Abstract
Introduction
Welcome to a new issue of the Journal of Smart Cities and Society. Here we include four contributions to the field, considering: Smart City maturity assessment, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Smart City governance, quality of data and its influence in Smart City system design, and the impact of user's perception on electric vehicles energy network.
The first article considers assessments of Smart City maturity, which, due to the complexity of the systems considered and the possible fluency through time of cities and citizens expectations, remains a challenge. Developing an Agile Smart City Framework and maturity model: Integrating infrastructure, governance, and citizen participation by Syeda L. Mahnaz and Carlos M. Chang proposes an Agile Smart City Framework (ASCF) grounded in a five-dimensional Smart City model and aligned with ISO standards, which is exemplified in a variety of scenarios with the involvement of two cities.
As AI becomes a buzzword seen on a daily basis by most humans on this planet, this paves the way for the adoption of AI-related tools and practices, sometimes in a rush and without much more ambition than following the trend. Ecosystem factors influencing the use and governance of AI in municipalities by Leandry Jeutsa examines what this means currently for municipalities, uncovering important issues to be concerned about and suggesting directions for a healthier integration of technology into governance.
Building trustworthy smart cities: The system definition of the Smart Metrology Campus data infrastructure by Michael B. Ulbig, Daniel Hutzschenreuter, Hugo Gasca-Aragon, and Michael Kurrat focuses on the critical role of robust data infrastructure, emphasizing metrology and systems engineering to ensure reliability and interoperability. The work proposes a data quality framework combined with a methodology for system design prioritizing these issues, which is applied to a detailed case study.
The last article, Human-centered electric vehicle adoption framework for smart mobility: Modeling perceived range and charging anxiety as a psychological barrier by Fatemeh Nazari and Abolfazl Mohammadian, tackles one of the important barriers of EV adoption worldwide, in relation to driving range and battery charging availability. The results of this study are of importance for Smart City governance, sustainability, and the EV industry in general.
We are grateful to our Editorial Board Members (in alphabetical order): Sunil Choenni, Bilal Farooq, Peggy James, and Ruizhi Liao, who managed the review process of these articles.
The editorial team of this journal expects the contributions included in this issue will provide new tools to address some of the many challenges ahead to realize this societal paradigm shift and inspires and guide other colleagues in this developing community to further innovate in this sector.
We encourage all sectors of society to engage in this technical conversation as our view of this area as a multidisciplinary one which will require the input of various different professions and different levels of involvement within urban environments to produce effective innovation.