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The Role of the Web in Smart City Evolution: AI, Applications and Services

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 December 2021) | Viewed by 14313

Special Issue Editor

Department of Business Administration, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece
Interests: smart city; digital government
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue (SI) emphasizes on the contribution of the web (web intelligence, smart services, web applications and apps_ to smart city development. In the era of cities and under the UN 2030 Agenda for sustainable growth, cities are making an important shift regarding thinking of compact cities and develop sustainable urban services. Issues like responsive and self-evolving smart services (e.g., for governance (e.g. responsive e-government services, mobility (parking, traffic congestion and safety, sharing transportation, and smart parking), economy (e.g. AI mentoring etc.) etc.) are among the topics where governments and the industry direct smart service development. Moreover, data collection and analysis enable the government’s fast—or even real-time—decision-making , and new business models appear that utilize platforms and data. Additionally, new types of business in transportation appear (e.g., utilizing sensors and big data), while things’ sharing is another challenge that cities have started phasing in. This SI aims to demonstrate how the Web contribute to smart city development in general.

Prof. Dr. Leonidas Anthopoulos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Smart city
  • Smart mobility
  • Smart transportation
  • Mobility as a service
  • Web applications
  • App

Published Papers (4 papers)

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27 pages, 6561 KiB  
Article
A Recommender System for Mobility-as-a-Service Plans Selection
by Konstantina Arnaoutaki, Efthimios Bothos, Babis Magoutas, Attila Aba, Domokos Esztergár-Kiss and Gregoris Mentzas
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8245; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13158245 - 23 Jul 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2349
Abstract
Transportation and mobility in smart cities are undergoing a grave transformation as new ways of mobility are introduced to facilitate seamless traveling, addressing travelers’ needs in a personalized manner. A novel concept that has been recently introduced is Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), where mobility services [...] Read more.
Transportation and mobility in smart cities are undergoing a grave transformation as new ways of mobility are introduced to facilitate seamless traveling, addressing travelers’ needs in a personalized manner. A novel concept that has been recently introduced is Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), where mobility services are bundled in MaaS Plans and offered to end-users through a single digital platform. The present paper introduces a recommender system for MaaS Plans selection that supports travelers to select bundles of mobility services that fit their everyday transportation needs. The recommender filters out unsuitable plans and then ranks the remaining ones on the basis of their similarity to the users’ characteristics, habits and preferences. The recommendation approach is based on Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) formalisms combined with cosine similarity techniques. The proposed method was evaluated in experimental settings and was further embedded in real-life pilot MaaS applications. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach provides lists of MaaS PlanMaaS Plans that users would choose in a real-life MaaS setting, in most of the cases. Moreover, the results of the real-life pilots showed that the majority of the participants chose an actual MaaS Plan from the top three places of the recommendation lists. Full article
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20 pages, 3816 KiB  
Article
Clustering of European Smart Cities to Understand the Cities’ Sustainability Strategies
by Carmen Cantuarias-Villessuzanne, Romain Weigel and Jeffrey Blain
Sustainability 2021, 13(2), 513; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13020513 - 07 Jan 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4873
Abstract
This paper analyzes the smart strategies of European cities through the dynamic capabilities approach. We develop a clustering of smart cities based on the activities implemented by the cities. Our methodology considers three steps. First, we establish an empirical assessment of the smart [...] Read more.
This paper analyzes the smart strategies of European cities through the dynamic capabilities approach. We develop a clustering of smart cities based on the activities implemented by the cities. Our methodology considers three steps. First, we establish an empirical assessment of the smart dimensions for 40 European cities. Then, we categorize and interpret core capabilities via a principal component analysis. Finally, we highlight a hierarchical ascending classification identifying three relevant groups of cities. As a result, the first cluster represents cities with emerging smart strategies. The second cluster regroups international metropolises, which have technology-oriented strategies to deal with specific challenges. The third cluster stands for middle-sized European cities with a good quality of life. Our outcomes show that there is not just one smart city but several smart cities emerging according to the cities’ environment. These findings enrich the analysis of smart cities’ dynamic capabilities and point out how these strategies make cities sustainable. Full article
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15 pages, 601 KiB  
Article
Sustainability of Government Microblog in China: Exploring Social Factors on Mobile Government Microblog Continuance
by Chenyuan Ni, Shuiqing Yang, Yanqin Pan, Jianrong Yao, Yixiao Li and Yuangao Chen
Sustainability 2019, 11(24), 6887; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11246887 - 04 Dec 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2307
Abstract
The sustainable development of mobile government social media depends citizens’ continued use. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework and social response theory, the present study investigated the impacts of perceived similarity and anthropomorphic cues on citizens’ mobile government microblog continuance. A research model of [...] Read more.
The sustainable development of mobile government social media depends citizens’ continued use. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework and social response theory, the present study investigated the impacts of perceived similarity and anthropomorphic cues on citizens’ mobile government microblog continuance. A research model of mobile government microblog continuance was developed and empirical tested by using dataset collected from 428 mobile government microblog citizens in China. The results of structural equation modeling demonstrated that perceived similarity (including external similarity and internal similarity), and anthropomorphic cues (including social interaction value, visual appearance, and identity attractiveness), have positive influences on both cognitive and affective involvement, which further determinate mobile government microblog continuance. Considering the path coefficient and significant levels, the impact from affective involvement on mobile government microblog continuance is stronger that from cognitive involvement. Full article
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11 pages, 216 KiB  
Concept Paper
Sustainable Urban Air Mobility Supported with Participatory Noise Sensing
by Hinnerk Eißfeldt
Sustainability 2020, 12(8), 3320; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12083320 - 19 Apr 2020
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4031
Abstract
In about 15 years, there is likely to be urban air mobility (UAM) in larger cities across the globe. Air taxis will provide on-demand transportation for individual needs. They will also connect important transportation nodes, such as airports and city centers, as well [...] Read more.
In about 15 years, there is likely to be urban air mobility (UAM) in larger cities across the globe. Air taxis will provide on-demand transportation for individual needs. They will also connect important transportation nodes, such as airports and city centers, as well as providing quick transfers between train stations or a convenient option for crossing rivers and lakes. It is hoped that UAM will help meet today’s political targets of sustainability and decarbonization. However, there are certain threats that could impede the sustainable and thus successful introduction of UAM to our cities, with noise being a prominent limitation. This paper argues that citizens have to be viewed as stakeholders in urban air transportation, regardless of whether they or not intend to use it, and that a concept of resident participatory noise sensing (PNS) will be beneficial to the implementation of UAM. Web-based services and smartphones facilitate the access and updating of current information about local noise distributions, thus enabling them to be used to foster UAM in smart cities. Full article
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