 Dec 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3398
Abstract
Buildings shape cities as those cities grow from and nurture people living and working within the built environment. Thus, the conceptualization of smart building should be brought closer to the smart city initiatives that particularly target ensuring and enhancing the sustainability and quality [...] Read more.
Buildings shape cities as those cities grow from and nurture people living and working within the built environment. Thus, the conceptualization of smart building should be brought closer to the smart city initiatives that particularly target ensuring and enhancing the sustainability and quality of urban life. In this paper, we propose that a smart building should be interlinked with a smart city surrounding it; it should provide good experiences to its various occupants and it should be in an ongoing state of evolving as an ecosystem, wherein different stakeholders can join to co-produce, co-provide and co-consume services. Smart buildings require a versatile set of smart services based on digital solutions, solutions in the built environment and human activities. We conducted a multiphase collaborative study on new service opportunities guided by a Design Thinking approach. The approach brought people, technology, and business perspectives together and resulted in key service opportunities that have the potential to make the buildings smart and provide enjoyable experience to the occupants who support their living and working activities in smart cities. This paper provides the resulting practical implications as well as proposes future avenues for research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Defining and Debating on Smart Cities or Smart Buildings)
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