Smart cities and innovative urban management: Perspectives of integrated technological solutions in urban environments.

The increasing urbanization in a poorly planned way accentuates the imbalance between the population's needs and the organized development in urban spaces. The present study is based on the development of a situational diagnosis in the scope of a smart city, for the contextualization of potential opportunities for actions and innovation strategies in urban spaces. This article presents a literature overview covering the innovative actions developed in the scope of smart cities in scientific publications. Furthermore, the scope of the study is identifying innovation initiatives in the performance of actions and solutions for urban spaces. A literature review was developed supported by mappings, couplings, and diagrams, through the use of VOSViewer and SciMat software, and 115 articles were selected and analyzed, considering the articles based on the criterion of the coefficient of the number of citations concerning the year of publication. In the literature overview developed, it was found that the research within the scope of smart cities has been deepened over the years, with the evolution of the number of words related to the theme in the period from 2014 to 2021, as the advance in the number of publications from 2018 is noticeable, which highlights the increase in popularity regarding the topic, as well as its current relevance. The study identified thematic axes with an emphasis on technology and innovation, environment, urbanism, energy, governance, mobility, and accessibility. The results contributed by assembling innovative smart city actions and practices in an interrelated way with technology, innovation, and market-oriented constructs aimed to reach urban demands, as well as the development of innovative solutions between public institutions and business organizations to integrate urban spaces.

Digital health in smart cities: Rethinking the remote health monitoring architecture on combining edge, fog, and cloud.

Purpose: Smart cities that support the execution of health services are more and more in evidence today. Here, it is mainstream to use IoT-based vital sign data to serve a multi-tier architecture. The state-of-the-art proposes the combination of edge, fog, and cloud computing to support critical health applications efficiently. However, to the best of our knowledge, initiatives typically present the architectures, not bringing adaptation and execution optimizations to address health demands fully. Methods: This article introduces the VitalSense model, which provides a hierarchical multi-tier remote health monitoring architecture in smart cities by combining edge, fog, and cloud computing. Results: Although using a traditional composition, our contributions appear in handling each infrastructure level. We explore adaptive data compression and homomorphic encryption at the edge, a multi-tier notification mechanism, low latency health traceability with data sharding, a Serverless execution engine to support multiple fog layers, and an offloading mechanism based on service and person computing priorities. Conclusions: This article details the rationale behind these topics, describing VitalSense use cases for disruptive healthcare services and preliminary insights regarding prototype evaluation.

Maximizing Resource Efficiency in Wireless Networks through Virtualization and Opportunistic Channel Allocation.

Wireless cellular networks have become increasingly important in providing data access to cellular users via a grid of cells. Many applications are considered to read data from smart meters for potable water, gas, or electricity. This paper proposes a novel algorithm to assign paired channels for intelligent metering through wireless connectivity, which is particularly relevant due to the commercial advantages that a virtual operator currently provides. The algorithm considers the behavior of secondary spectrum channels assigned to smart metering in a cellular network. It explores spectrum reuse in a virtual mobile operator to optimize dynamic channel assignment. The proposed algorithm exploits the white holes in the cognitive radio spectrum and considers the coexistence of different uplink channels, resulting in improved efficiency and reliability for smart metering. The work also defines the average user transmission throughput and total smart meter cell throughput as metrics to measure performance, providing insights into the effects of the chosen values on the overall performance of the proposed algorithm.

Guidelines for a participatory Smart City model to address Amazon's urban environmental problems.

