Sustainable smart city and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A review

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2025.100193

Abstract

Abstract:

The rapid urbanization and increasing challenges are faced by cities globally, including climate change, population growth, and resource constraints. Sustainable smart city (also referred to as “smart sustainable city”) can offer innovative solutions by integrating advanced technologies to build smarter, greener, and more livable urban environments with significant benefits. Using the Web of Science (WoS) database, this study examined: (i) the mainstream approaches and current research trends in the literature of sustainable smart city; (ii) the extent to which the research of sustainable smart city aligns with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); (iii) the current topics and collaboration patterns in sustainable smart city research; and (iv) the potential opportunities for future research on the sustainable smart city field. The findings indicated that research on sustainable smart city began in 2010 and gained significant momentum in 2013, with China leading, followed by Italy and Spain. Moreover, 59.00% of the selected publications on the research of sustainable smart city focus on SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). Bibliometric analysis outcome revealed that artificial intelligence (AI), big data, machine learning, and deep learning are emerging research fields. The terms smart city, smart cities, and sustainability emerged as the top three co-occurring keywords with the highest link strength, followed by frequently co-occurring keywords such as AI, innovation, big data, urban governance, resilience, machine learning, and Internet of Things (IoT). The clustering results indicated that current studies explored the theoretical foundation, challenges, and future prospects of sustainable smart city, with an emphasis on sustainability. To further support urban sustainability and the attainment of SDGs, the future research of sustainable smart city should explore the application and implications of AI and big data on urban development including cybersecurity and governance challenges.

Key words: Sustainable smart city, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Bibliometric analysis, Co-occurrence analysis, Co-citation analysis

Z. R. M. Abdullah KAISER, Apu DEB. Sustainable smart city and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A review[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2025, 6(1): 100193.

Figures/Tables 14

Table 1

Comparison of sustainable city, smart city, and sustainable smart city."

Criteria	Sustainable city	Smart city	Sustainable smart city	Source
Definition	Concentrating on reducing environmental effects, preserving resources, and advancing social equity for a sustainable and eco-friendly urban environment.	Advanced technology and data-driven approaches are utilized to optimize urban services, improve efficiency, and foster economic development.	Incorporating both sustainability goals and advanced technologies to attain equitable urban development and simultaneously solve environmental, social, and economic concerns for improving citizens’ quality of life.	Ahvenniemi et al. (2017); Bibri and Krogstie (2017); Haarstad (2017); Angelidou et al. (2018); Martin et al. (2018); Sodiq et al. (2019); Kaiser (2024)
Core focus field	Attaining SDGs, resource and ecological conservation, environmental sustainability, and social equity.	Urban efficiency was powered by innovative and advanced technology and the collection and optimization of data.	Incorporating environmental goals alongside technological advancements to achieve balanced urban development.
Primary goal	Reducing environmental degradation and emissions, promoting green space and infrastructure, and supporting community well-being.	Improving efficiency by utilizing ICT and innovation, enhancing urban services, and promoting economic growth.	Utilizing digital tools to promote sustainable urban growth with an emphasis on ecological and social equity objectives.
Main challenge	Conflicting with development, ensuring funding, maintaining a consistent policy commitment, and promoting social inclusion.	Digital divide, potential corporate dominance, initial high cost, techno-centric focus, and limited citizen engagement.	Keeping a balance between SDGs and technology adoption, while ensuring equitable urban benefits and co-benefits.
Approach	Prioritizing policy-oriented frameworks and focusing on regulations and standards.	Highly relying on data analytics, smart grids, IoT, and smart devices to manage urban functions.	Integrating rules and regulations with data-driven insights to ensure sustainable urban development.
Technological integration	Primarily focusing on green technologies and sustainable infrastructure for sustainability.	Intensive and extensive use of ICT, IoT, AI, and data analytics for urban management.	High emphasis on using technology to attain sustainable and equitable urban outcomes.
Environmental emphasis	Highly emphasis on reducing carbon footprint, promoting green spaces, and conserving resources and biodiversity.	Frequently ignoring environmental targets and focusing more on social and economic advancement.	Emphasizing the need to bridge technology and environmental sustainability.
Social equity	Aiming to improve the quality of life, reduce inequality, and strengthen social infrastructure.	Concentrating mostly on affluent and educated demographics and potentially overlooking marginalized communities.	Striving to integrate social inclusion by making technology accessible and beneficial to all.
Assessment framework	Urban sustainability frameworks focus on environmental and quality-of-life indicators.	Smart city frameworks prioritize technology deployment, efficiency, and economic growth.	Comprehensive frameworks assess both environmental and technological impacts.
Resilienc to climate change	Concentrating on sustainable infrastructure to mitigate climate risks like flooding, global warming, and extreme weather events.	Technology-driven resilience strategies including predictive analytics and early-warning systems.	Combining green infrastructure and predictive technology for comprehensive climate resilience.
Data privacy and security	Less focusing on data privacy and security, as data collection is minimal.	Extensive data collection raises privacy and security concerns, with varying levels of privacy protection.	Emphasizing on ethical data practices and balancing data utilization with strong privacy protections.
Biodiversity conservation	Focusing on preserving natural habitats and expanding green spaces.	Less emphasis on biodiversity and more on urban efficiency.	Integrating biodiversity conservation with technology to monitor and protect urban flora, fauna, and efficiency.
Circular economy approach	Highly emphasizing recycling, use of renewable energy, and sustainable consumption.	Limited implementation of circular economy principles.	Optimizing waste reduction through the integration of smart technology and the widespread adoption of circular economy practices.
Partnership	Promoting local and global partnerships with environmental organizations.	Focusing on high tech-industry partnerships and often neglecting non-profit engagement.	Encouraging inclusive partnerships across public, private, and non-profit sectors for shared urban development goals.

