Application Analysis of IoT Technology in Smart Cities

Chapter 5 - Blockchain-based energy-efficient smart green city in IoT environments

This paper aims to explore the most important disruptive technologies in the development of the smart city. Every smart city is a dynamic and complex system that attracts an increasing number of people in search of the benefits of urbanisation. According to the United Nations, 68% of the world population will be living in cities by 2050. This creates challenges related to limited resources and infrastructure (energy, water, transportation system, etc.). To solve these problems, new and emerging technologies are created. Internet of Things, big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and machine and cognitive learning are just a few examples. They generate changes in key sectors such as health, energy, transportation, education, public safety, etc. Based on a comprehensive literature review, we identified the main disruptive technologies in smart cities. Applications that integrate these technologies help cities to be smarter and offer better living conditions and easier access to products and services for residents. Disruptive technologies are generally considered key drivers in smart city progress. This paper presents these disruptive technologies, their applications in smart cities, the most important challenges and critics.

An exploration of smart city approaches by international ICT firms

Cities worldwide are rapidly integrating urban management information technology (IT) systems to address increasing urban challenges effectively. This paper examines the evolution of these systems, from the Ubiquitous City (U-City) to contemporary Smart Cities, and explores emerging technologies like the Metaverse and Digital Twin. Despite their growing relevance, there is ambiguity in their conceptual definitions and how they are applied interchangeably in urban management contexts. This study aims to clarify these technologies by analyzing U-City, Smart City, Metaverse, and Digital Twin within an Analysis Framework of Urban Management IT Systems. Our analysis reveals distinct roles and interconnections among these technologies. U-City initiated the development of essential IT infrastructure, laying the groundwork for subsequent systems. Smart City technology, leveraging the infrastructure provided by U-City, addresses real urban issues but lacks predictive capabilities for future challenges. In contrast, the Metaverse facilitates the simulation of urban changes and planning in a virtual environment, influencing real-world city development. Digital Twin technology enhances the operational efficiency of U-City and Smart City by simulating real-world data and optimizing urban management processes. The study highlights that while U-City and Smart City function in the tangible realm, Metaverse and Digital Twin operate in the virtual domain, yet they are closely integrated. Metaverse assists in urban planning through simulations that inform real-world Smart City designs, while Digital Twin optimizes real-time city operations and informs Metaverse simulations for future planning. The findings underscore the importance of understanding these technologies’ unique contributions and their interplay. Although current urban management IT systems have limitations, especially in technology classification and data accessibility, this research paves the way for future investigations. Further research should focus on refining the definitions and applications of Metaverse and Digital Twin, clarifying their relationships with Smart City and U-City, and addressing security and privacy concerns associated with these technologies.

Cyber security in smart cities: A review of deep learning-based applications and case studies

Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G communication technologies in smart cities deliver promising services for heterogeneous applications. The application reliability banks on uninterrupted and seamless services experienced by the users. However, the increasing smart city application demands influence the experience reliability through augmented wait times. This article therefore introduces a Coherent Reliability Service Broadcasting Technique (CRSBT) for sustaining constructive application services. This technique incorporates linear regressive and digressive learning for application service improvements and restrictions. Based on the demand, the regressive process verifies the wait time and with the reducing demands, the service broadcast ratio is verified. These two factors are verified post the demand and response through 5G resource allocations and IoT computations. Both the service-oriented features are validated for regressive service broadcast and either of the one is used for digressive response. The coherence between the computations (IoT) and resources (5G) is verified on-demand and linearly. Therefore, the proposed technique is reliable in sustaining service broadcast, less wait time, and maximum flexibility.

A smart city is a complex system that combines various technologies to provide services and address urban challenges. It aims to minimize human involvement in management, operations, and finance. Blockchain technology is a key component of this system, simplifying procedures and reducing costs through asset decentralization. It enhances transparency, security, and eliminates data duplication. However, implementing blockchain technology in smart cities can be challenging due to lack of knowledge about governing organizations' physical structures. The chapter discusses current trends and challenges in implementing blockchain technology in smart cities, highlighting its potential to aid modernizing network technology and infrastructure management systems.

As urbanization accelerates, smart cities are increasingly turning to innovative technologies to enhance city management, governance, and citizen engagement. This paper explores the application of blockchain technology in smart cities, particularly its interaction with the Internet of Things (IoT). Despite significant strides in utilizing blockchain for specific applications, existing frameworks often focus on narrow sectors, such as energy management or data security, lacking a holistic integration across municipal functions. This research identifies a critical gap in existing literature: the need for a comprehensive blockchain framework that connects multiple urban sectors, facilitates secure data exchange, and empowers citizens through decentralized systems. The proposed framework underscores the potential of blockchain to create a transparent, efficient, and citizen-friendly urban environment by implementing decentralized identity management, smart contracts for public services, and innovative citizen engagement platforms. By addressing this gap, the study contributes to the discourse on smart city development by providing an adaptable model that can be tailored to the unique needs of diverse urban environments.

Initially, the concept of Smart Cities (urban settlement) originated from the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, however, the use of IoT technology can be extended to the concept of Smart Villages (rural settlement) as well, improving the life of the villagers, and the communities as a whole. Yet, the rural settlements have slightly different requirements than the urban like settlements. If application of IoT in Smart Cities can be characterized by densification of IoT to day-to-day life, following cities’ structural characteristics of being densely settled places, IoT empowered Smart Villages are usually a system of dispersion and deficiency. In this manner, this research paper will address and discuss different application areas of IoT technology, identifying differences, but also similarities in both ecosystems, while trying to illuminate the standardization efforts that can be applicable in both contexts. In our text we will propose the following IoT application domains, which will also serve as a base for research on smart villages: 1. Natural Resources and Energy, 2. Transport and Mobility, 3. Smart Building, 4. Daily Life, 5. Government, and 6. Economy and Society. By providing an overview of technical solutions that support smart solutions in Smart Cities and Smart Villages this research paper will evaluate how, with IoT empowered Smart Villages and Smart Cities, an overall improvement of quality of life of their inhabitants can be achieved.