Climate change is a global challenge, and the Brazilian Amazon Forest is a particular concern due to the possibility of reaching a tipping point that could amplify environmental crises. Despite many studies on the Amazon Forest, this research was conducted in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, to address five gaps, including the lack of local citizen consultation on urban environmental issues, Smart Cities, decarbonization, and disruptive technologies. This study holds significance for the academy community, government bodies, policymakers, and investors, as it offers novel insights into the Amazon region and proposes a model to engage citizens in Smart Cities. This model could also guide other municipalities aspiring for participatory sustainable development with a decarbonization focus, mitigating future risks, and protecting future generations. Basically, it is an explanatory and applied study that employs mixed methods, including literature, bibliometric and documentary reviews, two questionnaires, and descriptive statistical approaches, organized in four phases to reach the following goals: (a) provide information on the main challenges facing humanity, the Brazilian Amazon state, and the city of Manaus; (b) identify the best Smart City approaches for engaging citizens in solving urban problems; (c) contextualize and consult Manaus City Hall about the effectiveness of the Smart City project; (d) investigate the perceptions of citizens living in Manaus on the main city's environmental problems, as well as their level of knowledge and interest on issues related to Smart Cities, decarbonization, and disruptive technologies; (e) propose a participatory Smart City model with recommendations. Among the result, the study found that the term "Smart City" dominates scholarly publications among nineteen urban-related terms, and the five main environmental problems in Manaus are an increase in stream pollution, garbage accumulation, insufficient urban afforestation, air pollution, and traffic congestion. Although citizens are willing to help, the majority lack knowledge on Smart City and Decarbonized City issues, but there is a considerable interest in training related to these issues, as well as disruptive technologies. It was found that Amsterdam, Melbourne, Montreal, San Francisco, Seoul, and Taipei all have a formal model to engage citizens in solving their urban problems. The main conclusion is that, after 6 years, the Smart City Project in Manaus is a political fallacy, as no model, especially with a citizen participatory approach, has been effectively adopted. In addition, after conducting a literature and documentary review and analyzing 25 benchmark Smart Cities, the P5 model and the Citizen Engagement Kit model are proposed with 120 approaches and guidelines for addressing the main environmental problems by including Manaus' citizens in the Smart City and/or decarbonization journey.

Tejido social competente para la participación ciudadana en el gobierno de las ciudades / Competent social weaving for citizen participation in city government / Tecido social competente para a participação dos cidadãos na governação das cidades

RESUMEN La Gobernanza Inteligente o participación ciudadana en el gobierno de las ciudades, es una de las dimensiones clave para considerar una ciudad como inteligente, y los portales de Gobierno En Línea han sido un medio para que esa participación se dé; sin embargo, dicha colaboración requiere de otro factor importante como lo es, la Gente Inteligente, representada en el capital social y humano existente en la ciudad o el tejido social. En esta investigación, se propone un modelo estadístico de regresión logística para la creación de dicho tejido social, con base en las competencias ciudadanas y digitales desarrolladas en las comunidades, mediante estrategias de aprendizaje permanente. El método científico soporta esta propuesta, desde la identificación del problema, el planteamiento de la solución a través del uso del modelo, la recolección de datos teniendo como muestra poblacional una comunidad de personas con discapacidad cognitiva de la Fundación FANDIC de la ciudad de Bucaramanga, Colombia y la interpretación de los resultados que sugieren la existencia de una ecuación para predecir la probabilidad de que un individuo, después de participar en un programa educativo diseñado de forma adaptativa desde la filosofía del aprendizaje permanente, forme parte de un tejido social competente. CLASIFICACIÓN: JEL 12, 13

ABSTRACT The Intelligent Governance or citizen participation in the government of the cities, is one of the key dimensions to consider a city as intelligent, and the portals of Online Government have been a means so that participation occurs; nevertheless, this collaboration requires of another important factor as it is, the Intelligent People, represented in the social and human capital existing in the city or the social weave. This research proposes a statistical model of logistic regression to support social weaving, based on the citizen and digital competencies developed in the communities, through lifelong learning strategies. The scientific method supports this proposal, from the identification of the problem, the proposal of the solution through the use of the model, the collection of data having as population sample a community of people with cognitive disability of the FANDIC Foundation of the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia and the interpretation of the results that suggests the existence of an equation to predict the probability that an individual, after participating in an educational program designed in an adaptive way from the philosophy of lifelong learning, is part of a competent social weaving. JEL CLASSIFICATION: 12, 13

