s43762-021-00001-2

Bibri Computational Urban Science (2021) 1:1 Computational Urban
https://doi.org/10.1007/s43762-021-00001-2
Science
REVIEW Open Access
The core academic and scientific disciplines

underlying data-driven smart sustainable
urbanism: an interdisciplinary and
transdisciplinary framework
Simon Elias Bibri1,2
Abstract
A new era is presently unfolding wherein both smart urbanism and sustainable urbanism processes and practices
are becoming highly responsive to a form of data-driven urbanism under what has to be identified as data-driven
smart sustainable urbanism. This flourishing field of research is profoundly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary in
nature. It operates out of the understanding that advances in knowledge necessitate pursuing multifaceted
questions that can only be resolved from the vantage point of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. This implies
that the research problems within the field of data-driven smart sustainable urbanism are inherently too complex
and dynamic to be addressed by single disciplines. As this field is not a specific direction of research, it does not
have a unitary disciplinary framework in terms of a uniform set of the academic and scientific disciplines from
which the underlying theories can be drawn. These theories constitute a unified foundation for the practice of
data-driven smart sustainable urbanism. Therefore, it is of significant importance to develop an interdisciplinary and
transdisciplinary framework. With that in regard, this paper identifies, describes, discusses, evaluates, and
thematically organizes the core academic and scientific disciplines underlying the field of data-driven smart
sustainable urbanism. This work provides an important lens through which to understand the set of established
and emerging disciplines that have high integration, fusion, and application potential for informing the processes
and practices of data-driven smart sustainable urbanism. As such, it provides fertile insights into the core
foundational principles of data-driven smart sustainable urbanism as an applied domain in terms of its scientific,
technological, and computational strands. The novelty of the proposed framework lies in its original contribution to
the body of foundational knowledge of an emerging field of urban planning and development.
Keywords: Data-driven smart sustainable urbanism, Smart urbanism, Sustainable urbanism, Scientific disciplines,
Academic disciplines, Urban science, Data-intensive science, Sustainability, Big data analytics
Correspondence: simoe@ntnu.no
1
Department of Computer Science, The Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, Sem Saelands veie 9, NO–7491 Trondheim, Norway
2
Department of Architecture and Planning, The Norwegian University of
Science and Technology, Alfred Getz vei 3, Sentralbygg 1, 5th floor, NO–7491
Trondheim, Norway
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Bibri Computational Urban Science (2021) 1:1 Page 2 of 32
1 Introduction data and the rapidly evolving core enabling and driving
A new era is presently unfolding wherein both sustain- technologies of the IoT and big data analytics as emer-
able urbanism and smart urbanism processes and prac- ging computing paradigms. In particular, the generation
tices are being highly responsive to a form of data- of data and the advancement of computational/analytics
driven urbanism. In this light, there has recently been a techniques for monitoring, understanding, analyzing,
conscious push for smart cities and sustainable cities and planning the city are the most significant strengths
across the globe to be smarter and thus more sustainable of smart cities that are being increasingly embraced and
by developing and implementing data-driven technology leveraged by sustainable cities in order to improve and
solutions in relation to various urban systems and do- advance their contribution to sustainability. For supra–
mains to enhance and optimize their operations, func- national states, governments, and city officials, smart cit-
tions, services, designs, strategies, and policies. Big data ies offer the enticing potential of environmental im-
technologies have become as essential to the functioning provement and socio–economic development, as well as
of smart cities (e.g., Batty, 2013; Kitchin, 2014, 2015, the renewal of urban centers as hubs of innovation and
2016; Kitchin, Lauriault, & McArdle, 2015; Marvin, research (e.g., Bibri & Krogstie, 2020a, b, c; Kitchin,
Luque-Ayala, & McFarlane, 2016) as to that of sustain- 2014, 2016; Mora & Bolici, 2016; Nikitin et al., 2016;
able cities (e.g., Bibri, 2019a, b, 2020b; Bibri & Krogstie, Noori, Hoppe, & de Jong, 2020; Townsend, 2013).
2020a, b, c; Pasichnyi et al., 2019; Shahrokni, Levihn, & However, the field of data-driven smart sustainable ur-
Brandt, 2014; Shahrokni et al., 2014; Shahrokni, Lazare- banism does not have a unitary disciplinary framework
vic, & Brandt, 2015; Shahrokni et al., 2015; Thornbush in terms of a uniform set of the academic and scientific
& Golubchikov, 2019). They are also being used in smart disciplines from which the underlying theories can be
cities to improve sustainability (e.g., Petrovic and Kocic drawn. These theories constitute a unified foundation
2020; Angelidou et al., 2017; Batty et al., 2012; Betten- for the practice of data-driven smart sustainable urban-
court, 2014; Bibri, 2019c; Eden Strategy Institute, 2018; ism. Data-driven smart sustainable urbanism as a form
Kumar & Prakash, 2016; Nikitin, Lantsev, Nugaev, & of practice is underpinned by complex interdisciplinary
Yakovleva, 2016). Consequently, we are moving into an and transdisciplinary knowledge. In more detail, as a
era where instrumentation, datafication, and computa- holistic approach, it involves a range of theories and re-
tion are routinely pervading the very fabric of both sus- lated approaches as well as scientific and technological
tainable cities and smart cities. One of the consequences foundations drawn from a variety of academic and scien-
of data-driven smart sustainable urbanism is that city tific disciplines. Theories represent the body of scientific
systems are becoming much more tightly interlinked concepts, definitions, relationships, and assumptions that
and integrated. As a result, vast troves of data are being describe and explain the data-driven smart sustainable
generated, analyzed, harnessed, and exploited to control, city formation phenomenon, or define the body of
manage, and regulate urban life based on innovative knowledge of this emerging paradigm of urbanism. They
planning approaches, enabled by data-driven smart include, but are not limited to, urban development,
technologies. urban planning, urban systems, urban design, urban pol-
Numerous city projects, programs, and initiatives, both icy, urban resilience, urban sustainability, urban morph-
within the ecologically and technologically advanced na- ology, urban complexity, systems thinking, action net
tions, are shifting from merely focusing on the applica- theory, actor network, urban spatial analysis, economics,
tion of sustainability knowledge to city planning and urban dynamics, urban computing, and urban modelling.
design in the framework of sustainable cities and from They are fundamental in guiding research and practice
the development and implementation of new technolo- within the field of data-driven smart sustainable urban-
gies in city management in the framework of smart cities ism. In this respect, they can be drawn from different
to the integration of sustainability and smartness at the city-related disciplines for the purpose of their integra-
technical and policy levels. Smart cities are increasingly tion and/or fusion to address complex topics or prob-
connecting the ICT infrastructure, the physical infra- lems within different research areas. The research
structure, the social infrastructure, and the economic in- outcome can enhance, extend, advance, and/or challenge
frastructure to leverage their collective intelligence in a the existing body of knowledge of the prevailing and
way to become more efficient, sustainable, resilient, liv- emerging paradigms of urbanism in the light of new
able, and equitable. As such, they seek to solve a funda- paradigmatic or epistemological shifts, such as data-
mental conundrum—ensure economic development, intensive science, or global trends, such as urbanization,
social equity, and the quality of life at the same time as all in the context of sustainability.
optimizing energy efficiency, mitigating pollution, and Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity have become
strengthening infrastructure resilience. This has been a widespread mantra for research within diverse fields,
made possible by utilizing the fast–flowing torrent of accompanied by a growing body of scholarly
publications. The research field of data-driven smart sus- nature of the research field of data-driven smart sustain-
tainable urbanism is profoundly interdisciplinary and able urbanism, an opportunity to situate the researcher
transdisciplinary in nature. It operates out of the under- in an ecology of ideas, a process which can be
standing that advances in knowledge necessitate pursu- approached from the perspective of complexity. In this
ing multifaceted questions that can only be resolved respect, the key dimensions that can be considered in-
from the vantage point of interdisciplinarity and trans- clude: integrating rather than eliminating the researcher
disciplinarity. This in turn implies that the research from the research, meta–paradigmatic rather than intra–
problems within this field are inherently too complex paradigmatic, research–grounded rather than discipline–
and dynamic to be addressed by single disciplines. Inter- grounded, and applying systems and complexity thinking
disciplinarity relates to the world’s most pressing and rather than reductionism.
challenging problems with long-term wide-area impacts. In light of the above, it is of significant importance to
Data-driven smart sustainable urbanism requires under- develop an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary frame-
standing diverse academic and scientific disciplines and work. With that in regard, this paper identifies, de-
how these can interrelate to solve similar problems. Ac- scribes, discusses, evaluates, and thematically organizes
cordingly, interdisciplinarity can be best applied to com- the core academic and scientific disciplines underlying
plex topics that can only be understood by interrelating the field of data-driven smart sustainable urbanism. In
the perspectives of diverse disciplines. Seeking to provide terms of the eligibility criteria for selection, the focus is
a holistic understanding of the topic of data-driven on those academic and scientific disciplines that are con-
smart sustainable urbanism for the common purpose of cerned with he core theoretical underpinnings of the
policy or in the pursuit of normative actions, the inter- study being carried out. This study aims to analyze, in-
disciplinary approach to research insists on mixing disci- vestigate, and develop a novel model for data-driven
plines. It crosses boundaries between different smart sustainable cities of the future as a strategic plan-
disciplines to create new perspectives and insights on ning process of transformative change towards sustain-
the basis of interactional knowledge beyond these disci- ability. This is grounded in the amalgamation of the four
plines. Its strength lies in the ability of interlinking dif- case studies conducted on (1) compact cities (Bibri,
ferent analyzes, using insights and methods from Krogstie, & Kärrholm, 2020), (2) eco-cities (Bibri &
different disciplines in parallel—not in conjunction, and Krogstie, 2020a), (3) data–driven smart cities (Bibri &
spilling over disciplinary boundaries. The interdisciplin- Krogstie, 2020b), and (4) environmentally data-driven
ary perspective of the disciplinary framework that this smart sustainable cities (Bibri & Krogstie, 2020c) in
paper is concerned with is a topical and organizational terms of their dimensions, strategies, and solutions.
unit that is determined by the nature of the research These have been integrated into a framework for stra-
field of data-driven smart sustainable urbanism. tegic sustainable urban development planning to guide
The transdisciplinary approach to research insists on the process of building the novel model for data-driven
fusing, rather than mixing, different disciplines and smart sustainable cities of the future (Bibri & Krogstie,
hence using insights and methods from in conjunction— 2020d). The preliminary selection of the academic and
with a result that exceeds the simple sum of each. scientific disciplines was done in accordance with the
Transdiciplinarity lends itself readily to the exploration problem under investigation: How to improve and ad-
of complex problems. It concerns that which is at once vance the contribution of sustainable cities to the goals
between, across, and beyond single disciplines. Its aim is of sustainability with the support of the data-driven
to understand present phenomena in the world, of which technologies and solutions being offered by smart cities?
a key imperative is the overarching unity of knowledge. With that in mind, for a given discipline to be consid-
Thus, understanding the tenets, and setting side-by-side ered in terms of its potential to provide any information
elements, of pertinent theories that have clear implica- of pertinence, it should relate to one of the conceptual
tions for the notion of data-driven smart sustainable cit- and theoretical subjects specified in the futures study
ies permits a complete understanding of its topic. From and related case studies. The emphasis was placed on
a general perspective, transdisciplinary research entails the disciplines that provided primary information, espe-
efforts made in light of different academic and scientific cially from cross–domain analysis and cross-disciplinary
disciplines in a joint endeavor to innovate in creating perspective. On the whole, scoring the disciplines was
new conceptual, theoretical, and methodological ap- based on the inclusion of the foundational principles of
proaches that move beyond discipline–specific perspec- the processes and practices of data-driven smart sustain-
tives to address and overcome a common problem. The able urbanism in terms of how it was approached. Con-
transdisciplinary perspective of the disciplinary approach versely, the disciplines excluded were those that did not
that this paper is concerned with is, in addition to being meet the specific criteria with respect to their relevance
a topical and organizational unit determined by the accordingly.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: though with some distinctive concepts and key differ-
Section 2 briefly introduces and discusses some of the ences as well. In this regard, according to Roseland
previously proposed approaches and models of sustain- (1997) and Harvey (2011), a desirable eco–city has a
able cities and smart cities. Section 3 introduces, de- well–designed urban layout that promotes walkability,
scribes, and discusses the key established and emerging biking, and the use of public transportation system; en-
academic disciplines underlying the field of data-driven sures decent and affordable housing for all socio–eco-
smart sustainable urbanism. Section 4 introduces, de- nomic and ethic groups; and supports future expansion
scribes, and discusses the key established and emerging and progress over time. These dimensions are at the
scientific disciplines underlying the field of data-driven heart of the compact city in terms of sustainable trans-
smart sustainable urbanism. This paper ends, in Section portation and mixed land use strategies.