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Table 5

Cluster analysis results of the selected publications during 2010-2024."

Cluster	Focus	Total items	Authors and publication year	Top cited article	Total citations
Cluster 1	Sustainable smart city and sustainability	40	Ahvenniemi et al. (2017)	What are the differences between sustainable and smart cities?	642
			Akande et al. (2019)	The Lisbon ranking for smart sustainable cities in Europe	166
			Hoang et al. (2021)	Integrating renewable sources into energy system for smart city as a sagacious strategy towards clean and sustainable process	247
			De Guimarães et al. (2020)	Governance and quality of life in smart cities: Towards sustainable development goals	156
			Lazaroiu and Roscia (2012)	Definition methodology for the smart cities model	360
			Lytras and Visvizi (2018)	Who uses smart city services and what to make of it: Toward interdisciplinary smart cities research	198
			Visvizi and Lytras (2018)	Rescaling and refocusing smart cities research: from mega cities to smart villages	137
			Huovila et al. (2019)	Comparative analysis of standardized indicators for smart sustainable cities: What indicators and standards to use and when?	234
			Yigitcanlar et al. (2018)	Understanding ‘smart cities’: Intertwining development drivers with desired outcomes in a multidimensional framework	262
			Yigitcanlar and Kamruzzaman (2018)	Does smart city policy lead to sustainability of cities?	188
Cluster 2	Future of sustainable smart city	55	Al Nuaimi et al. (2015)	Applications of big data to smart cities	407
			Alavi et al. (2018)	IoT-enabled smart cities: State-of-the-art and future trends	175
			Allam and Dhunny (2019)	On big data, artificial intelligence, and smart cities	397
			Chen and Han (2018)	Water quality monitoring in smart city: A pilot project	331
			Bibri (2018)	The IoT for smart sustainable cities of the future: An analytical framework for sensor-based big data applications for environmental sustainability	408
			Moreno et al. (2021)	Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, resilience and place identity in future post pandemic cities	263
			Papa et al. (2020)	E-health and wellbeing monitoring using smart healthcare devices: An empirical investigation	157
			Perera et al. (2017)	Fog computing for sustainable smart cities: A survey	236
			Sharma and Park (2018)	Blockchain based hybrid network architecture for the smart city	201
			Vlacheas et al. (2013)	Enabling smart cities through a cognitive management framework for the IoT	252
Cluster 3	Theoretical foundation of sustainable smart city	27	Albino et al. (2015)	Smart cities: Definitions, dimensions, performance, and initiatives	1495
			Angelidou (2015)	Smart cities: A conjuncture of four forces	413
			Anttiroiko et al. (2014)	Smart cities in the new service economy: Building platforms for smart services	158
			Bifulco et al. (2016)	ICT and sustainability in smart cities management	157
			Caragliu et al. (2011)	Smart cities in Europe	173
			Castelnovo et al. (2016)	Smart cities governance: The need for a holistic approach to assessing urban participatory policy making	148
			Gabrys (2014)	Programming environments: Environmentality and citizen sensing in the smart city	374
			Lee et al. (2014)	Towards an effective framework for building smart cities: Lessons from Seoul and San Francisco	458
			Gil-Garcia et al. (2016)	Conceptualizing smartness in government: An integrative and multi-dimensional view	166
			Vanolo (2014)	Smart mentality: The smart city as disciplinary strategy	690
			Zygiaris (2013)	Smart city reference model: Assisting planners to conceptualize the building of smart city innovation ecosystems	349
Cluster 4	Sustainable smart city practices and challenges	23	Datta (2015)	New urban utopias of postcolonial India: ‘Entrepreneurial urbanization’ in Dholera smart city, Gujarat	320
			Joss et al. (2019)	The smart city as global discourse: Storylines and critical junctures across 27 cities	174
			Kaika (2017)	‘Don’t call me resilient again!’: the New Urban Agenda as immunology… or … what happens when communities refuse to be vaccinated with ‘smart cities’ and indicators	273
			Klopp and Petretta (2017)	The urban sustainable development goal: Indicators, complexity and the politics of measuring cities	257
			Martin et al. (2018)	Smart and sustainable? Five tensions in the visions and practices of the smart-sustainable city in Europe and North America	223
			Mora et al. (2019)	Strategic principles for smart city development: A multiple case study analysis of European best practices	169