RESUMO A governação inteligente ou a participação dos cidadãos no governo das cidades, é uma das dimensões chave para considerar uma cidade como inteligente, e os portais do Governo Online têm sido um meio para que essa participação seja dada; contudo, tal colaboração requer outro factor importante como é, as Pessoas Inteligentes, representadas no capital social e humano existente na cidade ou no tecido social. Nesta investigação, é proposto um modelo estatístico de regressão logística para a criação deste tecido social, baseado no cidadão e nas competências digitais desenvolvidas nas comunidades, através de estratégias de aprendizagem ao longo da vida. O método científico apoia esta proposta, desde a identificação do problema, a abordagem da solução através da utilização do modelo, a recolha de dados tendo como amostra populacional uma comunidade de pessoas com deficiências cognitivas da Fundação FANDIC da cidade de Bucaramanga, Colômbia e a interpretação dos resultados que sugerem a existência de uma equação para prever a probabilidade de um indivíduo, após participar num programa educativo concebido de forma adaptativa a partir da filosofia da aprendizagem ao longo da vida, fazer parte de um tecido social competente. CLASSIFICAÇÃO JEL: 12, 13

IoT Registration and Authentication in Smart City Applications with Blockchain.

The advent of 5G will bring a massive adoption of IoT devices across our society. IoT Applications (IoT Apps) will be the primary data collection base. This scenario leads to unprecedented scalability and security challenges, with one of the first areas for these applications being Smart Cities (SC). IoT devices in new network paradigms, such as Edge Computing and Fog Computing, will collect data from urban environments, providing real-time management information. One of these challenges is ensuring that the data sent from Edge Computing are reliable. Blockchain has been a technology that has gained the spotlight in recent years, due to its robust security in fintech and cryptocurrencies. Its strong encryption and distributed and decentralized network make it potential for this challenge. Using Blockchain with IoT makes it possible for SC applications to have security information distributed, which makes it possible to shield against Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS). IoT devices in an SC can have a long life, which increases the chance of having security holes caused by outdated firmware. Adding a layer of identification and verification of attributes and signature of messages coming from IoT devices by Smart Contracts can bring confidence in the content. SC Apps that extract data from legacy and outdated appliances, installed in inaccessible, unknown, and often untrusted urban environments can benefit from this work. Our work's main contribution is the development of API Gateways to be used in IoT devices and network gateway to sign, identify, and authorize messages. For this, keys and essential characteristics of the devices previously registered in Blockchain are used. We will discuss the importance of this implementation while considering the SC and present a testbed that is composed of Blockchain Ethereum and real IoT devices. We analyze the transfer time, memory, and CPU impacts during the sending and processing of these messages. The messages are signed, identified, and validated by our API Gateways and only then collected for an IoT data management application.

BlockSIEM: Protecting Smart City Services through a Blockchain-based and Distributed SIEM.

The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has revolutionized several industries (e.g., manufacturing, health, transport, education, among others) by allowing objects to connect to the Internet and, thus, enabling a variety of novel applications. In this sense, IoT devices have become an essential component of smart cities, allowing many novel and useful services, but, at the same time, bringing numerous cybersecurity threats. The paper at hand proposes BlockSIEM, a blockchain-based and distributed Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution framework for the protection of the aforementioned smart city services. The proposed SIEM relies on blockchain technology to securely store and access security events. Such security events are generated by IoT sentinels that are in charge of shielding groups of IoT devices. The IoT sentinels may be deployed in smart city scenarios, such as smart hospitals, smart transport systems, smart airports, among others, ensuring a satisfactory level of protection. The blockchain guarantees the non-repudiation and traceability of the registry of security events due to its features. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, our proposal is implemented using Ethereum and validated through different use cases and experiments.

DYNASTI-Dynamic Multiple RPL Instances for Multiple IoT Applications in Smart City.

Internet of Things (IoT) is evolving to multi-application scenarios in smart cities, which demand specific traffic patterns and requirements. Multi-applications share resources from a single multi-hop wireless networks, where smart devices collaborate to send collected data over a Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs). Routing Protocol for LLNs (RPL) emerged as a routing protocol to be used in IoT scenarios where the devices have limited resources. Instances are RPL mechanisms that play a key role in order to support the IoT scenarios with multiple applications, but it is not standardized yet. Although there are related works proposing multiple instances in RPL on the same IoT network, those works still have limitations to support multiple applications. For instance, there is a lack of flexibility and dynamism in management of multiple instances and service differentiation for applications. In this context, the goal of this work is to develop a solution called DYNAmic multiple RPL instanceS for multiple ioT applicatIons (DYNASTI), which provides more dynamism and flexibility by managing multiple instances of RPL. As a result of this, the traffic performance of multiple applications is enhanced through the routing, taking into consideration the distinct requirements of the applications. In addition, DYNASTI enables the support of sporadic applications as well as the coexistence between regular and sporadic applications. DYNASTI achieved results that demonstrate a significant improvement in reducing the number of control messages, which resulted in increased packet received, decreased end-to-end delay, reduced energy consumption, and an improvement in service differentiation to multiple applications.