5, with concluding remarks together with an interdiscip- There seems to be a general consensus on the com-
linary and transdisciplinary framework for the core aca- mon dimensions of the compact city, whereas the idea
demic and scientific disciplines underlying data-driven of the eco–city is widely varied in conceptualization and
smart sustainable urbanism. operationalization. Indeed, there are many models of the
eco–city according to an extensive literature review con-
2 Related work: sustainable city and smart city ducted by Bibri (2020b). These models can be caterogar-
approaches and models ized into three types: type 1 emphasizes passive solar
Since the main objective of this study is to “develop a design, type 2 combines passive solar design and green-
novel model for data-driven smart sustainable urbanism, ing, and type 3 focuses on green energy technologies
” reviewing existing approaches and models of sustain- and/or smart energy and environmental technologies.
able urbanism and smart urbanism is deemed useful and A number of recent national and international policy
pertinent in terms of contextualizing this study and reports and papers state that the models of the compact
helping readers to understand the unique contribution city and the eco-city contribute, though to varying de-
and novelty of the new model for data-driven smart sus- grees, to resource efficiency and reliability, environmen-
tainable urbanism. tal protection, socio-economic development, social
Sustainable cities have, over the last four decades or, cohesion and inclusion, quality of life and well-being,
been the leading global paradigm of urbanism thanks to and cultural enhancement (Bibri, 2020b, c). It is argued
the models of sustainable urban form proposed as new that the compact city model is able to support and bal-
frameworks for redesigning and restructuring urban ance the three goals of sustainability (Burton, 2002; Hof-
places to make urban living more sustainable. There are stad, 2012; Jenks & Dempsey, 2005; Jenks & Jones,
different approaches to sustainable cities, which tend to 2010), and that the eco–city model is able to achieve the
be identified as models of sustainable urban form. These goals of environmental sustainability together with some
include compact cities, eco–cities, new urbanism, urban economic and social benefits of sustainability (Bibri &
containment (Jabareen, 2006) landscape ecological ur- Krogstie, 2020a; Joss, 2010; Joss, Cowley, & Tomozeiu,
banism (landscape architecture and urban ecology (Kui- 2013; Kenworthy, 2006; Mostafavi & Doherty, 2010;
tert, 2013; Steiner, 2011), and so on. Compact cities and Rapoport & Vernay, 2011; Suzuki et al., 2010).
eco-cities are the central paradigms of sustainable ur- Transformative processes within sustainable cities have
banism and the most advocated models of sustainable been in focus for some time now. The motivation for
urban form. Williams, Burton, and Jenks (2000, p. 355) achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development
conclude that sustainable urban forms are “characterized Goal (SGD) 11 has increased the need to understand,
by compactness (in various forms), mix of uses and in- plan, and manage sustainable cities in new and innova-
terconnected street layouts, supported by strong public tive ways (United Nations, 2015a). In this regard, the
transport networks, environmental controls and high United Nations’s 2030 Agenda regards advanced ICT as
standards of urban management.” This characterization a means to promote socio–economic development and
implies more or less a combination of the dimensions of protect the environment, increase resource efficiency,
compact cities and eco–cities. However, management achieve human progress and knowledge in societies, up-
tends to dominate within the eco–city, unlike the com- grade legacy infrastructure, and retrofit industries based
pact city where design is at the core of compaction strat- on sustainable design principles (United Nations,
egies (Bibri, 2020b, c). The eco-city is about how the 2015b). This relates to the multifaceted potential of
urban landscape is organized and steered (see, e.g., Jaba- smart cities, which has been under study with respect to
reen, 2006; Kramers, Wangel, & Höjer, 2016) rather than the role of big data technologies and their novel applica-
the spatial pattern of the characteristic physical objects tions in strategic sustainable development within the
in the city. In fact, these two models of sustainable framework of 2030 Agenda (United Nations, 2015c).
urban form share several concepts, ideas, and visions, However, as with sustainable cities, there are a number
of approaches to smart cities (see Bibri, 2019c for a de- sustainable urbanism as a collection of expert and schol-
tailed review), as well as to smarter cities, including arly knowledge, studies, research domains, practical
smart cities of the future (e.g., Batty et al., 2012), ubiqui- methods, scholars, and practitioners.
tous cities (e.g., Shin, 2009), ambient cities (e.g., Böhlen
& Frei, 2009), sentient cities (e.g., Shepard, 2011; Thrift, 3.1 Urban planning, design, and development
2014a), real-time cities (e.g., Kitchin, 2014), and data- As a multifaceted process, urban planning focuses on
driven cities (e.g., Bettencourt, 2014; Nikitin et al., 2016). the development, design, and regulation of land use and
The data-driven city is one of the recent faces of smarter the built environment, including energy system, water
cities. system, waste system, sewage system, green and blue
The real challenge for the future lies in moving genu- structure, as well as the infrastructure connecting urban
inely past the assumption that there are only two con- areas at multiple levels, including transportation system,
trasting, mutually exclusive choices or realities: communication system, information system, and distri-
sustainable cities and smart cities. With an ‘either/or’ ap- bution network. This varied use of urban space focuses
proach, there will not be much progress in sustainable on the physical form, economic functions, and environ-
urban development, as the huge challenges facing sus- mental and social impacts of the urban environment and
tainable cities in such area as energy, environment, on the location and intensity of different activities within
transport, and healthcare require an integrated approach it. Urban planning includes social science, architecture,
to urbanism. The concept of smart sustainable cities has human geography, politics, engineering, and design
emerged as a result of three important global shifts at science.
play today across the world, namely the diffusion of sus- As a governmental function, urban planning is prac-
tainability, the spread of urbanization, and the rise of ticed on the neighborhood, district, municipality, city,
ICT. This currently leading model of urbanism has ma- metropolitan, regional, and national scales. It has been
terialized around the mid-2010s. Similarly, there are approached from a variety of perspectives, often com-
many approaches to smart sustainable cities apart from bined, including physical, spatial, geographical, eco-
the data-driven approach as combined with the compact logical, technological, economic, social, cultural, and
and ecological approaches, which is the main focus of political. For what it touches on in terms of numerous
this study. These approaches depend on the strategies city-life aspects, urban planning can be broadly catego-
that the cities badging or regenerating themselves as rized into different conceptual areas commonly referred
smart sustainable prioritize with respect to applied tech- to as types of urban planning, including:
nology solutions and sustainability dimensions based on
the kind of challenges they deal with (see, e.g., Al-Nasrawi, Strategic planning
Adams, & El-Zaart, 2015; Bibri, 2018b; Kramers et al.,
Sustainable planning
2016; Martin, Evans, & Karvonen, 2018; Noori et al., 2020;
Land-use planning
Pozdniakova, 2018; Seçkiner Bingöl, 2021).
Local planning
3 Established and emerging academic disciplines Regional planning
or fields Master planning
An academic discipline or field is a branch of knowledge Environmental planning
that is taught and researched as part of higher education. Infrastructure planning
It involves research areas, research projects, research Urban revitalization
challenges, expertise, knowledge, scholars, communities, Community economic development
and studies as associated with a given scholastic subject
area and related practice. Academic disciplines are par- This study is concerned with strategic planning and
ticularly of usefulness for narrowing research efforts and sustainable planning. Strategic planning entails setting
creating ongoing dialogues about particular subjects. high-level goals; formulating objectives and targets; ar-
Thus far, there is no consensus on how some academic ranging the means required for meeting them; and
disciplines should be classified in relation the human, implementing, monitoring, steering, evaluating, and im-
social, and natural sciences. City-related disciplines proving all the necessary steps in their proper sequence
(urban planning, urban design, urban development, etc.) towards reaching the set goals. Sustainable planning is
tend to be well-established and have branches, and these implemented in conjunction with compact and eco-
are often called subdisciplines. As such, they involve logical designs and emphasizes the three dimensions of
established knowledge directed for applied research sustainability and their integration, while looking at how
within diverse domain applications. In the context of this development interacts with the surrounding environ-
paper, they provide a basis for data-driven smart ment in a larger context. The primary goal of urban
planning is to achieve the objectives of sustainable devel- this respect, it is about making connections between
opment in terms of mitigating the negative impacts on forms for human settlements and sustainable develop-
the environment through lowering energy usage, har- ment in its tripartite composition.
vesting renewable sources, reducing material use, and Urban development refers to urbanization with its dif-
minimizing waste, as well as in terms of improving social ferent dimensions, especially physical (land use change),
equity, human well–being, and the quality of life (Bibri geographical (population), societal (social and cultural
2021). Ultimately, it seeks to balance the conflicting de- change), and economic (agglomeration). Urban planning
mands of environmental sensitivity, economic develop- as a technical and political process is seen as a valuable
ment, social equity, and urban attractiveness and force to achieve the objectives and targets of sustainable
aesthetic appeal. This is at the core of urban sustainabil- development through design strategies and technology
ity, which represents an ideal outcome in the sum of all solutions, among other things. Sustainable urban devel-
the goals of planning, on which there is widespread con- opment can be viewed as an alternative approach to
sensus with trade-offs and conflicts when it comes to de- urban thinking and practice. It focuses primarily on ad-
cisions. Therefore, urban planning involves policy dressing and overcoming the escalating environmental
recommendations, public consultation, public adminis- problems and rising socio–economic issues associated
tration, and implementation and management, as well as with the predominant paradigm of urban development
thorough research and in-depth analysis, and strategic by mitigating its negative impacts on the environment
thinking (Nigel 1998, 2007) to achieve the policy goals of and improving social equity and human well–being. In
sustainability. short, sustainable urban development is a strategic ap-
Urban planning involves the application of scientific proach to achieving the long–term goals of urban sus-
and technical processes in connection with different tainability. As such, it requires that organizations,
city-related components, such as land use, urban design, institutions, and governments agree upon concrete ways
energy, transportation, waste, and infrastructure. It in- to determine the most effective approaches and strategic
cludes such techniques as modelling, simulation, predic- actions in a concerted effort to reach a sustainable
tion, geographic mapping and analysis, green condition future.
monitoring, environmental monitoring, power and water
supply analysis, transportation and traffic patterns recog- 3.2 Urban sustainability
nition, energy demands and consumption patterns rec- The concept “sustainability” has been applied to urban
ognition, healthcare services allocation, land-use impacts planning since the early 1990s. There is no canonical def-
analysis, and so forth. For example, Geographic Informa- inition of urban sustainability in the literature as this con-
tion Systems (GIS) can map the existing urban system cept is too complex and sweeping to be delineated as a
and project the future impacts of changes on the envir- concept. This is due to its contested, multifaceted, and
onment and the economy. The idea of the data-driven normative nature. Generally, urban sustainability refers to
smart sustainable city of the future is to obtain the right a state of change in which the city doesn’t undermine the
amount of data at the right place and from the right natural and social systems, which could occur through re-
source to make well-informed, fact-based, strategic deci- source intensive consumption and depletion, pollution,
sions with ease in relation to sustainability using most of environmental degradation, and hazardous substances, as
these techniques. In this respect, it involves goal setting, well as through social instability/insecurity, social inequal-
data generation, processing, and analysis; modelling and ity, public health decrease, and social hazard. These can
simulation; design, as well as public consultation and make people subject to conditions that inhibit their ability
citizen participation. to satisfy their needs and pursue their aspirations. To put
Urban design is an integral part of urban planning. It it differently, urban sustainability means a desired state in
is concerned with planning, landscape architecture, and which the city strives to achieve a balance between envir-
civil engineering, as well as sustainable design, ecological onmental protection and integration, economic develop-
design, compact design, public design,and strategic de- ment and regeneration, social equity and stability, and
sign. Dealing with the design and management of the resilient physical structure and its efficient operation as
public domain and the way it is experienced and used by long–term goals through the strategic process of sustain-
citizens, urban design refers to the process of designing, able development as a desired trajectory. While urban sus-
shaping, arranging, and reorganizing urban physical tainability has evolved as a proposal to overcome the
structures and spatial patterns. As to its sustainable environmental and socio–economic problems and chal-
dimension, it is aimed at making urban living more lenges associated with the rapid urbanization of the world,
environmentally sustainable and urban areas more at- there are a number of interdisciplinary frameworks that
tractive and functional (e.g., Boeing, Church, Hubbard, have attempted to conceptualize it in various, and some-
Mickens, & Rudis, 2014; Larice & MacDonald, 2007). In times distinct, ways and hence to offer different access
roads to the topic of urban sustainability. Regardless, the strategic goals, thereby justifying emerging and future
ultimate goal of urban sustainability is to develop human ICT investment and its orientation by addressing phys-
settlements and environments that are healthy, livable, ical infrastructure inefficiencies, environmental concerns,
and equitable together with minimal demand on natural and socio–economic needs. To sustain this momentum
resources and thus minimal impacts on the environment. requires innovative policy frameworks, effective institu-
Furthermore, urban sustainability is often cast in terms of tional structures and practices, and concrete planning
four dimensions: environmental, economic, social, and measures.
physical which should together—as interdependent and However, achieving urban sustainability is of an enor-
synergic pillars—be enhanced over the long run in line mous challenge due to the conflicts that exist between
with the goals of sustainability. It articulates how the city the fundamental goals of sustainable urban development.
values the environment, the equity, the economy, and the These conflicts in turn are challenging to deal with and
built form. daunting to overcome as many experiences from real-
world cities have shown since the widespread diffusion
3.3 Sustainable urban development of sustainable development in the late 1980s. That is to
The concept “sustainable development” has been applied say, tackling these conflicts has been, and continues to
to urban development since the early 1990s, a few years be, one of the toughest challenges facing urban planners
after the widespread diffusion of the concept of sustain- and scholars as to decision–making and action–taking in
able development in 1987. This resulted from the then the context of sustainable cities, smart cities, and smart
realization that the predominant paradigm of urban de- sustainable cities. Despite the appealing and holistic
velopment was oblivious to the risks of, and triggering, character of sustainable urban development approach
environmental upheavals and crises, as well as of the ef- into evading or mitigating those conflicts, they “cannot
fects of, and worsening, social vulnerability and injustice, be shaken off so easily” as they “go to the historic core
causing environmental and social deprivation within cit- of planning and are a leitmotif in the contemporary bat-
ies. Achieving the goals of urban sustainability requires tles in our cities,” rather than being “merely conceptual,
finding and fostering linkages between scientific and so- among the abstract notions of ecological, economic, and
cial research, technological developments and innova- political logic” (Campbell, 1996, p. 296). Yet, sustainable
tions, institutional structures and practices, regulatory development as a long–range objective for achieving the
policy design and planning, and governance and citizen goals of sustainability constitutes a worthy strategic ap-
participation. This can occur through developing and proach for planners, scholars, and policymakers to reach
bolstering strategies and solutions that facilitate the de- the required level of sustainability with support of ad-
sign, development, implementation, evaluation, and im- vanced technologies and their novel applications. Camp-
provement of urban systems and other practical bell (1996, p. 9) contends that urban planners and
interventions within various urban domains that pro- developers, in particular, will in the upcoming years
mote sustainability in terms of replenishing resources, “confront deep–seated conflicts among economic, social,
lowering energy use, lessening pollution and waste levels, [physical] and environmental interests that cannot be
and improving social justice, stability, and safety. The wished away through admittedly appealing images of a
strategies and solutions developed with these underlying community in harmony with nature. Nevertheless, one
objectives epitomize what sustainable development is. can diffuse the conflict, and find ways to avert its more
Accordingly, sustainable urban development refers to a destructive fall–out.” To put is differently, sustainable
process of change in the built environment that seek to urban development advocates can—and ought to—seek
foster economic development and enhance the quality of ways to make the most of all of its value–sets at once.
life while wisely managing and conserving natural re- This is in contrast to keeping on playing them off
sources while promoting the health of citizens, commu- against one another. In this light, the synergistic and
nities, and ecosystems. In the context of this paper substantive effects of sustainability on urban planning
where the focus is on data-driven smart sustainable cit- and development require cooperative effort, collabora-
ies, achieving the goals of urban sustainability through tive work, and concerted action from diverse urban
sustainable urban development occurs with support of stakeholders in order to take a holistic perspective on
the IoT and big data technologies and their novel appli- the complex challenges and pressing issues facing con-
cations, data-driven smart solutions for urban manage- temporary cities.
