Smart Cities and Regional Development (SCRD) Open Access Publishing
Not a member yet
674 research outputs found
Sort by
The role of smart cities to promote smart governance in municipalities
Get PDFThe main focus of this paper is to provide a contextualized reflection about what smart cities are and their primary contribution in promoting smart governance.
Objectives
Objectives include amongst others, the definition of the smart city concept and how it can be used as a means to achieve more efficient and sustainable cities. It further elucidates the use of internet enhanced public service delivery to promote smart governance in municipalities.
Prior Work
This paper is built upon existing prior work that has been done in the emerging trends in smart cities. Researchers have identified several different “discourses” related to smart cities However, this paper delves deeper into how innovation and the concept of internet of things can enhance public service delivery. It further contextualizes the use of internet enabled public services with the purpose of making municipalities smart cities, with smart governance by offering smart services to its communities.
Approach
A qualitative research approach was used to fulfil the objectives of the paper through an in-depth desktop analysis of existing literature from recent journals.
Results
The research findings traverse that although a plethora of challenges remain, it is the amenability of both the political and administrative leadership and the gravity attached to technology that determines the extent of depth of transforming municipalities towards the goal of being smart cities.
Implications
The overall goal of this paper is to lay a foundation for the development of a comprehensive framework to redirect administrators and political office bearers towards smart city and smart governance inclined policy directives as suggested in the research findings. Inferences drawn from the paper will assist in further research in the field of innovation, smart cities and smart governance as wheels and machinery of service delivery.
Value
Finally, this paper attempts to merge theory and practice to work towards understanding of what a smart city means for South African cities through smart governance manage and minimize challenges confronted by municipalities through the use of technology
Bundling and tying in smart living
Get PDFSmart living is a trend promising more comfort, security, and energy efficiency in our everyday life through digitalization and the inter-connectivity of devices. From driverless cars to smart thermostats, from movable office to ecosystem of smart home, all of them are smart “objects” on which smart living and smart cities rely, involving original and innovative solutions aimed at making life more efficient, more controllable, economical, productive, integrated, and sustainable. Nowadays, these objects are not single products anymore but a series of integrated products, which can be tied or bundled. However, the bunding and tying are not traditional one, like ordinary merchandise or software tying in the landmark case Microsoft. It can be between software and hardware, as well as with a more complicated structure. For the smart objects the bundling and tying may be not limited in bilateral ones but also can be multilateral. This paper aims to discuss bundling and tying products in a smart city life, and mainly the commercial reality of such smart products on how the components are bundled and tied. After, it analyses the structure of bundling and tying in some smart products to confirm whether there is a main product, which can be either a hardware or a software, or net-shaped like in the ecosystem of smart home. Based on these commercial realities, this paper discusses whether multilateral bundling and tying related to smart objects may be a threat to a competition order and mainly to violate Articles 102 TFEU
Local culture and behaviour intention to adopt e-government
Get PDFIn general, the basic concept of various theories of E-government adoption is individual reaction to use E-government as an independent variable, then intention (behavioral intention) to use E-government as an intermediary variable. The development of e-government adoption theory is developing dynamically. Scholars have developed several models to find out more about the reasons for individuals to accept and use technology and to find out what factors have a significant influence. In this paper, the author will discuss the theory of The unified model of e-government adoption (UMEGA) by adding the variables Perceived Enjoyment (TAM 3) and Habit (UTAUT 2). These variables measure internal factors and external factors that in previous studies had a high level of influence on the use of e-government. The finding in this study is that the social influence variable has a significant impact on attitudes to using e-government. More specifically, local culture is one factor that also has an inhibiting effect on the implementation of e-government. People prefer to use offline services compared to online/e-service/e-government services. This is because the public is worried about the risks experienced, such as data security, the possibility of system failure in public services, and other risk issues that develop in the community. In addition, the community also prefers to come directly to the service office due to public trust related to local cultures, such as (Ewuh Pakewuh, desire to stay in touch with other visitors, shy culture, etc.). If it is assumed, local culture, especially in Yogyakarta, is contrary to the culture of applying technology widely adopted by western countries, which are more open to modern culture, especially technology
The Contribution of Oil Signs to the Petroleum Prospect in the Erindi Region, Albania
Get PDFMany wells have been drilled in Albania to search oil traps in the carbonate reservoirs of the Ionian area. One of them is the Nokova-1 well, drilled in the overflow front of the Berati anticline belt. Geographically it is in Erindi region, southern Albania.