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Table 6

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SDGs	Number of publications	Percentage (%)
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities	1124	59.07
SDG 13: Climate Action	172	9.04
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production	103	5.41
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy	96	5.05
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure	93	4.89
SDG 15: Life on Land	51	2.68
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being	47	2.47
SDG 4: Quality Education	43	2.26
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation	24	1.26
SDG 1: No Poverty	12	0.63
SDG 2: Zero Hunger	11	0.58
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth	10	0.53
SDG 14: Life below Water	3	0.16
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities	2	0.11
SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions	2	0.11
SDG 5: Gender Equality	1	0.05

Journal name	Number of publications	Percentage (%)	Total citations
Sustainability	289	15.19	4205
Sustainable Cities and Society	86	4.52	3378
Energies	61	3.21	930
Smart Cities	60	3.15	1101
Cities	54	2.84	3571
Journal of Cleaner Production	42	2.21	2218
IEEE Access	34	1.79	731
Journal of Urban Technology	24	1.26	4385
Sensors	21	1.10	465
Applied Sciences	19	1.00	72

Cluster	Focus	Sub-theme
Cluster 1	Sustainable smart city and sustainability	Sustainable development
		Renewable energy
		Quality of life
		Resilience
		Smart city models
		Standardized indicators
		Interdisciplinary research
Cluster 2	Future of sustainable smart city	AI applications
		Water quality monitoring systems
		Environmental sustainability
		Post-pandemic city planning
		E-health
		Fog computing
		Blockchain architectures
Cluster 3	Theoretical foundation of sustainable smart city	Smart city definitions
		Smart services
		ICT and sustainability
		Urban governance
		Participatory policymaking
		Citizen sensing
		Smart governance
Cluster 4	Sustainable smart city practices and challenges	Entrepreneurial urbanization
		Global smart city discourse
		Urban resilience
		Urban indicators
		Smart-sustainable city visions
		Best practices in smart city development