ment in terms of development planning and operational
functioning management. The way forward is to inte- 3.4 Sustainable urbanism
grate the research and innovation agenda of advanced Urbanism is concerned with the study of urban phenom-
ICT with the agenda of sustainable development while ena in terms of the urbanization and organization of cit-
aligning and mobilizing urban actors around common ies, as well as the practice of urban planning and
development. Rooted in the study of the relationship of much better than modern developments, are not consid-
urban planning and development and sustainability and ered truly sustainable according to the criteria of sus-
sustainable development, sustainable urbanism is con- tainable development.
cerned with the study of cities and the practices and
strategies to design and develop them that focus on pro- 3.5 Compact urbanism
moting their long-term resilience and viability through Compact urbanism is concerned with the study of the
reducing material use, lowering energy consumption, form of cities and the practices and strategies to plan
mitigating pollution, and minimizing waste, as well as and design them that focus on securing environmentally
improving social equity and human well-being. sound, economically viable, and socially beneficial devel-
There are different notable works that have furthered opment through dense and mixed land use development
the knowledge base and diffusion of sustainable urban- patterns that rely on sustainable transportation and favor
ism. One of which is the book “Sustainable Urbanism” green space and parks. As such, compact urbanism plays
by Doug Farr in 2008. According to the author, this ap- a significant role in responding to the needs of urban
proach to urbanism aims to eliminate the environmental areas. It lessens the impact on the environment, with
impacts of urban development by supplying and provid- shorter intra-urban distances and reduced automobile
ing all resources locally, and to evaluate the full life cycle use. It contributes to the economy by increasing the effi-
of ecosystem and public services and goods from pro- ciency of infrastructure investment and by giving resi-
duction to consumption with the purpose of eliminating dents easier access to services, faculties, jobs, and social
environmental externalities (Farr, 2008). Accordingly, it networking. A key indicator used to measure compact
emphasizes both environmental and physical factors by city policy outcomes is “compactness” (density, mixed
designing communities that are walkable and transit– land use, diversity, public transport, and access by prox-
served so that people can meet their daily needs by imity). It is important to, as part of compact urbanism
walking. Farr’s definition of sustainable urbanism is practices, strategies, policies, to set explicit goals, en-
based on bringing everything closer together, being more courage dense and contiguous development at urban
efficient, using higher quality goods, having everything fringes, retrofit and transform existing built-up areas, en-
within walking distance, and closing the loop (Sharifi, hance diversity and quality of life in urban centers,
2016). The key emphasis here is on sustainable transpor- minimize adverse negative effects (see, e.g., Bibri et al.,
tation, which is a key design strategy underlying the 2020; Hofstad, 2012; OECD, 2012a, b for illustrative/de-
compact city. scriptive case studies).
Subsequently, a significant body of research and prac- Compact urbanism defines the core of sustainable ur-
tice has broadened the approach of sustainable urbanism banism, and the compact city is the paradigm of sustain-
considerably to include social, economic, welfare, and able urbanism. This city model has, over the last 40 years,
public health factors, among others, thereby taking it be- been the preferred response to the challenges of sustain-
yond an urban design field into all of urban planning, able development. Compact urbanism is strongly pro-
policy, and development areas (Haas, 2012). The United moted by global and local policies due to its positive
Nations has incorporated sustainable urbanism into its outcomes in terms of contributing to the economic, envir-
global sustainable development goals, specifically SDG onmental, and social goals of sustainability. The key policy
11: Sustainable Cities and Communities (United Nations, issues related to compact urbanism include: how compact
2015c). Consequently, a wide range of institutions, orga- cities contribute to urban sustainability, how compact city
nizations, and governments are promoting and research- policy outcomes can be evaluated, how policy responses
ing sustainable urbanism practices and strategies. The can be tailored to different local circumstances, and what
key defining elements of sustainable urbanism, which governance challenges exist in developing and implement-
have been enacted in many cities across the world, in- ing compact city policies in different metropolises (OECD,
clude and combine a diversity of concepts and themes 2012a, b). Compact urbanism involves several strategies
pertaining to compact cities and eco–cities (see, e.g., that can avoid all the problems of modernist planning and
Beatley, 2010; Bibri, 2020a; Farr, 2008; Williams et al., design in cities by enhancing the underlying environmen-
2000; Kenworthy, 2006; Lynn, Geoffrey, & Santore, 2003; tal, economic, and social justifications and drivers. Re-
Neuman, 2011; OECD, 2012a, b). search within compact urbanism involves a variety of
Not much has been said regarding the criticism of sus- perspectives, including urban theory, planning theory,
tainable urbanism. There are some views that are con- planning practice, design practice, policy, resilience, sus-
cerned with the use of sustainable urbanism as a tainability, morphology, complexity theory, systems think-
branding hoax that risks debasing the term ‘sustainable’ ing, action net theory, actor network theory, spatial
with some developments labeled as examples of “sustain- analysis, regenerative design, economics, in addition to
able urbanism.” Such developments, albeit substantially comparative and discursive studies. Bibri (2020c) provides
a comprehensive state–of–the–art review of compact ur- has led Steiner (2011) to introduce landscape eco-
banism as a set of planning and development practices logical urbanism as an approach that can include
and strategies, focusing on the three dimensions of sus- urban ecology. Kuitert (2013) demonstrates how such
tainability and the significant, yet untapped, potential of integrative urban planning and management should
big data technology for enhancing such practices and rely on analysis.
strategies under what is labelled “data–driven smart sus- With the model of smart urbanism gaining momen-
tainable urbanism.” The author also provides a critical dis- tum, it has become feasible to achieve important envir-
cussion of compact urbanism from the perspective of onmental improvements by integrating it with that of
Science, Technology, and Society (STS) in terms of link- ecological urbanism. Both of these models are becoming
ages and concerns. highly responsive to data-driven solutions to improve
and advance environmental sustainability under what
3.6 Ecological urbanism can be labelled “data-driven smart ecological urbanism.”
Over the past two decades, ecological urbanism has This is illustrated in Fig. 1 based on the outcomes of the
gained significant traction and its scope has broadened case study done on environmentally data-driven smart
to cover multiple dimensions of sustainability. Ecological sustainable cities (Bibri & Krogstie, 2020c). Through in-
urbanism and green urbanism are common terms that vestments in smart eco-city initiatives, planners, ICT ex-
are related to sustainable urbanism. It is argued that eco- perts, and policymakers intend to promote and develop
logical urbanism draws from ecology to inspire an ur- innovative solutions to confront the significant chal-
banism that is more sensitive to the environment and lenges posed by the escalating trend of urbanization and
also socially inclusive. This is predicated on the assump- the alarming rate of climate change. However, the inte-
tion that ecology is concerned with the relationships be- gration of ecological urbanism and smart urbanism (e.g.,
tween all organisms and the environment. Ecological Shahrokni et al., 2014a, b; Shahrokni, Levihn and Brandt,
urbanism is also less ideologically driven, i.e., by ideas of 2014; Shahrokni et al., 2015a, b; Shahrokni, Lazarevic, &
a political or economic nature, than green urbanism Brandt, 2015) is justified by the problematic nature of
whose principles are based on the triple–zero frame- eco-cities as to their contribution to the goals of sustain-
work: zero fossil–fuel use, zero waste, and zero emis- ability when it comes to planning and design. This per-
sions. However, both approaches to urbanism are tains mostly to the question of how eco-cities should be
construed as focusing more on the natural environment monitored, understood, analyzed, and planned so as to
and ecosystems and less on economic and social aspects optimize, enhance, and maintain their performance over
(Mostafavi & Doherty, 2010). the long run. Therefore, data-driven technologies have
Ecological urbanism shares several concepts, ideas, and become essential to the functioning of eco-cities. In this
visions with green urbanism in terms of the role of the city regard, they are offering many new opportunities for en-
and positive planning and development in shaping better hancing decision-making concerning the practice of con-
places, communities, and lifestyles. trolling, managing, regulating, and governing eco-cities.
Ruano (1998) defines ecological urbanism as the de- Bibri (2020b) provides a comprehensive state–of–the–
velopment of multi–dimensional sustainable human art review of the field of ecological urbanism in terms of
communities within harmonious and balanced built foundations, models, strategies, research issues, as well
environments. Ecological urbanism focuses on devel- as data–driven smart technological trends. Bibri (2020a)
oping urban environments based on the principles of provides a detailed critical discussion of ecological ur-
ecological sustainability. If ecological urbanism as a banism from a variety of perspectives.
holistic approach is to be successful, it needs to de-
sign and integrate complex systems and social pro- 3.7 Smart urbanism
cesses together, and to reflect their synergy in ways In contrast to the smart city as a policy concept, smart
that are dynamically interactive or cooperative to pro- urbanism is an emerging academic field, which analyzes
duce combined effects greater than the sum of their and reflects on the varieties and outcomes of smart city
separate effects with respect to the benefits of sus- development. This involves a large body of mainly ap-
tainability as to its tripartite composition. It is of cru- plied studies that highlight the opportunities, potentials,
cial importance for cities to become masters of a and benefits of the solutions of the smart city in its vari-
stable, equitable, and ecological urbanism (Brugmann, ous faces. Smart urbanism examines how smart city pol-
2009). In many ways, ecological urbanism is an evolu- icies operate in contemporary cities. Central to smart
tion, and a critique of, landscape urbanism, arguing city policies are emerging digital technologies, big data,
for a more holistic approach to the planning, design, and computational processes to monitor, understand, con-
and management of cities. However, the lack of a true trol, manage, regulate, and plan urban infrastructures, re-
merger of landscape architecture with urban ecology sources, risks, and citizens. This materializes as sensor
Fig. 1 A framework for data-driven smart ecological urbanism
networks, horizontal information systems, urban dash- and initiatives in Europe, the UK, the USA, Asia, Australia,
boards, urban operations centers (e.g., control rooms and and elsewhere, and in the emergence of dedicated teams
situation centers), and other institutional practices and aimed at developing business opportunities in smart urban
competences (Bibri & Krogstie, 2020b, c; Kitchin, 2014, development projects, such as IBM, Cisco, Google, Gen-
2015, 2016; Marvin et al., 2016; Nikitin et al., 2016). How- eral Electric, and others. Smart urbanism is projected,
ever, due to the infancy of the field, its disciplinary frag- often following normative approaches, as a futuristic solu-
mentation, the work on smart urbanism lacks “theoretical tion brought to the present to deal with a broad multipli-
insight and empirical evidence required to assess the city of urban maladies, including issues of unsustainable
implications of this potentially transformative transport, traffic congestion, resource scarcity, climate
phenomenon” (Luque-Ayala & Marvin, 2015, p. 2106). change, and even the need to expand democratic access,
Smart urbanism is widely promoted by national and juts to name a few. In this context, smart urbanism is in-
local governments, international organizations, and busi- creasingly embracing a number of strategies from sustain-
nesses and industries alike. It provides a flexible and re- able urbanism as drivers for fostering emergence and
sponsive means of addressing the challenges of urban materialization, including:
growth and renewal, tackling environmental problems,
and building a more socially inclusive society. This emer-
ging academic discourse, a language of smartness, is re- Compactness in terms of proximity, contiguity, and
shaping debates about contemporary cities, along with a concentration
new set of programs and practices that are aimed at realiz- Complexity in terms of rich, varied, cumulative
ing smart urbanism (see, e.g., Bibri & Krogstie, 2020b; benefits of mixed land use development
Eden Institute Strategy, 2018; Mora & Bolici, 2016; Noori Connectedness in terms of sustainable transport
et al., 2020; Nikitin et al., 2016). This is visible in the im- modes as a consequence of coherent networks and
portance given to the smart city approach in diverse plans proximity
Cohesiveness in terms of sense of community, including, in addition to corporatization and anticipatory

belongingness, and multi-stakeholder collaboration governance, ownership, control, privacy and security,
Liveability in terms of education and recreational and technical challenges in the context of data-driven,
possibilities networked urbanism and smart cities. Examining the
Ecological solutions such as green energy, integrated forms, practices, and ethics of smart cities and urban sci-
renewable solutions, and sustainable waste ence, Kitchin (2016) gives particular attention to privacy,
management. dataveillance and geo-surveillance, and such data uses as
social sorting and anticipatory governance. In a nutshell,
Concurrently, smart urbanism is contributing to im- smart urbanism ignores social, political, cultural, eco-
proving and advancing sustainability in a variety of ways nomic, and historical contexts shaping urban life,
in the ambit of sustainable urbanism. It is deeply rooted thereby curtailing the opportunities for wider
in normative visions of the future where new technolo- perspectives.
gies and their novel applications stand as the primary The majority of the critique of smart urbanism dis-
driver for change. Moreover, it originates in the belief cusses its potential risks on urban society, or on how it
that place uniqueness is reflected against the backdrop has transformed the urban way of life, including social
of a clearly defined urban order, usually of a spontan- interactions, urban space, power relationships, and urban
eous and unpredictable character. This provides the ne- regulations. Smart urbanism as an emerging scholarly
cessary framework for urban diversity and the palette for field still lacks empirical evidence and theoretical em-
the city of a plethora of design ideas. bedding of these concerns. The outcome of supply ori-
However, the significant risks of smart urbanism calls ented, technocratic governance of smart cities (e.g.,
for critically engaging with its far-reaching societal im- Kitchin, Lauriault and McArdle 2015; Marvin, Luque-
plications. The literature on smart urbanism appears Ayala and McFarlane 2015) seems to be highly unequal
most frequently focused on the realization of techno- urban societies, characterized by unequal power rela-
logical solutions (Letaifa 2015), such as big data comput- tions, large gaps between those with access to informa-
ing, cloud computing, the IoT, artificial intelligence, 5G, tion services or opportunities and those without, social
and industry 4.0, rather than providing a critical under- exclusion, and unequal distributions of costs and bene-
standing of its conceptual undermining and negative im- fits (Datta 2015; Kitchin et al. 2016; Luque-Ayala,
plications. There is a lack of the theoretical basis and McFarlane and Marvin 2014). This is due to putting
empirical evidence required to holistically evaluate the much emphasis on the role of technology in collecting
potential effects and hidden agenda of the transformative and analyzing data to extract knowledge in the form of
processes within smart urbanism in connection with the applied intelligence to enhance government operations
practices, operations, and institutions of modern society and automate urban system functions (Jiang et al. 2020;
(Bibri 2021). A number of studies have been carried out Verrest and Pfeffer 2019; Kitchin et al. 2014, 2016).
