Achieving Decarbonisation Through Sustainable Smart City Technologies

The concept of Sustainable Smart City (SSC) has been promoted as an ideal model that promises to enhance the efficiency of city governance and improve sustainability by taking advantage of technological innovations. Despite the rise of SSC initiatives and research worldwide, it is difficult to establish whether SSC really delivers Decarbonisation solutions or is a techno-centric fantasy to control the effects of the environment with modern technology. The main problem of carbon emissions relates to excessive consumption behaviour, which hinges on the social lifestyle and wellbeing needs of urban citizens. In this research, we have considered Decarbonisation as a movement ingrained in the social fabric of society to address these behavioural issues. This study aims to assess the extent of SSC models' approach to Decarbonisation which stems from social behaviour problems that cause high carbon emissions. Based on selected keywords, a systematic literature review was carried out to understand the main themes within four publication databases. Upon screening, 115 papers were used for thematic analysis to evaluate the extent of social and behavioural considerations to reduce carbon emissions. The results revealed three overarching themes that mainly sought to define SSC, describe the pathway to achieve SSC, and understand the impact of SSC. Majority of the studies focussed on the conceptual definition and descriptive indicators to mark the way forward towards SSC. Only a small proportion (11%) of papers discussed about social engagement and participation to affect the necessary changes for SSC and had limited relevance to carbon reduction. The findings show a disconnection between the political ambitions of SSC models and the social demands of urban citizens that drive carbon emissions. This paper contributes new insight on the lack of focus on social behaviour in SSC models, specifically in achieving Decarbonisation solutions at a local level

Big data and IoT-based applications in smart environments: A systematic review

This paper reviews big data and Internet of Things (IoT)-based applications in smart environments. The aim is to identify key areas of application, current trends, data architectures, and ongoing challenges in these fields. To the best of our knowledge, this is a first systematic review of its kind, that reviews academic documents published in peer-reviewed venues from 2011 to 2019, based on a four-step selection process of identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion for the selection process. In order to examine these documents, a systematic review was conducted and six main research questions were answered. The results indicate that the integration of big data and IoT technologies creates exciting opportunities for real-world smart environment applications for monitoring, protection, and improvement of natural resources. The fields that have been investigated in this survey include smart environment monitoring, smart farming/agriculture, smart metering, and smart disaster alerts. We conclude by summarizing the methods most commonly used in big data and IoT, which we posit to serve as a starting point for future multi-disciplinary research in smart cities and environments