Nokova-1 well has passed flysch deposits of Oligocene (Pg3) and carbonate deposits of Eocene - Paleocene (Pg1-Pg2). To conclude in the results presented at this paper, various geological and geochemical studies have been studied.
During the drilling and testing processes, signs of oil and hydrocarbon gas have appeared, which contribute to the oil-bearing perspective of the region.
Limited quantities of crude oil were obtained during the testing process. Samples taken from this oil were determined density, from which API was calculated. Also hydrocarbon composition was performed. According to samples analysis, are determined parameters of density (0.923 gr/cm3), API (21.8) and hydrocarbon composition as follows: saturate (49.20 %), aromatics (27.9%), saturate + aromatics (77.10 %), NSO-comp (14.86%), asphalt (7.95%), saturate/aromatics (1.763441%) and NSO-comp + asphalt (22.81%).
The results of the hydrocarbon composition were correlated with those of the oil traps (carbonate reservoirs) in Albania.
From this correlation we have concluded that the crude oil taken from the Nokova-1 well is light oil, it is not biodegradable. Nokova-1 well oil correlates with oil of oil traps in Amonica, Cakrani, Mollaj, which have been interpreted as oil traps of younger geological age.
In conclusion, it can be said that the oil samples taken from the Nokova-1 well are results from the contribution of an oil trap that can be located at depth, or the result of new phases of hydrocarbon migration
Establishing Participative Smart Cities: Theory and Practice
Get PDFIn recent years, there have been efforts carried out by international organisations, like the OECD or the EU, to push for smart cities to take inclusion as one of their core pillars. This raises the question of a newly discussed concept: participative (or participation) smart cities. More specifically, it raises the question of whether such a setting or program is feasible , and how passive participants can be transformed into active stakeholder.Hence, the objective of this article is to investigate whether participative smart cities exist in 2021 and what drives their success. In order to answer the research question, this article intends to assess the level of citizen participation in a sample of selected smart cities. Based on existing knowledge, a framework listing the most common citizen participative practices, and with the help of a case design of each selected cities, we establish how participative smart cities are feasible and whether there are institutional and political characteristics that make them differ from smart cities that lack participative processes. We find that institutional determinants are key for cities willing to establish participative platforms involving citizens in the city management processes. The article concludes that if smart cities want to follow international organisations recommendations to make cities more inclusive and participatory, institutional reforms must be conducted
Digital Marketing and Outdoor Advertising in Smart Cities
Get PDFThe paper focuses on analyzing the key aspects digital marketing, outdoor advertising and smart cities. It studies the foundations traditional marketing - the establishment of its theoretical framework and its development throughout the years. The articles aims at finding out what is the crossing point between digital outdoor advertising, urban areas and smart cities residents. It puts main focus on the promotional part of the mix and analyzes the new approaches in terms of using online channels. Through content analysis the main aspects of digital marketing, smart cities and outdoor advertising are being studied – the development of the definition of marketing; what digital is; the difference between digital and online; what the new opportunities before marketers in using online channels are, as part of the digital ones. The paper suggests an additional component of smart cities – interactivity. It sets examples from outdoor traditional advertising and digital advertising that is placed on cities’ billboards, buildings and public transport with main focus on interactivity.
The articles is to be of interest to academicians, practitioners and students in the sphere of marketing, advertising, sales promotion and communication
The new advanced Cities From the Green and Digital to the Smart Cities
Get PDFThe city has always brought within itself the characteristics of the historical period in which it existed and of the population that inhabited it. In the last years new kind of cities were born, some of them are called green, some others digital and then some are the Smart Cities. The latter has the same features of the first two cities, but them are also committed into satisfying the expectations of its population and caring about citizens’ welfare first. The Smart Cities are the result of technological progress and the search for environmental sustainability. The city was born as a consequence, almost obvious, of the improvement of human skills: many nearby houses represented a possibility of bringing together resources and abilities in an almost uninhabited land.