Chapter 16 - Applications of blockchain technology for smart cities in a nutshell

The convergence of Smart Cities and the Internet of Things (IoT) represents a revolutionary leap in urban development, reshaping the way cities function and interact with their inhabitants. This paper provides a concise overview of the landscape, focusing on emerging technologies and challenges within the realm of Smart Cities and IoT integration. Smart Cities leverage IoT technologies to enhance efficiency, sustainability, and the overall quality of urban life. This review explores the key components of this transformative shift, including sensor networks, data analytics, and advanced connectivity solutions. It examines how these technologies facilitate real-time data collection, enabling cities to make informed decisions for optimized resource management and improved citizen services. However, the path to realizing the full potential of Smart Cities and IoT is not without challenges. Privacy concerns arise as urban environments become more interconnected, raising questions about data security and individual rights. Additionally, the proliferation of IoT devices introduces potential vulnerabilities that demand robust cybersecurity measures. This study serves as a concise guide for policymakers, urban planners, and technology stakeholders, offering insights into both the promising innovations and the critical challenges associated with the integration of Smart Cities and IoT technologies. As cities globally navigate the complexities of this paradigm shift, understanding these dynamics is crucial for fostering sustainable, resilient, and technologically advanced urban environments.

Rapid urbanization has brought about an influx of people to cities, tipping the scale between urban and rural living. Population predictions estimate that 64% of the global population will reside in cities by 2050. To meet the growing resource needs, improve management, reduce complexities, and eliminate unnecessary costs while enhancing the quality of life of citizens, cities are increasingly exploring open innovation frameworks and smart city initiatives that target priority areas including transportation, sustainability, and security. The size and heterogeneity of urban centers impede progress of technological innovations for smart cities. We propose a Smart Stadium as a living laboratory to balance both size and heterogeneity so that smart city solutions and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies may be deployed and tested within an environment small enough to practically trial but large and diverse enough to evaluate scalability and efficacy. The Smart Stadium for Smart Living initiative brings together multiple institutions and partners including Arizona State University (ASU), Dublin City University (DCU), Intel Corporation, and Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), to turn ASU’s Sun Devil Stadium and Ireland’s Croke Park Stadium into twinned smart stadia to investigate IoT and smart city technologies and applications.

By exploiting the ubiquitous nature of Internet of Things (IoT) technology in smart cities, we propose a Multi-Agent Auction-based Parking (MAPark) system for drivers as well as public and private Parking Facility Providers (PFP). In order to improve parking space allocation, the new idea in this paper is to incorporate parking auction with highly influential factors such as type of customer and parking, drivers' and PFP's preferences. MAPark leverages real-time demand-based pricing of parking spots, thus charging demand-based price to drivers while providing higher revenue to PFPs. The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of parking auction through sophisticated software agents that are capable of quickly and seamlessly performing tasks such as parking lookup, negotiation, pricing, and reservation. Simulation results show that the proposed scalable and interactive agents of MAPark enables efficient processing of a vast amount of data, providing cost savings in terms of time and fuel for drivers looking for parking, ultimately lowering traffic congestion, and improving usability of public and private parking facilities.

Accelerated growth of urban population in the world put incremental stresses on metropolitan cities. Smart city centric strategies are expected to comprise solutions to sustainable environment and urban life. Acting as an indispensable role in smart city, IoT (Internet of Things) connects the executive ability of the physical world and the intelligence of the computational world, aiming to enlarge the capabilities of things in real city and strengthen the practicality of functions in cyber world. One of the important application areas of IoT in cities is food industry. Municipality governors are withstanding all kinds of food safety issues and enduring the hardest time ever due to the lack of sufficient guidance and supervision. IoT systems help to monitor, analyze, and manage the real food industry in cities. In this paper, a smart sensor data collection strategy for IoT is proposed, which would improve the efficiency and accuracy of provenance with the minimized size of data set at the same time. We then present algorithms of tracing contamination source and back tracking potential infected food in the markets. Our strategy and algorithms are evaluated with a comprehensive evaluation case of this IoT system, which shows that this system performs well even with big data as well.

Urban ecosystems face mounting challenges due to rapid urbanization, climate change, and the degradation of green infrastructure. In response, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a pivotal tool to support sustainable and resilient urban horticultural planning. This article explores how AI technologies—such as machine learning, neural networks, computer vision, and geospatial analytics—are reshaping the future of urban green infrastructure, optimizing plant selection, maintenance, irrigation, and ecological design. The main objective of this research is to analyze how AI applications can enhance urban horticultural practices and contribute to climate-resilient urban ecosystems. A mixed-methods approach was used, including an extensive literature review of studies from 2010 to 2024, meta-analysis of current technologies in smart cities, and case studies from cities integrating AI in green planning. The findings show that AI integration leads to improved plant health monitoring, precision irrigation, predictive modeling of urban biodiversity, and better spatial planning of green zones. AI also enables real-time response to climatic shifts, thereby strengthening ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, cooling effects, and stormwater management. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration, ethical use of data, and scalable AI-driven models tailored to regional ecosystems. Future directions highlight integrating indigenous plant knowledge, IoT-driven horticulture, and citizen science platforms to build more inclusive and adaptive green urban futures.