The Energy and Environmental Implications of Smart Cities

Dear Colleagues,

Cities cannot be exempt from the effects of technology in the 21st century, as technology is ubiquitous and technological advances have transformed almost all aspects of modern society. This transformative capacity has shown that some contemporary urban challenges, such as the lack of access to affordable and reliable energy resources, climate change, and environmental pollution can be solved or at least moderated through smart city initiatives. However, these promising implications of smart cities are still controversial and subject to many criticisms and doubts. In other words, the energy and environmental implications of smart cities are complex and multi-faceted, requiring careful consideration and balanced approaches to ensure positive outcomes for both citizens and the environment. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to understand to what extent previous smart city initiatives have been able to simultaneously improve the energy and environmental performance of cities, and more importantly, how this can be further enhanced in future smart city developments. We would like to invite you to submit research, review, and case study papers on (but not limited to) the following topics:

1. The energy and environmental trade-offs of smart cities;
2. Smart city and energy and climate justice;
3. Smart city and energy and climate resilience;
4. Net zero/net positive energy districts;
5. The energy and environmental implications of smart architecture, urban design, and urban spatial and land use planning;
6. The energy and environmental implications of intelligent transportation systems and smart mobility;
7. The role of smart microgrids and energy storage technologies in urban energy planning;
8. Artificial intelligence, machine/deep learning, and remote sensing applications for urban renewable energy harvesting;
9. Measuring/comparing the energy efficiency and carbon neutrality performance of green and smart building construction codes, standards, and rating systems;
10. Introducing novel and innovative smart city development strategies, policies, and actions that can be adopted by local governments to achieve SDGs 7, 11, and 13;
11. Case studies: The extent of success of smart city projects and urban smartening efforts in improving urban energy performance and/or environmental sustainability.

This Special Issue will focus on the application of advancements in technologies and digital infrastructures to urban energy and environmental analytics and planning. Those technologies include but are not limited to smart buildings, intelligent transportation and traffic management systems, renewable energy systems and smart microgrids, remote sensing data gathering and analysis methods, AI, IoT devices and sensors, location intelligence, digital twins, and citizen engagement platforms. This Special Issue, however, aims to de-emphasize the frequently all-encompassing techno-centric views on smart cities. We welcome passive and smart energy, social, environmental, and city planning and management policies, techniques and solutions that could improve urban energy and environmental performance without necessarily relying on advanced technologies. Among these improvements are enhanced connectivity and walkability, thermal comfort, natural ventilation, and decreased vehicle dependence, GHG emissions, urban heat islands, environmental pollution, and energy consumption.

Dr. Saeed Esfandi
Prof. Dr. John Byrne
Dr. Job Taminiau
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• energy planning
• smart city
• energy efficiency
• environment
• technology
• urban planning
• smart mobility
• SDGs