Problems of Development Comfortable Human Life Environment

based on Sustainable City Concept

Timur Ablyazov

Departmnet of Economics and Management, Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering,

4 Vtoraya Krasnoarmeiskaya, 190005, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation

Keywords: Smart Sustainable City, Human Life Environment, Interdisciplinary Approach, Digital Technologies, Big

Data, Digital Platforms.

Abstract: The development of the human environment in the digital economy is associated with the spread of digital

technologies within the framework of the concept of a smart city. Nevertheless, the concept of sustainability

of the living environment in the long term, taking into account environmental and socio-economic factors, is

becoming increasingly important, which is reflected in the concept of a smart sustainable city. The concept

of a smart sustainable city, in large part due to its complexity and long horizon of modeling, is a key area of

improving the human environment at the present stage of development of technology, society and economy.

The article describes the concept of a smart sustainable city, considers practical examples of the

implementation of this concept. As a result of the work, the problems inherent in the development of the living

environment based on the concept of a smart sustainable city were identified, and the relevance of the

application of an interdisciplinary approach to their solution was substantiated.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the context of accelerating urbanization and the

emergence of a digital economy (Ablyazov & Asaul,

2018; United Nations, 2015), improving the human

environment is becoming a key area of socio-

economic development for individual cities, regions

and countries. One of the most common theoretical

approaches to the development of the living

environment is the concept of a smart and sustainable

city. It is known that the concept of a smart city was

first mentioned in the 1960s, which was associated

with the appearance of cybernetically planned cities

(Gabrys, 2014). According to other scientists, the

concept of a smart city began to be applied only in the

1990s. (Dameri & Cocchia, 2013; Neirotti et al,

2014). Moreover, there is an opinion that the

implementation of the concept of a smart city has

been observed only in the last 10-15 years (Batty et

al, 2012).

In general, a smart city shall be considered as a set

of digital (smart) elements of the human environment,

including transport, energy, education, health care,

public administration, economy, housing and

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1579-4320

communal services, construction, etc.

(Vishnivetskaya & Ablyazov, 2019; Vishnivetskaya

& Elexandrova, 2019). Nevertheless, more and more

attention of the scientific community is being paid to

the questions of the living environment sustainability,

not just the introduction of digital technologies for the

development of one of the above elements of urban

infrastructure.

The concept of sustainability is at the intersection

of three components of the human habitat -

environment, economy and society (Bibri, 2021). The

concept of a sustainable city covers a wider range of

tasks for the development of the living environment

than smart city, including improving the quality of the

environment from an ecological point of view and

also the socio-economic development of territories

(creating a competitive economy, reducing

unemployment, increasing the affordability of

housing, education and health care, community

involvement in solving city and country development

issues) (PwC, 2015).

The concept of a sustainable city is aimed to

create such a living environment, where attention

shall be paid to the natural resources usage,

Ablyazov, T.

Problems of Development Comfortable Human Life Environment based on Sustainable City Concept.

DOI: 10.5220/0010662900003223

In Proceedings of the 1st International Scientiﬁc Forum on Sustainable Development of Socio-economic Systems (WFSDS 2021), pages 5-10

ISBN: 978-989-758-597-5

biodiversity, prevention of pollution of territories, the

growth of the well-being of citizens, the

intensification of scientific research, equality before

the law, involvement in the issues of city

management, etc.

Thus, while the concept of a smart city is focused

on the spread of digital technologies in certain areas

of the living environment (transport, public

administration, education, etc.), a sustainable city is

inextricably connected with the integrated

development of the human environment, and it

doesn't have to be based on the technological

improvement of infrastructure, as the emphasis is on

results rather than the tools to achieve them.

Currently, such an approach to the development

of the human life environment as a smart sustainable

city is gaining popularity, which combines the issues

of improving the technological equipment of the

territory's infrastructure and focusing on

environmental and socio-economic aspects in the

long term (50-100 years) (Al-Nasrawi et al, 2015;

Höjer & Wangel, 2015; Kramers et al, 2016). A smart

sustainable city is an innovative city where digital

technologies shall be used to improve the quality of

life of the population and the efficiency of services in

the city, providing the needs of future generations of

residents in terms of environmental and socio-

economic components.