in more recent years that address the ramifications of However, while smart urbanism offers great potential to
smart urbanism and the related driving socially disrup- enhance the quality of life, it also leads to the
tive technologies, drawing on several theories and theor- marginalization of certain groups and create multiple di-
etical perspectives. vides between those who have access to smart applica-
While smart urbanism as underpinned by big data of- tions and those who do not in relation to public
fers seemingly seductive visions of the future, it also transport, mobility, healthcare, education, utilities, and
raises a number of concerns. The idea of big data being so on. Social exclusion issues in smart urbanism go be-
only as good as the modelling underlying its use exacer- yond access to technology to include the distortion of
bates technocratic reductionism (Söderström, Paasche the “reality of a city” and the particularities of localities,
and Klauser 2014). Technocratic governance is inherent such as the history, feelings, concerns, knowledge, and
in smart urbanism, and there is also a lack of attention trajectories of the existing urban communities (McFar-
on what actually lies beyond the demarcations associated lane and Söderström 2017). In other words, while smart
with what happens within city administrative boundar- urbanism seems to highlight the importance of the qual-
ies. Kitchin (2014) provides a critical reflection on the ity of life at the discursive level, it tends to distort the in-
implications of big data and smart urbanism, examining dividuality of the existing neighborhoods and strip off
technocratic governance and city development; the particularities of the existing urban fabrics.
corporatization of city governance and technological
lock-ins; the politics of big urban data; buggy, brittle and 3.8 Data-driven smart sustainable urbanism
hack-able cities; and the panoptic city. Kitchin (2015) As an emerging academic field, sustainable urbanism ex-
critically examines a number of urban data issues, amines the policies, practices, and strategies to plan, de-
sign, and develop cities that promote and contribute to
sustainable development based on advanced ICT in The evolving practice in the field of smart sustain-
terms of reducing material use, lowering energy con- able urbanism tends to focus on harnessing and
sumption, reducing pollution, and minimizing waste, as exploiting the ever–increasing deluge of data that
well as improving social justice, social inclusion, social flood from urban systems and domains by leveraging
cohesion, social capital, and the quality of life. The the value extracted through analytics in enhancing de-
underlying technical dimension involves the use and ap- cision making and generating deep insights pertaining
plication of computational and scientific approaches and to a wide variety of sustainability uses and applica-
processes for city development planning and operational tions. The emerging data–driven smart solutions have
management. Recent evidence lends itself to the argu- become of paramount importance to smart sustain-
ment that an integration of the defining elements of sus- able urbanism as a set of processes and practices.
tainable urbanism (physical structures, urban forms, One key aspect of this is the use of urban data as the
spatial organizations, natural resources, urban infrastruc- evidence base for formulating urban policies, plans,
tures, socio–economic networks, and ecosystem and hu- strategies, and programs themselves, as well as for
man services, etc.) with data-driven technologies can tracking their effectiveness and modelling and simu-
create more sustainable, efficient, resilient, livable, safe, lating future urban development projects. In addition,
and equitable cities. the operation and organization of urban systems and
Data-driven smart sustainable urbanism is an emer- the coordination of urban domains require not only
ging approach to sustainable urban development, a stra- the use of complex interdisciplinary knowledge, but
tegic process to achieve the long–term goals of urban also the application of sophisticated approaches and
sustainability—with support of advanced technologies powerful engineering solutions underpinned by ad-
and their novel applications, especially the IoT and big vanced computational analytics. Modern cities employ
data analytics. Achieving the status of smart sustainable the latest technologies in city management to support
cities epitomizes an instance of urban sustainability. This sustainable development given rapid urban growth, in-
notion refers to a desired state in which a city strives to creasing urban domains, and more complex
retain a balance of the socio–ecological systems through infrastructure.
adopting strategic sustainable development as a desired There still is a little understanding about how and
trajectory. This balance entails improving and advancing why data–driven smart sustainable urbanism has
the environmental, economic, social, and physical sys- emerged and materialized and is functioning and evolv-
tems of the city in line with the vision of sustainability ing. In this respect, Bibri (2019d) has recently con-
over the long run—given their interdependence, synergy, ducted a study in STS, examining the intertwined
and equal importance. This long-term goal requires fos- societal factors driving its materialization, success, ex-
tering linkages between scientific research, technological pansion, and evolution, and further critically discusses
innovations, institutional frameworks, policy formula- big data technology as social constructions in terms of
tions, planning practices, and development strategies in their inherent flaws, limits, and biases. The author con-
relevance to sustainability. cludes that data–driven smart sustainable urbanism is
Smart sustainable urbanism rely on constellations of shaped by, and also shape, socio–cultural and politico–
instruments across many scales that are connected institutional structures. And it will prevail for many
through multiple networks characterized by intelligence years to come given the underlying transformational
and high penetration and speed, which provide continu- power of big data science and analytics, coupled with
ous data regarding the different aspects of urbanity in its legitimation capacity associated with the scientific
terms of the flow of decisions about the environmental, discourse as the ultimate form of rational thought and
economic, social, and physical forms of the city. Digital the basis for legitimacy in knowledge production and
instrumentation involves the infrastructure and devices policy–making. However, as argued by the author, there
that produce urban big data using the collective tools, is a need for re–casting urban science and big data ana-
processes, methods, techniques, and technologies that lytics in ways that reconfigure the underlying epistem-
also transform the city into a data-driven enterprise ology to recognize the complex and dynamic nature of
(datafication). The generated data in turn enable real- smart sustainable cities, as well as for re–casting them
time analysis of city life (computation). Digital instru- in ways that re–orientate in how they are conceived. In
mentation opens up dramatically different forms of an earlier study in STS, Bibri and Krogstie (2016)
urban management. Its essence revolves around the need analyze the nature, practice, and impact of ICT of ubi-
to coordinate and integrate technologies that have clear quitous computing for sustainability in the defining
synergies in their operation and need to be coupled so context of smart sustainable cities. Specifically they
that many new opportunities can be realized. probe the ways in which this form of science and tech-
nology (S&T) has emerged from different perspectives,
why it has become institutionalized and interwoven (Zheng et al., 2014) for some purpose, ways of improving
with politics and policy—urban dissemination, as well sustainability, efficiency, resilience, equity, and the qual-
as the risks it poses to environmental sustainability in ity of life. In the context of data-driven smart sustainable
the context thereof. Their study reveals that smart sus- urbanism, urban computing entails using a set of de-
tainable cities are medicated by and situated within the vices, systems, platforms, infrastructures, networks, and
ecologically and technologically advanced societies, and related algorithms, techniques, processes, and protocols
as urban manifestations of scientific knowledge and for the purpose of addressing and overcoming the issues
technological innovation, they are shaped by, and also engendered by urban growth through analyzing, harnes-
shape, socio–cultural and politico–institutional struc- sing, and leveraging various kinds of urban data (e.g.,
tures, to reiterate. However, this form of S&T is shown transport data, human mobility data, traffic flow data,
to pose risks to environmental sustainability. Therefore, spatiotemporal data, environmental data, energy data,
it needs to be reoriented in a more sustainable direc- socio–economic data, government data, and user data)
tion, as it cannot, as currently practiced, solve the com- in ways that extract useful knowledge to enhance deci-
plex environmental problems placed in the agenda of sion–making processes pertaining to urban operational
smart sustainable cities as a holistic approach to functioning, management, planning, and governance
urbanism. with respect to sustainability.
Urban computing as an interdisciplinary field involves
3.9 Urban informatics a range of scientific and technological areas, including
Urban informatics did not emerge as a notable field of computer science, information science, data science, in-
research and practice until around the mid 2000s. Subse- formation technology, information systems, computer
quently, a number of books have been published on the engineering, software engineering, and wireless net-
topic (e.g., Foth, 2009; Foth, Choi, & Satchell, 2011; Ratti works, as well as city-related or urban planning fields,
& Claudel, 2016; Shepard, 2011; Townsend, 2013; Uns- including sustainable development, strategic thinking,
worth, Forte, & Dilworth, 2014), which further demon- environmental planning, transportation planning, land–
strate the increasing notability and significance of the use planning, landscape architecture, and urban design,
field of urban informatics. This field is concerned with all converging in the context of urban environments or
the study of humans in their interaction with computer spaces. As an academic and research field, urban com-
and information systems, or people creating, applying, puting deals with the study, design, development, and
and using ICT and data, in the context of urban envi- implementation of computing technology in urban do-
ronments or areas. The emerging area of urban inform- mains. Specifically, it is concerned with:
atics focuses on the exploration and understanding of
urban systems by leveraging novel sources of data. designing and constructing urban–oriented systems
There are different definitions of urban informatics as and applications and making them behave
an interdisciplinary field of research and practice. Ac- intelligently as to decision support and service
cording to Foth et al. (2011), urban informatics refers to delivery to achieve multiple urban goals;
“the study, design, and practice of urban experiences representing, modeling, processing, and managing
across different urban contexts that are created by new various kinds of urban data;
opportunities of real–time, ubiquitous technology, and collecting information and discovering knowledge
the augmentation that mediates the physical and digital for various purposes; and
layers of people networks and urban infrastructures.” designing and applying evaluation methods for
Kitchin (2016) describes it as a human–computer inter- improving and maintaining the operation of
action and informational approach to examining and computer systems and applications
communicating urban processes. Furthermore, this field
draws on three broad domains: people, place, and tech-
nology (Foth et al., 2011). People from different socio– Urban computing employs many of the technological
cultural backgrounds include residents, citizens, and paradigms introduced by ubiquitous computing, which
community groups, in addition to the social dimensions represents an era when, in the urban context, computer
of organizations and institutions. Place includes both technology in all its forms disappears into urban envi-
urban sites, locales, and habitats, as well as regions, dis- ronments and recedes into the background of urban life.
tricts, neighborhoods, public spaces, and other kinds of Such paradigms (e.g., the IoT, Ambient Intelligence,
urban areas. Technology involves various forms of urban Sentient Computing) share the same core enabling tech-
computing. nologies, namely sensing devices, data processing plat-
Urban computing denotes collecting, integrating, pro- forms, computing infrastructures, and wireless
cessing, analyzing, and synthesizing heterogeneous data communication networks. These are to function
unobtrusively and invisibly in the background of urban adds to the work of city governments in terms of formu-
life and to help optimize urban operational functioning, lating and implementing regulatory policies and devising
improve urban management and planning, enhance the and applying political mechanisms to promote and spur
quality of life of citizens, understand the nature of urban innovation within urban informatics. In terms of
phenomena, and predict urban changes and dynamics. research and applications, according to Thakuriah, Tila-
Important to add, Foth (2009) differentiates urban com- hun, and Zellner (2017), the major potential of urban
puting from urban informatics by suggesting that the informatics lies in four areas: (1) improved strategies for
former focusses more on technology and computing, dynamic urban resource management, (2) theoretical
and the latter focusses more on the social and human insights and knowledge discovery of urban patterns and
implications of technology in cities, i.e., the relationship processes, (3) strategies for urban engagement and civic
between technology and urbanity, as expressed through participation, and (4) innovations in urban management,
the many dimensions of urban life. and planning and policy analysis. Overall, as pointed out
The field of urban informatics draws on social, scien- by Foth et al. (2011) and Townsend (2013), urban in-
tific, technological, spatial, and urban research domains, formatics emphasizes the new opportunities (including
including, combined, urban sociology, cultural studies, real–time data) for both citizens and city administrations
communication studies, urban planning, urban design, enabled and afforded by ubiquitous computing, in
spatial planning, urban studies, geography, urban engin- addition to the convergence of physical and digital aspects
eering, transportation engineering, landscape architec- of the city.
ture, environmental engineering, geo–informatics,
computer science, data science, software engineering, 4 Established and emerging scientific disciplines
and human–computer interaction. The research do- or fields
mains of urban informatics are reflective of the diversity A scientific discipline refers to a particular branch of sci-
of the methodologies being used in its pursuit and prac- entific knowledge as based on the scientific approach—
tice. The field of urban informatics borrows from a wide hypothesize, model, and test. This approach denotes a
range of methodologies across the social sciences, hu- set of principles and procedures employed for the sys-
manities, arts, design, architecture, planning, ICT, and tematic pursuit of knowledge involving the formulation
computing, and applies them to the domain of urbanism. of hypotheses, the collection of data through observation
Examples of such methodologies include action research, and experiment, and the testing of hypotheses. This
participatory action research, critical theory, social the- paper is concerned with different branches of science,
ory (e.g., Batty, 2013; Foth & Brynskov, 2016; Hearn, including applied sciences, which apply existing scientific
Tacchi, Foth, & Lennie, 2009; Satchell, 2008), grounded knowledge to develop more practical applications, such
theory, spatial analysis, participatory design, and inter- as data-driven solutions; formal sciences, including
action design. In addition, there is a longer legacy of sci- mathematics and logic as related to big data computing;
entific and informatics approaches to cities that provide and social sciences as part of urban informatics and
a bedrock of knowledge, which originates in digital map- urban planning and development. The set of academic
ping and geographic information systems, quantitative disciplines introduced and described below are identified
geography and urban modeling, and urban cybernetics on the basis of their relevance to the interdisciplinary
theory and practice (Kitchin, 2016). and transdisciplinary field of data-driven smart sustain-
Since urban informatics became a notable field of able urbanism where the underlying theories are a foun-
research and practice in the mid 2000s, the prevalence dation for practice.
of ICT, the growing popularity of ubiquitous computing,
the access to open data, the use of big data analytics, as 4.1 Computer science
well as the spread of smart cities have contributed to a Often described as one of the parents of data science,
surge in interest in this field. This is manifested in vari- computer science is concerned with the study of the the-
ous actors seeking to explore and exploit the new possi- oretical foundations of information (e.g., structures, repre-
bilities and opportunities of urban informatics. sentation, etc.) and computation (e.g., mechanisms,
Specifically, there are numerous actors involved in the algorithms, etc.) and the practical techniques and methods
academic and practical aspects of the field, including for their implementation in computer systems. In other
scholars, technical planners, industry experts, engineers words, it is the scientific and practical approach to compu-
and architects, computer and data scientists, and urban tation and its applications and the systematic study of the
scientists, all undertaking research and developing tech- feasibility, structure, expression, and mechanization of the
nologies to tackle the challenging elements of urbanism methodical procedures that underlie the acquisition, rep-
using new approaches increasingly enabled and fueled resentation, storage, processing, analysis, communication
by the emerging paradigm of big data computing. This of, and access to information. In short, it is the study of
the theory, experimentation, and engineering that form processing of data for timely and accurate decision–
the basis for the design and use of computer systems. As a making purposes. New approaches to storing, managing,
discipline, computer science spans a range of topics from coordinating, and analyzing big data and processing con-
theoretical studies of algorithms and the limits of compu- text information should rely on advanced artificial
tation to the practical issues of implementing computing intelligence programs.
systems in hardware and software.
