As the term “smart city” gains wider and wider currency, there is still confusion about what a smart city is, especially since several similar terms are often used interchangeably. This paper aims to clarify the meaning of the word “smart” in the context of cities through an approach based on an in-depth literature review of relevant studies as well as official documents of international institutions. It also identifies the main dimensions and elements characterizing a smart city. The different metrics of urban smartness are reviewed to show the need for a shared definition of what constitutes a smart city, what are its features, and how it performs in comparison to traditional cities. Furthermore, performance measures and initiatives in a few smart cities are identified.

Smart Cities: Definitions, Dimensions, Performance, and Initiatives

Towards sustainable smart cities: A review of trends, architectures, components, and open challenges in smart cities

What are the differences between sustainable and smart cities

Smart sustainable cities of the future: An extensive interdisciplinary literature review

This article is focused on the importance and influence of Industry 4.0 and consequently the Internet-connected technologies for the creation of value added for organizations and society. The contribution of the article is mainly conceptual. With the development of the Internet, the Internet of things that is central to the new industrial revolution has led to “Industry 4.0.” The aim of this article is to synthesize the known theory and practices of Industry 4.0, and to investigate the changes that will result from Industry 4.0 and with the development of the Internet of things.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244016653987

A Complex View of Industry 4.0

https://iris.polito.it/bitstream/11583/2522888/1/SmartCity_Trends_%20paper.pdf

Current trends in Smart City initiatives: some stylised facts

Urban freight distribution accounts for a significant share of pollution and congestion in urban areas. To reduce these negative impacts, municipalities have implemented several City Logistics (CL) measures. This paper presents the empirical analysis of a dataset of 70 European cities that have been piloting or rolling out a CL measure, to provide an updated indication of the status of CL initiatives and analyse the diffusion of CL internationally. The research objective is also to help understand the contextual factors might explain their introduction. To this end, a set of City Logistics Indices (CLI) is used as indicators of the breadth and number of CL measures implemented in a city. A statistical correlation of these CLIs with respect to a set of independent variables, namely the contextual factors, is also performed. Results reveal that the level of pollution, the diffusion of e-commerce and GDP are important drivers of CL deployment.

/pdf/classification-and-benchmark-of-city-logistics-measures-an-2yaf35ca5i.pdf

Classification and benchmark of City Logistics measures: an empirical analysis

Many innovative technologies have been successfully adopted in logistics and supply chain management processes to increase efficiency, reduce costs or enhance communication. In recent years, consid...

A systematic literature review of innovative technologies adopted in logistics management

Purpose – This study aims at capturing the perspectives of construction professionals into a classified taxonomy of the various characteristics of smart buildings and at developing an index able to define their level of smartness. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey has been administrated to construction professionals in the service of designers, constructors and owners. Results have been analyzed with the Kruskal–Wallis test and they have been used to develop a smartness index. Findings – Designers and owners are more focused on the energy issue than constructors. The energy captures the attention of practitioners with less years of experience, confirming that the awareness of the energy topic is rather recent. Originality/value – The main characteristics of smart buildings have been structured in domains and subdomains. Their importance has been rated by construction professional and a smartness index for smart building has been developed to provide with a convenient tool for evaluation...

/pdf/assessing-the-smartness-of-buildings-jhjsxzz4t0.pdf

Assessing the smartness of buildings

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to investigate the diffusion dynamics of electric and hybrid commercial vans and its enabling factors in the city logistics (CL) contexts The case of parcel delivery in Torino, Italy, is considered Attention is paid to the influence on the choice of low impact vehicles of not only public strategies but also operational aspects characterizing urban freight distribution systems




Design/methodology/approach




A System Dynamics model based on the Bass diffusion theory computes the number of adopters of low-emission vehicles together with the quantity of vans required and the associated economic savings The model includes variables about freight demand, delivery frequency, van carrying capacity, routes, stops, distances traveled, and vehicle charging stations A sensitivity analysis has been completed to identify the main diffusion levers The focus is on advertising and other drivers, such as public contributions, taxes traditional polluting vehicles are subjected to, as well as on routing optimization strategies




Findings




Advertising programs, green image, and word-of-mouth drive market saturation, although in a long time period In fact, low-impact vehicles do not offer any economic advantage over traditional ones requiring higher investment and operating costs Public incentives to purchase both green vehicles and charging stations, together with carbon taxes and a congestion charge affecting polluting vehicles, are able to shorten the adoption time In particular, public intervention reveals to be effective only when it unfolds through a number of measures that both facilitate the use of environmentally friendly vehicles and discourage the adoption of traditional commercial vans Route optimization also hastens the complete market saturation




Research limitations/implications




This work fosters research about the mutual relationships between the diffusion of low-emission commercial vehicles and the operational and contextual CL factors It provides a structured approach for investigating the feasibility of innovative good vehicles that might be part of assessments of CL measures and requirements Finally, the model supports studies about the cooperation among stakeholders to identify effective commercial vehicle fleets




Practical implications




This study fosters collaboration among CL players by providing a roadmap to identify the key factors for the diffusion of environmentally friendly freight vehicles It also enables freight carriers to assess the operational and economic feasibility of adopting low-impact vehicles Finally, it might assist public authorities in capturing the effects of new urban transportation policies prior to their implementation




Originality/value




Most of the current CL literature defines policies and analyzes their effects Also, there are several contributions on the diffusion of low emission cars The present study is one of the first works on the diffusion of low-impact commercial vehicles in urban areas by considering the associated key operational factors A further value is that the proposed model combines operational variables with economic and environmental issues

Giulio Mangano

Papers

Current trends in Smart City initiatives: some stylised facts

Classification and benchmark of City Logistics measures: an empirical analysis

A systematic literature review of innovative technologies adopted in logistics management

Assessing the smartness of buildings

Analyzing the diffusion of eco-friendly vans for urban freight distribution