Disruptive Technologies for Efficient and Sustainable Smart Cities

Abstract

Purpose: The most active and rapid development in today's world is happening in Smart cities. Smart Cities are changing very fast in every aspect, be it development, operations, and or maintenance points of view. Today's Smart Cities are aiming to be at an advanced stage of urbanization and fully exploiting digital infrastructure for rapid urban development. In order to make the cities better places to live and to offer more comfortable and enjoyable living for their residents, Smart Cities are using and employing various tools and technologies to make themselves smarter and more connected with their stakeholders using technology means. Industry 4.0, Digital Transformation, and various latest technologies such as 5G, Data Analytics, IoT, AI, and Machine Learning, Digital Twins, etc. are transforming and shaping up Smart Cities in never before style. In this paper, various such key technologies that are positively affecting Smart Cities are discussed at length. It is also highlighted in detail how these technologies are impacting Smart Cities development and operations. Finally, future research directions are also discussed in brief.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Extensive exploration of available literature with research papers, conference papers, white papers, online blogs, dedicated websites, etc. on the research area and interactions with field researchers, subject matter experts, industry professionals is carried out to collect, analyse and process the collected data to find out the facts. The resulted facts and findings about the latest technologies used in Smart Cities is presented in this research paper. 

Findings/Result: After analysis of available literature and based on interactions with relevant stakeholders and based on own data analysis, it is identified that Smart City services are making use of various latest tools and technologies to solve their real-life challenges. Among vast list of technologies specifically IoT, Blockchain, Digital Twins, 5G, Contactless Technology, AI and ML are found the most significant and widely used technologies in Smart Cities development, operations, and maintenance activities.

Originality/Value: It is found that not many research papers are available on analysis of future technologies used in Smart Cities. The data presented in this paper is genuine and original and completely based on systematic literature review, interactions with SME, Researchers and Industry experts and based on own data analysis which produced new findings.

Paper Type:  Technology oriented Research