Computer scientists deal with the systematic study and 4.1.2 Theory of computation
development of algorithmic processes that describe, cre- This area deals with the fundamental question under-
ate, and transform information and formulate abstrac- lying computer science. That is, what can be (efficiently)
tions (or conceptualizations) to model, simulate, and automated (Denning, 2000). Theory of computation is
design complex systems. They therefore specialize in the focused on answering questions about what can be com-
theory of computation and the design of computational puted and what amount of resources are required to
systems. A number of computer scientists argue for the perform those computations. This is of particular rele-
distinction of three separate paradigms in computer sci- vance to many urban problems in the sense of using
ence. Wegner (1976) contends that those paradigms are computability theory to examine which are computa-
science, technology, and mathematics. Denning et al. tionally solvable on various theoretical models of com-
(1989) contend that they are theory, abstraction (model- putation (see Bettencourt, 2014 for illustrative examples
ing), and design. Eden (2007) describe them as the “ra- of computationally intractable problems in relation to
tionalist paradigm” (which treats computer science as a smart urbanism). In relation to smart sustainable cities,
branch of mathematics as prevalent in theoretical com- ICT is focussed on defining critical problems that
puter science and mainly employs deductive reasoning), emerge rapidly and unexpectedly, some of which reveal
the “technocratic paradigm” (which is found most prom- critical infrastructures. The analysis of such problems
inently in software engineering), and the “scientific para- and their identification is crucial to the sustainability of
digm” (which approaches computer–related artifacts smart sustainable cities. These are far–from–equilib-
from the empirical perspective of natural sciences, iden- rium, dominated by fast and slow dynamics in short and
tifiable in some branches of artificial intelligence). long cycles. Regardless, many routine functions in cities
The fields of computer science can be divided into a are being replaced by computer control and various
variety of theoretical and practical disciplines, including forms of automation are increasingly being blended with
computational complexity theory, programming lan- human actions.
guage theory, computer programming, human–com-
puter interaction, and artificial intelligence. In more 4.1.3 Concurrent, parallel, and distributed systems
detail, there are several areas that are crucial to the dis- In such systems several computations execute simultan-
cipline of computer science, including theory of compu- eously and potentially interact with each other. A dis-
tation, algorithms and data structures, programming tributed system extends the idea of concurrency onto
methodology and languages, and computer elements and multiple computers connected through a network. Com-
architecture, in addition to software engineering, artifi- puters within the same distributed system have their
cial intelligence, computer networking and communica- own private memory, and information is often ex-
tion, database systems, parallel computation, distributed changed among themselves to achieve a common goal.
computation, human–computer interaction, computer This relates to cloud computing and fog computing as
graphics, operating systems, and numerical and symbolic models for performing big data analytics in relation to
computation. Among the areas of computer science that diverse applications in the context of smart sustainable
underpin the practice of data-driven smart sustainable cities. Part of the process of coordination and integration
urbanism in terms of computational systems include, using state–of–the–art data systems and distributed
but are not limited to: computing must involve ways in which the citizenry is
able to participate and to blend their personal know-
4.1.1 Data structures and algorithms ledge with that of experts who are developing the same
The study of commonly used computational methods technologies (Batty et al., 2012).
and their computational efficiency. These structures and
algorithms are of relevance to the functioning of big data 4.1.4 Computer network
applications in the context of smart sustainable cities. Computer network aims to manage networks between
Big data analytics should involve highly sophisticated computers across different geographical areas. This is of
and dedicated techniques and algorithms associated with high relevance to urban domains in the context of smart
machine learning, data mining, statistics, database query, sustainable cities. To develop technologies that ensure
and so on that can perform complex computational widespread participation, for example, new ICT is
essentially network–based and enables extensive interac- implementation of the interaction between users and
tions across many domains and scales (Batty et al., computers. HCI can be defined as a discipline concerned
2012). with the design, evaluation and implementation of inter-
Wireless network technologies include satellite–en- active computing systems for human use and with the
abled GPS, mobile phones, LPWAN, and Wi–Fi net- study of major phenomena surrounding them. HCI is
works for collecting and coordinating data in terms of the process of communicating information from or pre-
the data themselves and how that data are stored and senting services by computer systems via display units to
made accessible. ICT of pervasive computing will result human users as a result of the manipulation and control
in a blend of smart applications enabled by constella- of these systems by means of explicit or implicit input
tions of instruments across many spatial scales linked devices. Its special concerns include: the joint perform-
via multiple networks for providing continuous data ance of tasks by users and computers; the structure of
flowing from various urban domains (processes, activ- communication between users and computers; human
ities, movements, interactions, observations, etc.), This capabilities to use computers; algorithms and program-
can provide a fertile environment conducive to advan- ming of user interfaces; engineering issues relating to de-
cing the contribution of smart sustainable cities to sus- signing and building interfaces, the process of analysis,
tainability over the long run by monitoring, design and implementation of interfaces; and design
understanding, analyzing, and planning them in ways trade–offs. HCI also deals with enhancing usability and
that strategically assess, improve, and sustain this learnability of interfaces; techniques for evaluating the
contribution. performance of interfaces; developing new interfaces and
interaction techniques; developing and applying design
4.1.5 Computer security methodologies to real–world problems; prototyping new
Computer security aims to protect information from software and hardware systems; exploring new para-
unauthorized access, disruption, or modification while digms for interaction (e.g., natural interaction); and de-
maintaining the accessibility and usability of the system veloping models and theories. As to developing new
for its intended users. Security is highly important to en- technologies for communication and dissemination, new
sure that all technological components associated with sources of urban data, the articulation of urban prob-
big data applications for smart sustainable cities are sup- lems, plans and policies, and all the apparatus used in
ported by security measures. Massive repositories of engaging the community in developing smart sustainable
urban data are at stake, and failure to protect these data cities require new forms of online participation making
will pose risks and threats to the functioning of such ap- use of the latest ICT in terms of state–of–the–art HCI
plications, as well as to the safety and well–being of citi- and distributed computation (Batty et al., 2012).
zens. Therefore, security measures should be at the
center of urban policy and governance practice associ- 4.1.7 Artificial intelligence
ated with the design, development, deployment, and im- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that mimics
plementation of applied data-driven technology human intelligence. This subfield of computer science is
solutions within smart sustainable cities. Any attempt of concerned with understanding the nature of human
an unauthorized access, malicious attack, or abuse of in- intelligence and creating machines capable of emulating
formation on citizens, infrastructures, networks, and fa- the natural intelligence displayed by humans. McCarthy
cilities can compromise the integrity of these solutions (2007) defines AI as “the science and engineering of
and related applications and services. Smart sustainable making intelligent machines.” Accordingly, AI involves
cities generate colossal amounts of data on virtually the modeling and simulation of human cognitive and be-
every urban process, which must be securely maintained havioral aspects into machines, such as reasoning, infer-
for processing, analysis, and sharing. Urban environ- ence, learning, language production, problem-solving,
ments are now being continually forged in sensorial, in- decision–making, and action-taking. Implementing as-
formational, and communicative processes. It is a world pects of human intelligence in computer systems is one
where smart sustainable cities think of us, where the en- of the main practical goals of AI within data-driven
vironment reflexively monitors our behavior, including smart sustainable cities of the future. One of the key
the extent to which we behave in a sustainable way uses of AI techniques in this context is to identify,
through the activities and processes we perform on a understand, model, and simulate situations of urban life
daily basis. and implement them in computer systems so that they
become able to adaptively, proactively, or knowledgeably
4.1.6 Human–computer interaction (HCI) take the most relevant actions, e.g., based on context-
A common thread running through most definitions of aware computing or big data computing in terms of de-
HCI is that it deals with the study, development, and cision-making. Both of these advanced technologies
involve highly sophisticated and dedicated techniques are turning into constellations of instruments across
and algorithms associated with data mining, machine many scales and thus being reduced to algorithmic and
learning, statistical analysis, predicting modelling, and calculative procedures and morphing into a haze of soft-
database query. These can perform complex computa- ware instructions. These are becoming essential to urban
tional processing of data for timely and accurate deci- operational functioning, planning, and management.
sion–making purposes. Big data can be better managed
through AI processes, which render systems faster and
more intelligent. More recently, AI applications have be- 4.2 Data science
come an integral part of many urban domains. Urban AI Data science is largely seen as the umbrella discipline
manages transport systems, energy systems, traffic sys- that incorporates a number of other disciplines. To put
tems, communication systems, distribution networks, it differently, data science is the amalgamation of nu-
and even health systems, in addition to environmental merous parental disciplines. As an example of capturing
monitoring, waste collection, and street lighting control. this, Blei and Smyth (2017) describe data science is “the
For example, machine learning algorithms can process child of statistics and computer science,” where the
traffic data and, over time, learn to predict accidents be- “child” metaphor appropriately depicts that data science
fore they happen to save lives, or process energy data inherits from both its parents, but eventually evolves
and similarly predict power outages and use relevant into its own entity. They further elaborate: “data science
models for power usage to smooth out peaks. Armed focuses on exploiting the modern deluge of data for pre-
with such information, data-driven smart sustainable cit- diction, exploration, understanding, and intervention. It
ies of the future can re-engineer streets and traffic sig- emphasizes the value and necessity of approximation
nals, energy systems, and distribution networks, and take and simplification; it values effective communication of
pre-emptive actions. The increasing adoption of AI is the results of a data analysis and of the understanding
expected to continue, so is its impact on the different as- about the world and data that we glean from it; it priori-
pects of sustainability. However, AI must not be the sole tizes an understanding of the optimization algorithms
focus of future cities due to the risk of losing human and transparently managing the inevitable tradeoff be-
dimensions. tween accuracy and speed; it promotes domain-specific
analyses, where data scientists and domain experts work
4.1.8 Software engineering together to balance appropriate assumptions with com-
Software engineering is the systematic application of en- putationally efficient methods.”
gineering approaches to the development, design, imple- As an interdisciplinary field, it employs theories, meth-
mentation, testing, operation, improvement, odologies, and practices from across several fields within
maintenance, and documentation of complex software. the context of statistics, mathematics, computer science,
According to Sommerville (2007, p. 7), “Software engin- information science, and data engineering while morph-
eering is an engineering discipline that is concerned with ing them into a new discipline. Computer science fo-
all aspects of software production from the early stages cuses more heavily on the theory and mathematical
of system specification to maintaining the system after it foundations that serve as a basis for programming
has gone into use.” Engineering computer applications languages, whereas information science is primarily con-
software and computer systems software are at the heart cerned with analysis, collection, classification, manipula-
of data-driven smart sustainable urbanism with respect tion, storage, retrieval, dissemination, and protection of
to applied technology solutions and their implementa- information. Computer information systems focus more
tion in operative management and development plan- on solving practical problems or improving processes
ning. Such solutions are associated with many computer with computing technology. The practical engineering
applications software and computer systems software goal of data science: actionable knowledge extracted
spanning many urban systems, including smart grids, from large bodies of data and consistent patterns for
smart meters, smart environmental monitoring systems, generating predictive models, takes it beyond traditional
smart waste collection systems, smart street lighting sys- approaches to analytics, e.g., the statistical methods that
tems, smart transport systems, smart traffic systems, have prevailed over several decades were originally de-
smart urban metabolism models, and smart healthcare signed to perform data–scarce science, i.e., to identify
systems, just to name a few. They are also involved in significant correlations and relationships from small,
city operating systems and city operations centers. Our clean sample data sizes with known attributes. The fu-
urban everydayness is entangled with data sensing, data ture of data science not only exceeds the boundary of
processing, and communication networking, and our statistical theories in scale and methodology, but data
wired and connected world generates and analyzes over- science will revolutionize current academia and research
whelming and incredible amounts of data. Modern cities paradigms (Donoho, 2015).
