Smart Cities: Social and Environmental Challenges and Opportunities for Local Authorities

This edited volume discusses the socioeconomic, environmental, and policy implications of smart cities. Written by international experts in energy economics and policy, the chapters present wide range of high quality theoretical and empirical studies at the nexus of social, entrepreneurial, governmental and ecological transformation. The book covers a wide range of topics, with a view towards providing empirical evidence of the benefits of smart cities as well as practical frameworks for smart city initiatives. Topics discussed include: smart city transition pillars, innovation for smart and sustainable cities design and implementation, smart city governance, smart mobility within cities, and smart cities in emerging economies. This volume will be of use to students and researchers interested in resource economics, energy economics, sustainability, ICT, and governance, as well as policymakers working on smart city initiatives.

This is an open access book.

Fateh BelaÏd is a Full Professor of Economics at the Lille Catholic University, Director of the Smart & Sustainable Cities research unit, with appointments in Ecole des Ponts & Chaussées ParisTech, and Ecole Nationale des Sciences Géographiques (France). He is also a Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum. He received an HDR (Habilitation for Supervising Doctoral Research) from Orléans University, a Ph.D. in Economics and an M.S. degree in Applied Economics & Decision Theory from Littoral Côte d’Opale University, as well as M.S. degrees in Statistics from the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics. He is an energy and environmental economist drawing from the fields of applied microeconomics, energy modeling, and econometrics.

Anvita Arora is an architect and transport planner whose current areas of research at KAPSARC (Saudi Arabia) include smart cities, electric vehicles, and freight mobility. Before joining the Center in February 2018, she was the managing director and CEO of Innovative Transport Solutions (iTrans), an incubator company of IIT Delhi, where she led over 40 applied research and planning projects for 10 years for clients ranging from city level and country level authorities to funding agencies including the UNEP, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and DFID. Anvita has been teaching transport planning in the Urban Design Department of the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi for the past 12 years and was visiting faculty at the TERI University, Delhi. She was also associated with the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program (TRIPP) at IIT Delhi, a Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) Centre of Excellence, for nearly 12 years.