IoT Smart Parking System Based on the Visual-Aided Smart Vehicle Presence Sensor: SPIN-V.

Humanity is currently experiencing one of the short periods of transition thanks to novel sensing solutions for smart cities that bring the future to today. Overpopulation of cities demands the development of solid strategic plannings that uses infrastructure, innovation, and technology to adapt to rapid changes. To improve mobility in cities with a larger and larger vehicle fleet, a novel sensing solution that is the cornerstone of a smart parking system, the smart vehicular presence sensor (SPIN-V, in its Spanish abbreviation), is presented. The SPIN-V is composed of a small single-board computer, distance sensor, camera, LED indicator, buzzer, and battery and devoted to obtain the status of a parking space. This smart mobility project involves three main elements, namely the SPIN-V, a mobile application, and a monitoring center, working together to monitor, control, process, and display the parking space information in real-time to the drivers. In addition, the design and implementation of the three elements of the complete architecture are presented.

Prototyping public friction: Exploring the political effects of design testing in urban space.

The use of prototypes as testing instruments has become a common strategy in the innovation of services and products and increasingly in the implementation of "smart" urban policies through living labs or pilots. As a technique for validating hypotheses about the future performance of products or policies, prototyping is based on the idea of generating original knowledge through the failures produced during the testing process. Through the study of an experimentation and prototyping project developed in Santiago de Chile called "Shared Streets for a Low-Carbon District," I analyse the technique of prototyping as a political device that can make visible (or invisible) certain entities and issues, determining what the experimental entities can do and say. I will show how the technique of prototyping defines modes of participation, what is visible and thinkable, what can be spoken and what is unspeakable. In this sense, I examine two ambivalent capacities of prototyping: as a mechanism of management and enrolment that seeks to prescribe normativities (problem-validating prototype) and as an event that can make frictions tangible, articulating matters of concern and ways to open up alternative scenarios (problem-making prototype).

The influence of context in the implementation of a smart city project: the case of Cidade Inteligente Búzios / La influencia del contexto en la implementación de un proyecto de ciudad inteligente: el caso de Cidade Inteligente Búzios / A influência do contexto na implantação de um projeto de cidade inteligente: o caso Cidade Inteligente Búzios

Abstract The growth of urban population is widely acknowledged to be a central trend that poses challenges for the administration of cities worldwide. In this context, several advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been developed to gradually transform urban centers into smart cities. In this article, we seek to contribute to filling a knowledge gap in the literature on smart city - namely the lack of empirical data in works on this subject - by investigating a project aimed at turning the municipality of Búzios in Brazil into a smart city, named Cidade Inteligente Búzios (CIB). Our objective is, thus, to describe and understand the controversial influence of the context in the implementation of the project, which was considered a success for some actors and irrelevant for others, a situation that defies the very concept of success in the implementation of smart cities.

Resumen El crecimiento de la población urbana es reconocido como una tendencia que desafía a la administración de las ciudades de todo el mundo. En este contexto, varios avances en las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) se han desarrollado para transformar gradualmente centros urbanos en ciudades inteligentes. En este artículo, intentamos llenar a un vacío de conocimiento en la literatura actual sobre ciudades inteligentes, la ausencia de dados empíricos en trabajos sobre el tema, investigando el proyecto de transformación de la ciudad de Búzios en Brasil en una ciudad inteligente, denominado Cidade Inteligente Búzios (CIB). Así, tenemos el objetivo de plantear y entender la controvertida influencia del contexto en el desarrollo dese proyecto, puesto que el emprendimiento ha sido considerado un suceso por algunos actores, mientras como irrelevante por los otros, lo que desafía el propio concepto de suceso en la implantación de ciudades inteligentes.