Data science is often said to include particularly the al- explaining, and predicting urban processes and problems
lure of big data, the fascination of unstructured data, the in relation to the environmental, economic, social, and
advancement of data–intensive techniques and algo- physical aspects of sustainability via the automated ana-
rithms, and the precision of mathematics and statistics. lysis of the deluge of urban data, coupled with special-
It employs scientific methods, systems, processes, and al- ized knowledge, creativity, and common sense of urban
gorithms to extract useful knowledge and valuable in- data analysts or scientists. Accordingly, data–science ori-
sights from large masses of data in various forms using a ented analytic thinking enables one to evaluate urban
set of analytics techniques, such as data mining and pat- sustainability proposals for data mining projects in the
tern recognition, statistical analysis, data visualization context of data-driven smart sustainable cities. If a plan-
and visual analytics, and prediction and simulation mod- ner, strategist, or expert proposes to improve a particular
eling. These analytics techniques rely on machine learn- energy, transport, traffic, environment, or healthcare ap-
ing (artificial intelligence) techniques and huge plication by extracting useful knowledge from urban
computational power to process and analyze data. Re- data, it is crucial for the data analyst to be able to assess
cent years have witnessed a remarkable progress with re- the proposal systematically and decide whether and why
gard to handling big data and performing sophisticated it is sound or flawed. This concerns identifying weak
analytics, and these have been utilized in urban science spots, unrealistic assumptions, and unconnected and
(e.g., Batty et al., 2012; Bibri, 2019e; Kitchin, 2016). Big missing pieces rather than determining whether it will
data entail a wide spectrum of observational data gener- actually succeed.
ated through transactional, operational, planning, and The fundamentals of data science incorporated in data
social activities that are not specifically designed for re- science technologies underlie the functioning of big data
search. Their use for research and analysis becomes sig- analytics, e.g., data mining as a process of extracting use-
nificantly complicated as a result of the structure and ful knowledge from large masses of data for enhancing
access conditions associated with the ever-increasing decision–making and generating deep insights. In organ-
deluge of data in the urban context. New sources of data izing thinking and analysis, these fundamentals make it
are rapidly emerging as a result of technological, institu- possible to deeply understand data science approaches
tional, economic, environmental, and social innovations. instead of focusing in depth on the wide range of spe-
Data science is a flourishing field, and its particular cific data mining algorithms (Provost & Fawcett, 2013).
concerns are relatively new and its general principles are Compared to other big data analytics techniques,
just evolving. Its ultimate goal is to enhance decision– coupled with the fact that data science is of a wider ap-
making pertaining to a large number and variety of do- plication than the use of data mining, data mining algo-
mains across many fields through the practice of data rithms provide the most explicit illustrations of data
analytics—data–driven decision–making (DDD). Yet, science fundamentals, which differ from, and are com-
data science requires a careful thinking about what kind plementary to, statistics and database querying. How-
of available data might be used and how these data can ever, in the context of data-driven smart sustainable
be used in relation to a given application domain, specif- urbanism, it has become important to foster the ability
ically in terms of the problem that is to be tackled (Bibri to approach urban sustainability problems ‘data–analyt-
& Krogstie, 2018). It assumes access to and utilization of ically,’ as well as to assess how urban data can improve
large masses of data, and often benefits from sophisti- sustainability performance in relation to diverse urban
cated data engineering facilitated by data processing and domains. This implies that the knowledge extracted
other software technologies being in use within a wide from large bodies of urban data is assumed to be in the
variety of organizations and institutions. In light of the form of nontrivial, actionable models. This entails apply-
above, it becomes clear why several terms have become ing a set of fundamental concepts that facilitate careful
muddled, confused, mixed–up, and interchanged in the urban data-analytic thinking, understanding data mining
world of big data. They overlap and interweave with one techniques and data science applications in relation to
another, but are still quite distinct. Ultimately, it be- sustainability dimensions, and developing relevant
comes necessary to understand the purpose, value, and frameworks for structuring urban thinking about data
scope of each term so as to give the terms their real analytics (sustainability) problems so that it can be done
meaning, as all play an integral part in the world of big systematically.
data. Currently, the data in those disciplines and applied
In the context of data-driven smart sustainable urban- fields that have lacked solid theories, like the social sci-
ism, data science involves a set of unified concepts, prin- ences and related disciplines, could be utilized to gener-
ciples, processes, and techniques as fundamentals that ate powerful predictive models. Cleveland (2001) urges
are incorporated in cutting–edge technologies distrib- prioritizing the extraction of applicable predictive tools
uted across diverse urban domains for understanding, over explanatory theories from colossal amounts of data.
For the future of data science, Donoho (2015) projects knowledge–driven science (Kelling et al., 2009, p. 613).
an ever-growing environment for open science where Here, the conventional deductive approach can still be
data sets used for academic publications are accessible employed to test the validity of potential hypotheses but
to all researchers. Open science also involves making sci- on the basis of guided knowledge discovery techniques
entific research available to all levels of an inquiring so- that can be used to mine the data to identify such hy-
ciety, as well as disseminating, sharing, and developing potheses. It is argued that the data–driven science will
knowledge through collaborative networks. The scope become the new dominant mode of scientific method in
and impact of data science will, as concluded by Donoho the upcoming Zettabyte Age because its epistemology is
(2015), continue to enormously expand in the upcoming suited to exploring and extracting useful knowledge and
decades as scientific data and data about science itself valuable insights from enormous, relational datasets of
become overwhelmingly abundant and ubiquitously high potential to generate more holistic and extensive
available. Already, significant progress has been made models and theories of entire complex systems rather
within data science, information science, computer sci- than parts of them, an aspect which traditional know-
ence, and complexity science with respect to handling ledge–driven science has failed to achieve (Kelling et al.,
and extracting knowledge and insights from big data and 2009; Miller, 2010).
these have been utilized within urban science. In recent years, big data science and analytics has
brought about a radical change in the basic concepts,
4.3 Data–intensive science theories, assumptions, and experimental practices of sci-
Having emerged as a result of the recent advances in big ence—thought patterns or ways of reasoning within the
data science and analytics and the underpinning tech- ruling theory of science, marking a paradigm shift from
nologies, data-intensive science is instigating a radical the dominant scientific way of looking at the world. The
change in every scientific discipline. With this fourth current model of reality, which has dominated a pro-
paradigm of science, everything about science is chan- tracted period of puzzle–solving, is undergoing a sudden
ging because of the impact of the ever-increasing deluge epistemological break with wide–ranging societal impli-
of data and the advancement of data analytics tech- cations. The history of science has shown that the turbu-
niques. In data-intensive scientific discovery, the mining lence that sets in can lead to a paradigm shift that takes
and exploration of scientific data is intended to unify place over varied periods of time. Kuhn (1962) suggests
theory, simulation, and experimental verification. Data– that the history of science can be divided up into times
intensive science is a data–driven, exploration–centered of normal science and briefer periods of revolutionary
form of science, where big data computing and the science. The author characterizes normal science (when
underpinning technologies are heavily used to help sci- scientists add to, elaborate on, and work with a central,
entists and scholars manage, analyze, and share data for accepted scientific theory) as the process of observation
multiple purposes (Bibri, 2019e). As an epistemological and puzzle solving that takes place within a paradigm,
or paradigmatic shift, it involves mainly two positions. whereas revolutionary science occurs when one para-
The first position is a form of inductive empiricism in digm overtakes another in a paradigm shift (e.g., Bird &
which the data deluge, through analytics as manifested Zalta, 2013). Data-intensive science is taking an identifi-
in the data being wrangled through an array of multitu- able form and increasingly gaining its own new fol-
dinous algorithms to discover the most salient factors lowers, which are currently in the phase of intellectual
concerning complex phenomena, can speak for itself free conflict with the hold-outs of the old paradigm of sci-
of human framing and subjectivism and without being ence (Bibri, 2019e). In this regard, this new scientific
guided by theory (as based on conceptual foundations, truth is not only making its opponents see the light, but
prior empirical findings, and scientific literature). As ar- eventually die, manifested in the new generation of data
gued by Anderson (2008), “the data deluge makes the science advocates growing up that is familiar with this
scientific method obsolete’ and that within big data stud- truth. In addition, the rationale for the choice of the
ies ‘correlation supersedes causation, and science can ad- data-intensive approach to science as an exemplar is a
vance even without coherent models, unified theories, or specific way of viewing the current reality, where this
really any mechanistic explanation at all.” This relates to view and the status of this exemplar are mutually re-
exploratory data analysis which may not have pre–speci- inforcing. This paradigm shift in science is so convincing
fied hypotheses, unlike confirmatory data analysis which that normally renders the possibility of new epistemo-
is used in the traditional way of doing science that does logical alternatives intuitive, thereby not obscuring the
have such hypotheses. The second position is data– possibility of the existence of other imageries that are
driven science, which seeks to generate hypotheses out hidden behind the current paradigm of science. Besides,
of the data rather than out of the theory, thereby seeking the conviction that the current paradigm of science is
to hold to the tenets of the scientific method and reality tends to disqualify evidence that might
undermine the paradigm of science itself, which leads to cities. In this respect, it entails making sense of cities as they
a build-up of reconciled inconsistencies and anomalies are by identifying relationships and urban laws, as well as
that are determined to accumulate, and thus cause a predicting and simulating likely future scenarios under dif-
paradigm shift in science. This is responsible for the ferent conditions, potentially providing valuable insights for
eventual revolutionary overthrow of the incumbent para- planning and development decision–making and policy
digm of science, and its replacement by a new one formulation (Kitchin, 2015). As such, it involves data–
(Kuhn, 1962). Yet, the acceptance or rejection of a para- analytic thinking and computational modeling and simu-
digm is a social process as much as a logical process, an lation approaches to exploring, understanding, and
argument that relates to relativism: the idea that know- explaining urban processes, and also addressing several
ledge and truth exist in relation to culture, society, or challenges posed by urban data. The two fundamental
historical context, and are not absolute, or that views are ones are: (1) how to handle and make sense of billions
relative to differences in perception and consideration. of observations that are being generated on a dynamic
There is no universal, objective truth according to rela- basis (Batty et al., 2012) and (2) how to translate the
tivism; rather, each point of view has its own truth. insight derived into new urban theory (fundamental
Kuhn (1962, p. 170) denies the accusation of being a knowledge) and actionable outcomes (applied know-
relativist later in his postscript: scientific development is ledge) (Batty, 2013; Foth, 2009; Ratti & Offenhuber,
“a unidirectional and irreversible process. Later scientific 2014). In this respect, urban science radically extends
theories are better than earlier ones for solving puzzles… quantitative forms of urban studies, blending in data sci-
That is not a relativist’s position, and it displays the ence, social physics, and geo–computation (Batty, 2013).
sense in which I am a convinced believer in scientific The new urban science—which is underpinned by urban
progress.” sustainability science, a transdisciplinary field that inte-
grates and fuses theories from urban sustainability and
4.4 Urban science sustainability science—seeks to make cities more sus-
As a result of the increasing prevalence and widespread tainable, resilient, efficient, livable, and equitable by ren-
development of smart cities and the growing application dering them more measurable, knowable, and tractable in
and use of big data analytics, the definition of urban in- terms of their operational functioning, management, plan-
formatics has become narrow and limited. As an ex- ning, development, and governance (Bibri, 2019e).
ample, Thrift (2014b) describes urban informatics as big
data analytics for efficiency and productivity gains in city 4.5 Modeling and simulation
contexts, unless the arts and social sciences are added to Modeling and simulation is an emerging discipline that
the interdisciplinary mix. This particular specialization is based on developments in diverse areas of computer
within urban informatics has been referred to as urban science. It is also influenced by developments in com-
science (Batty, 2013) or “data–driven, networked urban- plexity science, data science, urban science, systems en-
ism” (Kitchin, 2015). Accordingly, it is not uncommon gineering, and systems theory. This foundation brings
that urban informatics and urban science are used inter- together elements of art, science, engineering, and de-
changeably as they do overlap in many aspects. However, sign in a complex and unique way that requires domain
the strong recursive relationship between urban science experts to enable appropriate decisions when it comes to
and data–driven urbanism lies in that the former pro- the application and use of modeling and simulation
vides the fundamental ideas and the key tools to enact methods within the domain of data-driven smart sus-
city analytics and data–driven decision–making, and the tainable urbanism.
latter provides the applied domain and raw material The concepts of modeling and simulation are often
(Kitchin, 2016). used interchangeably, or as synonyms within disciplines.
Urban science is an interdisciplinary field within which Within the emerging discipline of modeling and simula-
data science is practiced. Its ultimate goal is to enhance de- tion, however, these two concepts are treated as distinct-
cision–making pertaining to a large number and variety of ive and of equal importance. Modeling is understood as
urban domains through the practice of big data analytics. the purposeful abstraction of reality, resulting in the for-
Positioned at the intersection of science and design, urban mal specification of a conceptualization and the under-
science draws on new disciplines in the natural science and lying assumptions and constraints. Simulation denotes
information science, and seeks to exploit the development the production of a computer model of something.
of modern computation and the growing abundance of Modeling and simulation involve models that are used
data. As a research field, it is concerned with the study of to support the implementation of an executable version
diverse urban issues and problems, and thus aims to pro- on a computer over time. Modeling focuses mainly on
duce both theoretical and practical knowledge that contrib- the conceptualization aspects and simulation mainly on
utes to understanding and solving them in contemporary the implementation aspects. In more detail, modeling
and simulation is the use of models—e.g., physical, optimize its designs and thus operational functioning
mathematical, or logical representation of a system or and management.
process—as a basis for simulations—i.e., computational Building simulation and prediction methods on top of
methods for implementing a model to develop data as a the patterns and models generated through the process
basis for decision–making pertaining, for example, to of big data analytics as part of a holistic system for the
planning, design, and operational functioning. city is intended to deal with both short-term and long-
One of the existing taxonomies of modeling and simu- term issues in the context of sustainability. Simulation
lation that is of relevance to data-driven smart sustain- models help predict potential changes so that the risks
able city planning, design, and operational functioning and contingencies that might arise through city planning
includes: can be avoided or mitigated, and that the implementa-
tion and testing costs following city design and develop-
Analyses support is conducted in support of urban ment can be significantly reduced, especially for new
planning. Very often, the search for an optimal cities. One of the significant challenges pertaining to
solution (e.g., integration of urban design principles data-driven smart sustainable urbanism is the construc-
with data-driven smart technology solutions to ad- tion of new powerful forms of simulation models that
vance sustainability) that shall be implemented is embrace the concept of the city as a complex, multifa-
driving these efforts. What–if analyses of alternatives ceted, dynamic, and contingent system. That is to say, a
fall into this category as well. This sort of work is new class of simulation models that simulate various ac-
often accomplished by simulysts. A special use of tivities in the city that will evolve as its structures them-
analyses support is applied to urban operations. selves evolve and become smarter as to their
Simulation methods improve the functionality of de- contribution to sustainability. This relates to city dynam-
cision support systems by adding the dynamic elem- ics as self-organizing evolution processes in the sense of
ent, and also allow to compute estimates and forces or properties which stimulate growth, develop-
predictions, including optimization and what–if ment, or change within the city system.
analyses. Regarding the human capacity to predict the behavior
Systems engineering support is applied for the of complex systems through modeling, it is believed that
design, development, and testing of systems (energy, the sciences of complex phenomena cannot be modeled
transport, traffic, etc.). It can start in early phases after the sciences that essentially deal with simple phe-
and include topics like executable system nomena. This argument is particularly associated with
architectures. And it can support testing by chaotic systems whose long−term behavior remains diffi-
providing a virtual environment in which tests can cult to forecast with accuracy. Prigogine (1997) argues
be carried out. This type of work is often that complexity gives no way whatsoever to precisely
accomplished by engineers and architects. predict the future. Nonetheless, one can theoretically
make accurate predictions about the city on the basis of
the kind of knowledge that is as good as it is possible in
Modeling and simulation are of high importance and regard to the relevant equations describing its behavior.
relevance to the domain of data-driven smart sustainable Hayek (1978) explains that complex phenomena can
urbanism. Representing the real system of data-driven only allow pattern predictions using modeling ap-
smart sustainable cities of the future using computa- proaches, compared to the precise predictions pertaining
tional models that allow modelling and simulating its dy- to non − complex phenomena. The former is at the core
namics and changes allows exploring its behavior in an of the simulation models that are intended to translate
articulated way, which would otherwise be not possible, the structure of the city into a set of equations charac-
too expensive to deploy, or too risky in the real-world terizing the nature of the underlying relationships and
setting. Modeling and simulation are a key enabler for their direction and strength, predicated on the assump-
engineering activities and operations associated with tion that the set of reciprocal relationships pieced to-
complex systems, such as data-driven smart sustainable gether generate the patterns of behavior exhibited by the
cities in terms of its design and development. A collec- city. The whole idea is still unfeasible in practice at the
tion of applicative modeling and simulation methods to current stage of research in complexity science and its
support systems engineering activities is provided in application in data-driven smart sustainable urbanism.
