This innovative book explores the foundations of the smart city and, through a critique of its challenges and concerns, showcases how to redefine the concept for increased sustainability, liveability and resilience in urban areas. It undertakes a review of the smart city concept, providing a new perspective on how technology-based urban solutions must be centred around human dimensions to render more liveable urban fabrics. Chapters highlight how existing digital infrastructures can be coupled with emerging ones, so that they can provide increased efficiency and performance, with an ultimate objective of rendering safer, more sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities, aligning with the needs of the SDGs. The book also covers emerging technologies and concepts, such as 6G and the '15-minute city', underlining how these can develop within smart city frameworks. This is an invigorating look into the concept of the smart city and how it can be improved and rethought, making it useful for urban studies and human geography academics and researchers. It also offers helpful insights for policy makers and planners on how to increase the quality of life in modern cities.

This book introduces the concept of the 'autonomous city'- a concept that has been developed from the 'smart cities' model that is based on a city's ability to gather data and taking it one step further. The digital revolution has brought about numerous changes in the urban realm, along with the understanding that technology can aid in increasing the performance and efficiency of urban areas. This technology has given rise to a wealth of data allowing urban leaders to respond better to crisis and craft policies that increase the liveability of urban areas. The 'autonomous city' explores the possibility of urban areas evolving from the dimension of data gathering to that of action response - so a city able to collect data and render real time decisions to self-manage a variety of functions based on its interpretation of that data. The book discusses how this could lead to the automation of select urban dimensions for increased efficiency and performance, but also details how such a process would require careful consideration when put into practice. This book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students across Urban Planning, Sustainability and STS, as well as practitioners and policy makers involved in the development of urban life.

Surveying the Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Implications: Urban Health, Data Technology and Political Economy explores social, economic, and policy impacts of COVID-19 that will persist for some time. This timely book surveys the COVID-19 from a holistic, high level perspective, examining such topics as Urban health policy responses impact on cities economies, Urban economic impacts of supply chain disruption, The need for coherent short term urban policies that aligns with long term goals, The rise to citizen science initiatives, The role of open data, The need for protocols to support research collaborations, Building larger infectious disease modelling datasets, NS Advanced computing tools for health policy.

This book explores the emergence and development of data in cities. It exposes how Information Communication Technology (ICT) corporations seeking to capitalize on cities developing needs for urban technologies have contributed to many of the issues we are faced with today, including urbanization, centralization of wealth and climate change. Using several case studies, the book provides examples of the, in part, detrimental effects ICT driven 'Smart City' solutions have had and will have on the human characteristics that contribute to the identity and sense of belonging innate to many of our cities. The rise in Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and technologies like social media, has changed how people interact with and in cities, and Allam discusses of how these changes require planners, engineers and other urban professionals to adjust their approach. The main question the book seeks to address is 'how can we use emerging technologies to recalibrate our cities and ensure increased livability, whilst also effectively dealing with their associate challenges?' This is an ongoing conversation, but one that requires extensive thought as it has extensive consequences. This book will be of interest to students, academics, professionals and policy makers across a broad range of subjects including urban studies, architecture and STS, geography and social policy.

The role of Cities in driving global economies has been well covered, and their impact on the larger ecosystem is well documented. Resilient and Sustainable Cities: Research, Policy and Practice explores how cities can be transformed into sustainable fabrics, while leading to positive socio-economic change. The topics include urban policy and covers the challenges cities experienced during the pandemic and resulting urban responses from federal, state, and local levels. This includes a transdisciplinary perspective dwelling on the city narrative, including Resources, Economics, Politics, and others. Resilient and Sustainable Cities serves as a valuable resource for leaders and practitioners working in Urban Policy and academia, as well as students in urban planning, architecture, and policy undergraduate and graduate level programs.