Small villages have become towns, cities and metropolitan cities in which all the technological discoveries were applied and made concrete in the services that these cities could then offer to their inhabitants. The cities, and its various existing types, up to the green cities and digital cities and finally the Smart Cities will be described, as the apex of the discoveries of the digital and sustainable people, who respects the environment in which they live, indeed, which regenerates the environment from past pollution. In these cities, people live within a virtual environment too.
These cities are in continuous evolution, extremely rapid, in a competition to each other, made up of skills and technological discoveries, which contain within their borders innovative services for all of its inhabitants, and all its stakeholders. This paper discovers the way of the first inhabited centers towards Smart Cities
The perspectives of sustainable territorial development in smart cities
Get PDFObjectives This paper aims to define the perspectives and peculiarities of optimizing territorial development and increasing sustainability in a smart city context. The importance of localizing the UN SDGs, the increasing popularity of the smart city concept associated with the ICT revolution as well as the need of finding out-of-the-box solutions to resolve the challenges faced by communities make this research scope highly relevant. Prior work The previous research shows that the smart city approach implementation may have sustainability-oriented and sustainability-lacking scenarios. The smart city concept may not always have linear impacts on sustainability. It is needed to further contribute to the scientific discussion focusing on particular smart city cases to provide recommendations for municipalities on how the territorial development can be sustainably optimized. Methodology The paper considers the practical cases of the three smart cities such as Espoo (Finland), Dundee (UK) and Bristol (UK). The literature review, analysis of public sources, case study, and in-depth interviews with the representatives of these cities are used to analyze, in terms of sustainability, the dimensions such as the strategic positioning, advancements and challenges, partnership and stakeholders involvement. Results It is determined that sustainable territorial development has huge potential of being reached and accelerated within the smart city environment. However, unleashing such potential may be threatened by lack of a particular sustainability agenda, misinterpretation of smart city as only a technological issue while the sustainability and inclusivity by-design vectors are missed. Overall, the strategies and practices of territorial development in these cities were considered. The concluding recommendations are likely to be useful for municipal authorities of other territories while intentionally applying smart solutions to reach more sustainable human-centric community development that will be beneficial for the vast number of Quadruple Helix stakeholders
Informal collaboration: building a smart city through self-organized stakeholders
Get PDFToday, cities are working on becoming more adapted to urban change and sustainable challenges. To do so, many have undertaken projects, supported by governments, intended to digitalize the interactions, optimize local resources, and become smart accordingly (e.g., Barcelona, Aarhus, and Oslo, etc.). Although most smart city initiatives follow top-down mechanisms, we notice interestingly the emergence of bottom-up processes and self-organized actions. In fact, cities are complex systems that possess qualities of self-organization [1]. Self-organized stakeholders (e.g., citizens, universities, private/public firms, NGOs), through informal collaboration, are capable of conducting innovative projects leading to a smart city. This dynamic has enabled citizens to be more involved in policymaking and to impose, using ICT-based solutions, a new model of governance (i.e., smart governance). In this regard, this conceptual paper contributes to the smart city literature by highlighting the role of informal collaboration between stakeholders in implementing smart initiatives. Eventually, our research will provide guidance in designing smart cities and serve as basis for future empirical studies
Strategies for transforming the traditional workplace into a virtual workplace in smart cities
Get PDFVirtual workplace adoption has created many challenges as well as excellent opportunities for organizations. The purpose of this study is to implement a business digitalization strategy so that micro, small and medium enterprises intending to adopt virtual workplace can use as guidelines. To help managers address this challenge more systematically, we describe how organizations successfully adopt virtual workplace in smart cities. Mostexisting studies examined the role of virtual workplace on business performance and worker productivity. We focus specifically on the implementation strategies as the under?researched areas of academic inquiry.We adapted the 11 strategic questions from the study of Hess, Matt, Benlian and Wiesböck and provide possible answers from various relevant studies, so mangers can use as guidelines when formulating a virtual workplace strategy.A survey of the literature was conducted and relevant study results providing the implementation guidelines for adopting the virtual workplace are presented. Findings from the research can help managers better understand the successful implementation of the virtual workplace. Because transforming traditional workplace into virtual workplace brings challenges and as well as opportunities, it is important for managers to understand them completely in order to eliminate the risks and increase the favorable effects