(Gianni, D’Ambrogio, & Tolk, 2014). The computational The use of computer simulation is primarily intended
representation of the system of data-driven smart sus- to stimulate applied research in the simulation of the
tainable cities of the future enables engineers, designers, adaptive behavior of the city due to the underlying web
and planners to reproduce the underlying behavior and of reciprocal relationships that cycle to generate the kind
act upon the outcome in ways that enhance and of behavioral patterns that its overall system exhibits as
a manifestation of the interaction and cooperation be- on how complex systems function and its effective in-
tween different constituent components as nested sys- corporation in the very design, engineering, and model-
tems in themselves and representing networks of ing of the technological systems intended to monitor,
networks. In this regard, the simulation of the adaptive understand, analyze, and plan the city for achieving the
behavior of the city on a computer system necessitates desired outcomes. Especially, complexity science brings
ensuring that the set of the reciprocal relationships in- together deep scientific questions pertaining to sustain-
volved generate the patterns of behavior that its overall ability with application–driven goals.
system exhibits. Important to consider additionally are
the mechanisms believed that the city uses to control it- 4.6 Complexity science and complex systems
self. The basic idea is to explore how things are related Complexity science is a set of conceptual tools and the-
to and affect each other, and how they are connected to, ories from an array of disciplines (Benham-Hutchins &
configured in, and constrained by the diverse subsystems Clancy, 2010; Paley & Gail, 2011). It deals with complex
forming the city system in terms of pressures and expec- systems as a collection of interconnected parts that are
tations. The ultimate aim is to design, build, and manage dynamical, unpredictable, and multidimensional in na-
the control systems of engineering solutions enabled by ture. It has been discussed in both natural and social sci-
big data technology in such that they can proliferate and ences. In a wide range of related complex systems,
increase in size and connectivity in response to urban computational modeling, as based on mathematical de-
growth, environmental pressures, changes in socio–eco- velopments and modeling approaches from physics, is
nomic needs, discontinuities, and transitions. Many real undertaken to study the behavior of complex systems to
complex systems, including cities, have the potential for better understand them. Software engineering expertise
radical qualitative changes while retaining systemic in- can be used to apply new results as well as to inspire
tegrity. However, the adaptive behavior of the city is in- new approaches in this regard (Batty et al., 2012).
herently impossible to fully model computationally, As an emerging approach to research, complexity sci-
irrespective of the amounts of data available and the ence is the scientific study of complex systems, systems
level of data velocity due to the kind of relationships be- composed of many parts connected and joined together
tween the dynamically increased number of its internal by a web of relationships that interact to generate col-
sub–systems and between these and their external envir- lective behaviors which cannot easily be explained on
onment. Such behavior has distinct properties that arise the basis of the interaction between those parts as indi-
from the nature of these relationships given that it inte- vidual constituent elements. In this respect, complexity
grates different models of urbanism with their own de- entails the way a vast number of complicated and dy-
signed complex systems (i.e., compact, ecological, and namic sets of relationships, interactions, or dependencies
technological). can produce some behavioral patterns. Complexity sci-
The commonalities among complex systems as they ence is integral to the understanding of data-driven
appear in a wide variety of disciplines or emerging fields, smart sustainable cities, which is a moving target in that
including data-driven smart sustainable urbanism, have they are becoming more complex through the very tech-
become the topic of their own independent area of re- nologies being used to understand them.
search. A deeper understanding of the dynamical prop- As an approach to science, complex systems investigates
erties and processes of complex systems is crucial to how the relationships, interactions, or dependencies be-
bringing about a drastic change to both the simulation tween the parts of a system give rise to its collective be-
models that we are able to build based on the analysis of havior, and how it interacts and forms relationships with
big data deluge of various velocities (especially real–time its environment (Yaneer, 2002). Thus, it is principally con-
data) and at different spatial scales and over different cerned with the behaviors and properties of systems. As a
time spans, as well as to the way in which the underlying research approach, it deals with problems in many differ-
technologies can inform planning and decision pro- ent disciplines, including information theory, computer
cesses. Such properties are at the core of the new con- science, mathematics, statistical physics, biology, ecology,
ceptions of the way the city functions and thus can be nonlinear dynamics, sociology, and economy. As an inter-
planned and designed. Specifically, as a set of interacting disciplinary field, it draws on theoretical contributions and
subsystems, the city should be built to be scalable, ro- perspectives from these disciplines, e.g., spontaneous
bust, resilient, stable, and balanced by incorporating order from the social sciences, chaos from mathematics,
such dynamical properties as self–organization, emer- cybernetics from technology, self–organization from phys-
gence, adaptation, feedback loops, spontaneous order, ics, adaptation from biology, and many more others.
nonlinearity, and evolution. On the whole, what is cru- Worth pointing out is that complex systems are character-
cially important in the quest for making the city function ized by nonlinearity and indeed require more than sim-
as a social organism is deeper and broader knowledge plistic linear thinking as they feature a large number of
interacting elements (patterns, agents, processes, etc.) of mimicking biological systems. Complexity science is a
whose aggregate activity (behaviors, relationships, interac- subject of study that is well positioned to bringing to-
tions, etc.) does not emanate from the summations of the gether deep scientific questions pertaining to sustainabil-
activity pertaining to the individual elements. As such, ity and urbanization with driven-driven solutions goals
they typically exhibit hierarchical self–organization under within the field of data-driven smart sustainable urban-
some kind of selective pressures. Examples of complex ism. Its contemporary applications are complemented by
systems include cities, ecosystems, organisms, global cli- a rich background of theoretic work.
mate, neural network, human brain, ICT network, and the Complexity science touches on all facets of science
entire universe. In relation to cities, Bibri (2018a) system- and technology, creating an array of multitudinous new
atically explores, based on complexity science and systems opportunities within numerous research domains. Im-
thinking as theoretic approaches, the key structures, be- portant to underscore in this context is that complexity
havioral patterns, dynamic properties, relationships, inter- is not just determined by the large number of parts of a
actions, and dependencies underlying data-driven smart system with very intricate design, but also by such dy-
sustainable cities as complex systems and dynamically namical properties as self–organization, adaptation,
changing environments. The author also discusses the po- emergence, feedback loops, and nonlinearity. In the con-
tential of big data analytics and related urban intelligence text of data-driven smart sustainable cities, technological
functions and simulation models for improving and ad- and engineering systems based on big data analytics are
vancing the process of sustainable urban development. primarily designed to minimize these tricky dynamical
Advanced ICT is founded on the application of complex- properties. These can otherwise make such cities diffi-
ity theory to urban systems in terms of tracking changing cult to design, predict, and control. However, if desirable
dynamics, disentangling intractable issues, and tackling emergent behaviors and processes can be managed, har-
complex challenges. Urban systems are becoming ever nessed, and exploited, they can allow to move beyond
more complex through the technologies being used to the limits of conventional technological and engineering
understand them. Besides, complex systems cannot be systems that are merely complicated. Apart from that,
understood and studied without the use of sophisticated we are dealing with the traditional approach to tackling
computational and data analytics. In light of this, com- complexity, which aims to reduce or constrain it and
plexity science is linked to many different disciplines and thereby typically involves compartmentalization: dividing
professional fields that have cities as their concern. Cities a large system into separate parts. Technological and en-
can only be studied in an interdisciplinary context, and gineering systems are susceptible to failure for they are
the perspective here involves developing a social physics often designed using modular components, and where
and data–driven science of cities that are consistent with failure usually results from the potential issues arising to
treating their structure and evolution as complex systems. bridge the divisions.
The concerns that complexity science addresses have Concerning the question of where complexity science
grown out of numerous investigations from a varied in- is headed, the recent trends in this scientific discipline
tellectual ancestry, including cybernetics, general sys- are bringing together research from a variety of estab-
tems theory, chaos theory in dynamical systems, lished disciplines, including computer science, data sci-
complex systems, mathematical systems, and complex ence, data-intensive science, sustainability science,
adaptive systems (social systems, urban systems, etc.) mathematics, complex adaptive systems, systems biology,
where the parts actively change the way they interact. systems ecology, environmental sciences, systems engin-
The increased use of computer simulation created re- eering, physics, and management towards new develop-
search in the simulation of adaptive behavior in the ments with wide–ranging implications. This is to
1990s. From 2000s and onward, complexity science has stimulate new research opportunities and create new re-
taken stock of what has been accumulated as substantive search directions and innovative cross−disciplinary activ-
knowledge of all this rich background of work. A key ities. Indeed, the push from academia and industry to
part of the current emphasis of complexity science is its solve complexity challenges pertaining to modern cities
application to practical technological and engineering and other complex systems in a variety of fields has pro-
systems in that control systems need to be designed, duced a massive response from the academic community
managed, and constructed as they proliferate and in- and several research funding councils across the globe.
crease in size and connectivity in a variety of contexts, One of the most enticing aspects of complexity science
e.g., control systems associated with data-driven smart is its interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary nature. Im-
sustainable cities. It is desirable to have the ability to portant to underscore in this regard is the interface of
build systems that are scalable, robust, and adaptive by complexity science with organismic biology, cellular
using such properties as self–organization, self–adapta- biology, molecular biology, and ecology, in addition to
tion, self–regulation, self–repair, and evolution as a way many different disciplines. This involves fascinating
possibilities to learn from how complex adaptive systems for modeling this phenomenon). Interacting complex
cope with emergent dynamical behaviors and properties, systems can be modeled as networks of networks (e.g.,
as well as to adapt to, control, harness, and exploit them Gao, Buldyrev, Stanley, & Havlin, 2011 and Majdandzic
in every possible way to be thought of. Indeed, a lot of et al., 2016 for their breakdown and recovery
research in complexity science spanning diverse do- properties).
mains, including data-driven smart sustainable urban-
ism, is seeking ways to understand, analyze, model, and 4.7 Sustainability science
extract the useful properties and behaviors of biological The link between sustainable development and science
systems using big data analytics for applied purposes re- stems from the idea that the former is an aspiration
lated to planning, design, and development. This offers that should, as realized by several scholars over the past
the prospect of better understanding complex systems decade, be achieved only on the basis of scientific
and gaining inspiration for new approaches into solving knowledge. This has justified the establishment of a
the technological and engineering challenges associated new branch of science due to the fact that, arguably,
with human systems in terms of control, management, humanity is confronted at an ever unprecedented rate
optimization, resilience, robustness, and prediction. and larger scale with the ramifications of its own suc-
Among the systems from ICT that need new approaches cess as a species. The way things have changed in re-
inspired by biological systems to handling complexity in cent years (and the attempts being undertaken to take
the context of data-driven smart sustainable cities in- this into account) calls for a scientific approach to un-
clude, but are not restricted to, the following: derstanding the underlying web of ongoing, reciprocal
relationships in the process of cycling to generate the
Large–scale software development patterns of behavior that the ecosystems are exhibiting,
and to figure out the mechanisms these ecosystems are
Data processing and management systems
using to control themselves. The point is that the com-
Database management and integration
plexities, uncertainties, and hazards of the human ad-
Sensor networks
ventures are triggering unprecedented changes
Infrastructure networks increasingly requiring insights from all the sciences to
Semantic web tackle them if there is a shred of seriousness about the
Cloud and fog computing aspiration to enhance and sustain the quality of life.
Grid and distributed computing The real challenge emanating from the fragmented
Wireless network reconfiguration character of science lies in understanding and acting
Telecommunication systems and Internet networks. upon the causal mechanisms and behavioral patterns in
response to the reciprocal relationships between differ-
The inspiration can emanate from the various charac- ent complex systems across several time and space
teristic features of biological systems, including evolution scales. This calls for fusing disciplines, a transdisciplin-
dynamics, DNA and self–replication, metabolic net- ary approach that reconciles and amalgamates the the-
works, gene regulation networks, ecosystem sustainabil- oretical and practical knowledge, the quantitative and
ity, and immune systems and repair. The relevant topics qualitative perspectives, and the natural and social sci-
that help connect the biological inspiration with the ences. Sustainability science is what such an integrative
challenges pertaining to technological and engineered approach entails, and whose emphasis is on under-
systems include, but are not limited to, network science, standing changes in states rather than just their
dynamical systems, feedback control, machine learning, characterization. Systems theory and system analysis
statistical theory of complex systems, information the- approaches have become the most coherent expres-
ory, evolutionary design and algorithms, self– sion of this insight (Bossel, 2004). Sustainability sci-
organization and –regulation, simulation modeling, and ence is perhaps the most clear and desirable
data mining and time series analysis. illustration of the endeavor of reinforcing the unified
For example, in terms of complexity and network sci- approaches and unifying tendencies in science, as well
ence, complex systems can be represented by a network as of liberating the study of real-world processes
where nodes represent the components and links repre- from the boundaries between the scientific disciplines
sent their interactions (Dorogovtsev & Mendes, 2003; (de Vries, 2013).
