Smart Cities: Critical Debates on Big Data, Urban Development and Social Environmental Sustainability

In the age of global climate change, society will require cities that are environmentally self-sufficient, able to withstand various environmental problems and recover quickly. It is interesting to note that many "smart" solutions for cities are leading to an unsustainable future, including further electrification, an increased dependence on the Internet, Internet of Things, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence, and basically any technology that leads us to consume more electricity. This book examines critical topics in Smart Cities such as true sustainability and the resilience required for all cities. It explores sustainability issues in agriculture and the role of agri-technology for a sustainable future, including a city’s ability to locally produce food for its residents.

Features:

• Discusses safety, security, data management, and privacy issues in Smart Cities
• Examines the various emerging forms of transportation infrastructure and new vehicle technology
• Considers how energy efficiency can be achieved through behavioral change through specific building operations

Smart Cities: Critical Debates on Big Data, Urban Development and Social Environmental Sustainability brings awareness to professionals working in the fields of environmental, civil, and transportation engineering, urban planners, and political leaders about different environmental aspects of Smart Cities and refocuses attention on critical urban infrastructure that will be necessary to respond to future challenges including climate change, food insecurity, natural hazards, energy production, and resilience.

Dr. Negin Minaei holds a PhD in Urbanism, a Master’s degree in Architectural Engineering and a Master’s degree in Environmental Psychology. She also completed a full-time Postgraduate Research Program (PGR) in Transnational Spaces (Bauhaus, Germany). Since she started her post-doctoral studies in sustainable urbanism in the UK in 2012, she has researched and authored articles and chapters on cities and environments and delivered seminars on climate change and urban challenges and Smart Cities. As a university faculty and lecturer, she has taught and researched in different universities and countries for over two decades including University of Windsor (Canada), Royal Agricultural University (UK), Shandong Agricultural University (China), IAU and Bahonar University (Iran) and Bauhaus Dessau (Germany). Currently, as a Sessional Lecturer, she is teaching ‘Qualitative Research in Urban Studies’ at the University of Toronto and ‘Sustainable Buildings’ at the Ryerson University. Also, she is a visiting scholar at the City Institute at the York University in Toronto.

She started researching Smart Cities in 2015, when she was asked to write a chapter on Smart Cities. She researched and designed a course entitled Sustainable Smart Cities, approved by the Engineering Faculty at the University of Windsor and taught that course to MEng students at that university for two years. She has published books, original book chapters and articles on her main research areas such as Smart Cities, Sustainable Smart cities, Self-sufficient Cities, and Sustainable urbanism, impacts of IT, TC and advanced technologies on Global Cities, GPS and transport modes and their impacts on people’s navigation and their cognitive maps, Echo-Tech architecture using active/passive solar design systems and Zero-Energy buildings. She is interested in healthy buildings, Healthy Cities, and future cities too.