This book examines the leadership practices and foresight needed for smart cities. The book begins by exploring the evolving definition of a smart city. Then, it considers the problems with smart cities and the need for foresight in the management of these cities. The last part of the book offers a model of strategic foresight based on understanding, anticipating, and shaping the future, with applicability to organizations. This book offers a new conception of smart cities that will appeal to researchers and policymakers interested in futures thinking and strategy.

This book seeks to identify and to examine factors and mechanisms underlying the growth and development of smart cities. It is commonplace to discuss smart cities through the lens of advances in ICT. The resulting overemphasis on what is technologically possible downplays what is politically, socially and economically feasible. This book, by analysing the smart city through a variety of perspectives, offers a more comprehensive insight into and understanding of the complex and the open-ended nature of the growth and development of a smart city. A solid conceptual framework is developed and employed throughout the chapters, and a selection of case studies from Europe, Asia, and the Arab Peninsula grants the readers a hands-on perspective of the matters discussed. The chapters included in this book address a set of questions, including: How do the twin-processes of digitalization and smartification unfold in the context of the smart city agenda? How do these processes relate to the concepts of smart city 1.0, 2.0., 3.0. and 4.0? In which ways have the spatial aspects of city functioning been influenced by the intrusion of ICT? In which ways do the same processes contribute to the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? What are the implications of smartification and the emergence of smart organizations (public, private, and voluntary) for the spatial development of smart cities? Do ICT and its application in the city space boost the processes of revitalization and how does ICT influence the process of gentrification? To what extent and how does the intrusion of ICT-enhanced tools and applications in the city space impact on a city’s relationship with its broader territorially defined context? Are the administrative borders and divisions inherent in the fabric of a city becoming less/more porous? How should urban sprawl be conceived in the context of the smart city debate? This book will have a broad appeal to academics, students, and policy makers with interests in urban planning, sustainable development, cities, economics, technology, sociology, urban studies, digitalization, SDGs, wellbeing, and resilience.

This book examines smart cities through the lens of the information and communication technology (ICT)-driven transformation of the economy and economic systems and the resulting changes influencing organizations (public, private, and voluntary) and citizens in the smart city. In this context, the chapters included in this book address very specific questions pertaining to modes and models of economic collaboration, interest aggregation, and determinants of sustainable growth and development in the smart city. To this end, the circular economy, the sharing economy, the platform economy, and open innovation in the smart city are discussed. The notions of economic performance, competition, and business model innovation (BMI) are elaborated in detail. Finally, the question of the fragility of labor markets, including the availability of talent, is explored. By applying conceptually sound, inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches, frequently including case studies, this book provides a thorough insight into the complex question of how tools specific to the fields of economics, business management, innovation management, strategic management, entrepreneurship, and human resource management can be useful in view of understanding and harnessing the intrusion of ICT in the city space.

This book argues that accelerating action toward sustainability for and by cities and their inhabitants can make a huge difference to humanity’s endeavor to recover from current crises and build a sustainable future. It sheds light on cutting-edge concepts and actions toward sustainability that can taken by and for cities and with citizens. In this book, author Voula Mega takes the reader on a journey inside and across cities and highlights efforts toward a paradigmatic shift that reconciles human systems with nature. Leadership, education, innovation, trust and citizen empowerment all play a crucial role for the co-invention of a new model that balances human well-being, sustainable prosperity and the future of the planet. Building on robust evidence and inspired by best practices, Human Sustainable Cities offers compelling messages and convincing advice to all stakeholders who are striving to overcome crises, speed up the path toward resilience and preparedness and bounce forward better.

Future Challenges in Sustainable Development within the Built Environment stimulates and reinterprets the demands of Responsible and Sustainable Development in the Built Environment for future action and development. It examines the methods of evaluation, the use of technology, the creation of new models and the role of human factors for examining and developing the subject over the next twenty years.

Smart Cities and the UN's SDGs explores how smart cities initiatives intersect with the global goal of making urbanization inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. Topics explored include digital governance, e-democracy, health care access, public-private partnerships, well-being, and more. Examining smart cities concepts, tools, strategies, and obstacles and their applicability to sustainability, the book exposes key structural problems that cities face and how the imperative of sustainability can bypass them. It shows how smart city technological innovation can boost citizens' well-being, serving as a key reference for those seeking to make sense of the issues and challenges of smart cities and SDGs. - Includes numerous case studies from around the world - Features interdisciplinary insights from academic and practitioner experts - Offers an extensive literature review

Acknowledging the smart cities phenomenon not as a future goal but as an active part of our present, this book critically examines the strategies, business models, practices, tools, and actions needed to ensure that smart cities deliver the solutions they promise.