The Metaverse and Smart Cities: Urban Environments in the Age of Digital Connectivity explores the intersection between the rapidly growing metaverse and the future of cities. The metaverse is a virtual world that is increasingly gaining attention as a new frontier for human interaction and commerce. At the same time, cities are undergoing significant transformation as they face challenges such as population growth, urbanization, and environmental degradation. Urban planners and city administrators will find valuable insights on how the metaverse can be integrated into the planning and development of smart, sustainable and future cities. The book begins with an introduction to the concepts and technology of the metaverse as well as its history. It then sheds light on the current and future challenges and opportunities that the metaverse presents to cities and the quality of life of urban dwellers. It delves into the ways in which the metaverse can change cities, both in terms of their physical and virtual environments, and the impact it can have on the lives of those who live in them. It brings together the latest research and perspectives from experts in the fields of virtual reality, urban planning, and sustainability, to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of this rapidly evolving field. The insights and recommendations presented in the book will be valuable to policymakers, urban planners, and technology professionals interested in shaping the future of cities and the quality of life of those who live in them. Urban dwellers will gain an understanding of the potential impact of the metaverse on their quality of life, and technology enthusiasts and real estate developers will gain insights into the potential opportunities and challenges of investing in the metaverse and its connection to cities.

This book explores how biotechnology can lead to the reimagination of cities. In a time where the increasing adoption of technology by cities is leading to unsustainable environmental and economic concerns, biotechnology has enabled new ways of envisioning data and energy storage. Zaheer Allam thus revisits the popular concept of Smart Cities -and its associated Internet of Things (IoT) to explore how the biological sciences, coupled with technology, can be applied to cities; and in doing so, create living urban organisms on an unprecedented scale. This new concept will open up exciting avenues to providing novel solutions for climate change mitigation. The book goes on to address various potential concerns and discusses what regulatory frameworks would be needed to safely implement such a concept. It will be a useful tool for planners, policy makers and engineers as well as for researchers with in interest in the future of our cities.

This book aims to explore how sustainability transitions can be explored in current and future cities and how research and policy approaches can be applied to change urban life as we know it, hence aligning the two thematic of urban science and future science, for achieving deep decarbonization. On this, the discourse on philosophy, ethics, and morality appertaining to sustainable cities and urban transitions, across disciplines, are also welcomed as it provides a deeper understanding of humanity in future scenarios. Chapter 08 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

In a world characterised by rapid urbanisation it is increasingly difficult to devise urban governance models which are resilient, safe and inclusive, and that also preserve the environment. This book takes Singapore, a leader in this field, as a case study, looking at its successes in urban governance and smart city planning. Through the lens of environmental sustainability, the author examines Singapore's recent adoption of technological tools, which have led to increased efficiency and performance, and have also supported its economic ambitions. The book unveils a unique and critical insight into Singapore's approach. Considering the historical, political and technological context, the author shares the techniques and key projects that have contributed to the all-important improvement of liveability levels in the city state.

This book explores how biotechnology can lead to the reimagination of cities. In a time where the increasing adoption of technology by cities is leading to unsustainable environmental and economic concerns, biotechnology has enabled new ways of envisioning data and energy storage. Zaheer Allam thus revisits the popular concept of Smart Cities -and its associated Internet of Things (IoT) to explore how the biological sciences, coupled with technology, can be applied to cities; and in doing so, create living urban organisms on an unprecedented scale. This new concept will open up exciting avenues to providing novel solutions for climate change mitigation. The book goes on to address various potential concerns and discusses what regulatory frameworks would be needed to safely implement such a concept. It will be a useful tool for planners, policy makers and engineers as well as for researchers with in interest in the future of our cities.

This book explores climate change responsiveness policies for cities and discusses why they have been slow to gain traction despite having been on the international agenda for the last 30 years. The contributing role of cities in accentuating the effects of climate change is increasingly demonstrated in the literature, underscoring the unsustainable models on which urban life has been made to thrive. As these issues become increasingly apparent, there are global calls to adopt more sustainable and equitable models, however doing so will mean the disruption of economies that have historically relied upon pollution-generating industries. In order to address these issues the authors examine them from a cross-disciplinary perspective, bringing in regional, local and urban standpoints to subsequently propose an alternative short-term economic model that could accelerate the adoption of climate change mitigation infrastructures and urban sustainability in urban areas. This book will be of particular value to scholars and students alike in the field of urbanism, sustainability and resilience, as well as practitioners looking at avenues for economically incentivizing sustainable development in various geographical context.