Newman, 2010). Examples in this regard relate to ICT Sustainability is a relatively new area of science that
networks, infrastructure networks, urban networks, so- focuses on explaining and understanding the dynamic
cioeconomic networks, biological networks, and neural interactions of socio–ecological systems, of which the
networks. Networks as parts of complex systems can fail city represents a clear illustration and perfect ex-
and recover spontaneously (see Majdandzic et al., 2013 ample. It holds much promise as an approach to
dealing with the kind of wicked problems and intract- research and technological innovation and policy and
able issues pertaining to city planning and develop- public administration processes in relevance to sustain-
ment. Sustainability has theoretical foundations and ability. In concrete terms, sustainability science focuses
assumptions from which it has grown that have so- on the interactions between the resource system, the hu-
lidified it into a defined science which centers on man system, and the governance system to identify and
general truths and laws, as well as on scientific solve potential problems through devising and imple-
methods of enquiry. As a flourishing scientific discip- menting holistic solutions. This research field seeks to
line, sustainability science has emerged in the early give the ‘broad–based and crossover approach’ of sus-
2000s (e.g., Clark, 2007; Clark & Dickson, 2003; tainability a solid scientific foundation. It also provides a
Kates, Clark, Corell, Hall, & Jaeger, 2001; Lee, 2000). critical and analytical framework for sustainability
As with the definition of sustainability, a consensual (Komiyama & Takeuchi, 2006), and “must encompass
definition of sustainability science is difficult to pin different magnitudes of scales (of time, space, and func-
down. Kieffer et al. (2003, p. 432) define sustainability tion), multiple balances (dynamics), multiple actors
science as “the cultivation, integration, and application (interests), and multiple failures (systemic faults)” (Reitan,
of knowledge about Earth systems gained especially 2005, p. 77). In addition, sustainability science can be
from the holistic and historical sciences...coordinated viewed as “neither basic nor applied research but as a field
with knowledge about human interrelationships defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the
gained from the social sciences and humanities, in disciplines it employs; it serves the need for advancing
order to evaluate, mitigate, and minimize the conse- both knowledge and action by creating a dynamic bridge
quences...of human impacts on planetary systems and between the two” (Clark, 2007, p. 1737).
on societies across the globe and into the future.” As From a broader perspective of sustainability science,
an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field, it some views highlight the need to probe the root causes
mixes and fuses disciplines across the natural sci- of the fundamental unsustainability of the predomin-
ences, social sciences, and applied and engineering ant paradigms of technological, economic, and societal
sciences. The philosophical and analytic framework of development. In this line of thinking, Bibri (2015) pro-
sustainability draws on and connects with numerous vides an analytical account of the implications of ICT
different disciplines and fields. Sustainability is studied of pervasive computing as a form of advanced science
and examined in various contexts of environmental, and technology for environmental and societal sustain-
social, economic, and cultural development, and also ability. Sustainability science must involve the role of
managed over many temporal and spatial scales. The technology both in exasperating the unsustainability of
focus ranges from macro levels starting from the (sus- social practices as well as in tackling the problems they
tainability) of planet Earth to the sustainability of so- generate, in addition to including the study of the soci-
cieties, regions, cities, and neighborhoods, as well as etal structures as to material consumption (e.g.,
economies, ecosystems, and communities, and to mi- Brown, 2012).
cro levels encompassed in buildings and individual To grasp the integrated whole of the socio–ecological
lifestyles. system to tackle the underlying problems necessitates
As a research field, sustainability science probes the global political consensus and collaboration between so-
complex mechanisms involved in the profound interac- cial, economic, scientific, and technological disciplines in
tions between environmental, economic, and social sys- terms of scholars and practitioners, as well as the active
tems to understand their behavioral patterns and engagement of citizens, communities, organizations, and
changing dynamics in order to create upstream solutions institutions. One of the key missions of sustainability sci-
for tackling the complex challenges associated with the ence as a more disciplined framework is to aid in coord-
systematic degradation of the natural system and the inating cross–disciplinary integration as a critical step
concomitant perils to human well–being, the challenges towards a global joint effort and concerted action. In
that imperil the integrity of the planet’s life support sys- addition, the way in which sustainability science as a
tems and compromise the future of human life. It is con- scholarly community can best contribute to the under-
cerned with advancing knowledge on how the natural standing and implementation of the goals of sustainable
and human systems interact in terms of the underlying development should be based on an in–depth critical
reciprocal relationships for the purpose of designing, de- analysis and evaluation through scenario analysis, scien-
veloping, implementing, evaluating, and constantly opti- tific research, technological innovation, stakeholder rela-
mizing and enhancing human engineered systems as tionships, participatory decision-making, and policy
practical solutions and interventions that support the recommendations and impacts. To achieve these goals,
notion of the socio–ecological system in balance and in short, requires taking an all–inclusive approach by
nurture and sustain the linkages between scientific mobilizing diverse actors, factors, and resources in the
same direction, which is a daunting endeavor to both failures and successes, as well as to achieve a deep
undertake. understanding of how socio–ecological systems function
to be able to work with, anticipate, and harness the
4.8 Urban sustainability science underlying dynamics. This relates to what is termed as
As an emerging scientific discipline, urban sustainability short-term planning, which can well be enabled by big
science integrates urban sustainability and sustainability data analytics. Planning across multiple time scales in-
science and is informed by urban science and data–increase the contribution of the city to the goals of sus-
tensive science, which are in turn informed by big data tainable development in the long term by means of
science and analytics. continuous reflection in the short term. “Short–termism
The objective of urban sustainability is to uphold the in city planning is about measuring, evaluating, mod-
changing dynamics and thus reciprocal relationships elling, and simulating what takes place in the city
(within and across levels and scales) that maintain the over hours, days, or months instead of years or de-
ability of cities to provide not just life–supporting, but cades. In this context, big data can be used to derive
also life–enhancing, conditions, exhibited by their col- new theories of how the city functions in ways that
lective behavior as complex systems. To achieve this, the focus on much shorter term issues than hitherto, and
city should work towards enhancing the underlying much more on mobility and movement than on the
physical, environmental, social, and economic systems long–term functioning of the city as a complex sys-
over the long run by means of sustainable interventions tem.” (Bibri, 2020e, p.16).
supported by advanced technologies and their novel ap- The quest for finding an urban planning and develop-
plications, with the primary purpose of maintaining pre- ment approach that can accommodate the wicked prob-
dictable behavioral patterns and thus stable reciprocal lems of cities, especially in relation to sustainability and
relationships. These typically cycle to produce the be- urbanization, and overcome the complexity and unpre-
havioral patterns that the city exhibits as a result of how dictability introduced by socio–political factors is in-
it is planned, designed, and thus operate and develop. In creasingly inspiring scholars to combine urban
particular, as the positive adaptation of the city depends sustainability and sustainability science under what has
upon how well it adjusts with the environment, it needs recently been termed “urban sustainability science.” This
to make changes to protect itself and grows to accom- term is informed by urban science, a field within which
plish its goals in terms of achieving the ultimate goal of data science is practiced, which in turn informs and sus-
sustainability. One way of doing this is to self–correct it- tains data–driven smart urbanism (Kitchin, 2016). Data-
self based on reactions from the environmental system intensive science is transforming urban science and sus-
with respect to climate change and related hazards and tainability science and the way they inform and sustain
upheavals. This feature relates to the adaptive nature of urban sustainability.
complex systems in that they have the capacity to While the introduction of sustainability to the goals of
change and learn from experience, which has to do with urban planning and development added another layer of
evolutionary resilience. This denotes the ability of a sys- complexity brought about by the consideration of envir-
tem, not only to bounce back from events causing a onmental externalities and socio-economic concerns, the
shock through robust behavior, but also to adapt and new urban science has opened new windows of oppor-
learn from the past behaviors to surpass the previous tunity to deal with the complex problems and conun-
state by extending its capacity. drums in cities on the basis of modern computation and
To put it differently, the objective of urban sustainabil- data abundance. Bibri (2019e) concludes that the new
ity can be accomplished by rendering the city processual urban science—which is informed and sustained by big
in its conception, flexible in its planning, scalable in its data science and analytics—seeks to make cities more
design, and efficient in its operational functioning in sustainable, resilient, efficient, livable, and equitable by
order to be able to respond to and deal with population rendering them more measurable, knowable, and tract-
growth, environmental pressures, and changes in socio– able. The great innovation of big data science and ana-
economic needs, as well as to keep up with global shifts, lytics and the underlying technologies is that the urban
discontinuities, and societal transitions. This involves problems should be approached in full knowledge, which
maintaining the critical structures, key dependencies, supposes a new approach to scientific development
functional integrity, resource availability, well–being, and based on massive–scale data. As an evolving, systematic
capacity for regeneration and evolution of the city. What enterprise building and organizing knowledge in the
is important with regard to ensuring the persistence of form of explanations and predictions about the world,
structures and conditions necessary for keeping the city data–intensive scientific development entails using data–
system within a preferred stability state is the need for driven inductive empiricism and data–driven science.
continuous reflection as an effective way to learn from These recent epistemological approaches are at the heart
of urban science (Kitchin, 2016), which informs urban power, coupled with the data deluge available for
sustainability science. This new science as involving scholarly inquiry or scientific exploration. This is par-
complex dynamics of human–natural system interac- ticularly important in the context of urban science
tions in cities requires a decisive, radical change in the and urban sustainability for gaining new interactional
way science is undertaken and developed. Such change and unifiable knowledge necessary for exploiting the
is what data–intensive scientific development entails—as opportunity of using advanced technologies to solve
enabled and driven by big data science and analytics. real–world problems and challenges, particularly those
There are various reasons that justify the adoption associated with sustainability and urbanization. In
of data–intensive scientific development in urban sus- contrast to urban knowledge derived from longer
tainability science. It is imperative for this scientific standing, more traditional urban studies, big data sci-
field, which focuses on understanding the dynamic in- ence and analytics as practiced within the field of
teractions of the socio-ecological systems of the city, urban science and urban sustainability offers the po-
to develop and apply an advanced approach to scien- tential for a new form of knowledge that is inherently
tific inquiry and exploration for dealing with the kind longitudinal, and has greater breadth, depth, scale,
of wicked problems and intractable issues pertaining and timeliness.
to urbanism as a set of multifaceted, contingent prac- The solutions to the kind of wicked problems and in-
tices. Also, urban sustainability science should em- tractable issues associated with urban sustainability are
brace data–intensive scientific development in order anchored in the recognition that the urban world has be-
to be able to transform knowledge on how the nat- come more integrated, complex, contingent, and uncer-
ural and human systems in the city interact in terms tain. The data–intensive approach applied to urban
of the underlying (changing) dynamics for the pur- sustainability science is primarily meant to facilitate the
pose of designing, developing, implementing, evaluat- link of such problems and issues to the type of problems
ing, and enhancing human engineered systems as and issues explored and probed by sustainability science
practical solutions and interventions that support the through massive–data–scale analytics. The understand-
idea of the socio–ecological system in balance. This ing of the city as an instance of socio–ecological systems
embrace is additionally aimed at nurturing and sus- based on sustainability science principles using a data–
taining the linkages between scientific research and driven analytical approach can help address and over-
technological innovation and policy and public admin- come the challenges associated with the wicked prob-
istration processes in relevance to sustainability. To lems and intractable issues related to urban planning
put it differently, the data–intensive approach to and development in the context of sustainability. There
urban sustainability science is of high relevance to the is a host of new practices that sustainability science
cultivation, integration, and application of knowledge could bring to urban sustainability under the umbrella
about natural systems gained especially from the his- of data–intensive science, an argument that needs to be
torical sciences, and its coordination with knowledge developed further and to become part of mainstream de-
about human interrelationships gained from the social bates in urban research, practice, and policy. This argu-
sciences and humanities. This is of crucial importance ment is being stimulated by the ongoing discussion and
for evaluating, mitigating, and minimizing the development of the new ideas about the untapped po-
intended and unintended consequences of anthropo- tential of big data science and analytics for advancing
genic influences on socio-ecological systems across sustainability science and urban sustainability, as well as
the globe and into the future. Another rationale for merging them into a holistic framework informed by
adopting data–intensive scientific development is that urban science and data science. Urban sustainability sci-
urban sustainability science mixes and fuses disci- ence as a research field seeks to give the broad–based
plines across the natural sciences, social sciences, for- and crossover approach of urban sustainability a solid
mal sciences, and applied sciences. The analytical scientific foundation. It also provides a critical and ana-
framework of urban sustainability science draws on lytical framework for urban sustainability and, to draw
and links with numerous disciplines and fields, and is on Reitan’s (2005) view on sustainability science, must
studied and examined in various contexts of environ- encompass different magnitudes of scales (of time, space,
mental, economic, social, and cultural development and function), multiple balances (dynamics), multiple ac-
and managed over many temporal and spatial scales. tors (interests), and multiple failures (systemic faults). In
In view of that, big data science and analytics can addition, it should be viewed as a field defined more by
perform more effectively with respect to achieving the the kind of wicked problems and intractable issues it ad-
desired outcomes expected from the application of dresses rather than by the academic and scientific disci-
the interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity ap- plines it employs, thereby being neither basic nor
proaches to research due to the underlying analytical applied research. As such, it serves the need for
advancing both knowledge discovery and actionable de- its applied domain: scientific smart sustainable
cisions by creating a dynamic bridge between the two urbanism; and
thanks to new big data analytics techniques. What will what kinds of urban problems will urban
be exciting to witness in the near future is: sustainability science be able to address and solve,
using more advanced big data technologies.
how big data science and analytics will evolve and to

what extent it will reshape urban sustainability 5 Conclusion
science through data-intensive science; This paper identified, describes, discuses, evaluates, and
what kinds of new tools and techniques will be thematically organizes the core academic and scientific
invented that would not have come into existence if disciplines underpinning the field of data-driven smart
not for the integration of the parental disciplines of sustainable urbanism. It primarily serves to facilitate col-
data science, adding to the extent to which they will laboration and integration between disciplines for the
drastically change urban sustainability science and sheer purpose of generating the kind of interactional and
Fig. 2 An interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary framework for the core academic and scientific disciplines underlying data-driven smart
sustainable urbanism
unifiable knowledge necessary for a broader and more in- Code availability
clusive understanding of the topic of data-driven smart Not applicable.
sustainable urbanism (Fig. 2). This is a key contribution

Author’s contributions
that supports the ethos of interdisciplinarity and transdis- The author has read and approved the published version of the manuscript.
ciplinarity characterizing the research field of data-driven
smart sustainable urbanism. While the interdisciplinary Funding
perspective is about pooling approaches and insights from The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or
publication of this article.
several disciplines and adjusting them in such that the
resulting outcome becomes well suited to examining Availability of data and materials
problems in this field, the transdisciplinary approach goes Not applicable.
beyond pooling and adjusting disciplinary approaches to
include their fusion to readily explore these problems in Competing interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the
their complexity. Therefore, adopting interdisciplinary and research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
transdisciplinary scholarly approaches in this context
makes it possible to flexibly respond to the topic under Received: 10 November 2020 Accepted: 18 January 2021
study and thus uncover the best way of addressing it. Such
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sustainable urbanism (Fig. 2). This is a key contribution

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 how big data science and analytics will evolve and to

sustainable urbanism (Fig. 2). This is a key contribution

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Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Cohesiveness in terms of sense of community, including, in addition to corporatization and anticipatory

how big data science and analytics will evolve and to