Resumo O crescimento da população urbana é reconhecido como uma tendência que desafia a administração das cidades ao redor do mundo. Nesse contexto, vários avanços nas tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TICs) vêm sendo desenvolvidos para transformar gradualmente os centros urbanos em cidades inteligentes. Por meio deste artigo, procuramos contribuir para preencher uma lacuna de conhecimento na literatura atual sobre cidades inteligentes — a falta de dados empíricos em trabalhos sobre esse assunto — investigando um projeto que visa transformar o município de Búzios no Brasil em uma smart city, denominado Cidade Inteligente Búzios (CIB). Assim, o objetivo deste artigo é descrever e entender a controversa influência do contexto na implantação do projeto, já que o empreendimento foi considerado um sucesso por alguns atores, e, ao mesmo tempo, irrelevante por outros, o que desafia o próprio conceito de sucesso na implantação de cidades digitais.

O uso da tecnologia da informação e comunicação para caracterizar os municípios: quem são e o que precisam para desenvolver ações de governo eletrônico e smart city / El uso de la tecnología de la información y comunicación para caracterizar a los municipios: quienes son y lo que necesitan para desarrollar acciones de gobierno electrónico y smart city / The use of information and communication technology to characterize municipalities: who they are and what they need to develop e-government and smart city initiatives

Resumo Este estudo explora as características de infraestrutura e uso das tecnologias da informação e comunicação dos municípios brasileiros, refletindo sobre a possibilidade de desenvolverem ações de governo eletrônico e smart cities. Um estudo quantitativo de análise de agrupamentos foi realizado sobre dados da Munic 2014 e identificou quatro clusters: o Sem-tecnologia, o Atento ao cidadão, o Atento à legislação e o Provido de TIC, que sugerem diferentes vias de ação em TIC. Cada grupo de municípios apresenta diferentes necessidades para o desenvolvimento de ações de governo eletrônico e smart cities, que requerem ações específicas para cada um dos quatro clusters.

Resumen Este estudio investiga las características de infraestructura y uso de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación de los municipios brasileños, reflexionando sobre la posibilidad de desarrollo de acciones de gobierno electrónico y de smart cities. Un estudio cuantitativo de análisis de agrupamientos realizado sobre datos de la investigación Munic-2014 identificó cuatro clusters: el Sin-tecnología, el Atento al Ciudadano, el Atento a la legislación y el Provisto de TIC, que sugieren diferentes vías de acción en TIC. Cada grupo de municipios presenta diferentes necesidades para el desarrollo de acciones de gobierno electrónico y smart cities que indican la necesidad de acciones específicas para cada uno de los cuatro clusters.

Abstract This study investigates the infrastructure characteristics and use of information and communication technologies of Brazilian municipalities reflecting on the possibility of developing e-government and smart cities actions. A quantitative study of cluster analysis, using data from the research "Munic 2014", identified four clusters: the Technologyless, the Concerned-on citizen, the Concerned-on legislation, and the ICT Supported, that suggest different courses of action in ICT. Each group of municipalities presents different needs for the development of e-government and smart cities actions that indicate the need for specific actions for each of the four clusters.

Application of Computational Intelligence to Improve Education in Smart Cities.

According to UNESCO, education is a fundamental human right and every nation's citizens should be granted universal access with equal quality to it. Because this goal is yet to be achieved in most countries, in particular in the developing and underdeveloped countries, it is extremely important to find more effective ways to improve education. This paper presents a model based on the application of computational intelligence (data mining and data science) that leads to the development of the student's knowledge profile and that can help educators in their decision making for best orienting their students. This model also tries to establish key performance indicators to monitor objectives' achievement within individual strategic planning assembled for each student. The model uses random forest for classification and prediction, graph description for data structure visualization and recommendation systems to present relevant information to stakeholders. The results presented were built based on the real dataset obtained from a Brazilian private k-9 (elementary school). The obtained results include correlations among key data, a model to predict student performance and recommendations that were generated for the stakeholders.