The implementation of this concept is an

interdisciplinary task, because the wide range of

issues that need to be taken into account when

building a smart sustainable city include the theory

and practice of such areas of knowledge as

informatics, urban planning, sociology, political

science, economics, public administration,

psychology, engineering, education, medicine, etc.

Due to the complexity and multidimensionality of the

concept of a smart sustainable city, the work analyzes

the practical experience of implementing smart

sustainable city technologies and highlights the

problems inherent in this process. The purpose of the

work is to propose ways to solve the identified

problems in order to intensify the sustainable

development of the human environment.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

The formation of a sustainable human living

environment is currently inextricably linked with the

digital tools usage in order to analyze the

development of the territory and manage the digital

transformation of the city. Let's look at some

examples of smart sustainable city technologies.

The Urbanseed platform allows you to analyze the

state of the human environment in such areas as

housing construction, infrastructure facilities and

economic activities of territorial entities in order to

manage urban development (Urbanseed, 2021).

Urbanseed is intended for city authorities, developers,

cadastral services. The platform has combined three

aspects of the sustainability of the living environment

- ecology (landscaping the territory, preserving

biodiversity), economy (income and expenses from

the implementation of an investment and construction

project) and society (type of development, integration

into the living environment).

A digital platform created by EDF is operating in

Singapore, which allows, in the shortest possible time

(5-10 minutes), to create a 3D model of a city district

in the field of assessing energy efficiency, population

mobility, and the level of greenery (Vivapolis, 2019).

With the help of technology, the state of the living

environment shall be predicted after the introduction

of one or another innovation, the modeling period

reaches 20 years, which makes possible to assess the

financial, environmental and social aspects of the

solution.

Also, according to the results of the 4th WeGO

Awards, which evaluates the results of the formation

of smart sustainable cities around the world, digital

technologies of such cities as Moscow, Istanbul, Sao

Paulo, Mexico City, Jakarta, Georgetown, Seongnam,

Mashsad, etc. (Winners of the 4th WeGO Awards,

2020). Accordingly, capitals and million-plus cities

do not always become leaders in the development of

the living environment. Thus, the Digital Saint-

Etienne platform (France) is aimed at developing the

human environment in 3 districts with 7 thousand

inhabitants (Vivapolis, 2019). The platform allows to

rank projects by priority, increase the manageability

of infrastructure, and improve interaction with the

population.

Thus, there are examples around the world of digital

tools (usually digital platforms) used to improve the

living environment in accordance with the concept of

a smart sustainable city. Digital technologies shall be

used in various aspects of city functioning , therefore,

for their integration within a single platform, it is

necessary to form interdisciplinary teams. It is also

worth noting that all the tools for implementing the

concept of a smart sustainable city (in different

directions, by type - sensors, systems, platforms, open

portals, etc.) should be interconnected, since

otherwise it is difficult to achieve the development

goals of the territory.

WFSDS 2021 - INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC FORUM ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

3 RESULTS

The concept of smart sustainable cities has spread

over the past 10-15 years, and the development of a

living environment, taking into account both

technological aspects and sustainability over a long

period of time, is accompanied by a number of

problems.

The main barrier to the effective development of

the human life environment is the lack of a holistic

vision of the transformation results. Very often cities

develop infrastructure only in terms of new

technologies, but a smart sustainable city must

simultaneously develop in social, economic,

environmental and technological directions

(Abdoullaev, 2011).

Moreover, the concept of a smart sustainable city

can be implemented in cities with different population

sizes - from small cities to world megapolises,

however, the development of smart cities shall be still

associated to a greater extent with world capitals and

large industrial centers.

In general, there is no city always developing

completely in accordance with the concept of a smart

sustainable city, since at one time or another the

improvement of the living environment is aimed at

one or several aspects, including management, new

technologies, mobility, openness and inclusiveness,

safety, sustainability (Winners of the 4th WeGO

Awards, 2020).

As noted earlier, the human environment can be

developed both in accordance with the concept of a

smart city and with the concept of a sustainable city,

separating them. However there is a need to combine

the two concepts in practice, and this approach leads

to the following problems (Bibri, 2019)

1. Smart city technologies are aimed at increasing

the efficiency of the processes of functioning of the

living environment, and the concept of a sustainable

city is more focused on solving problems in the long

term (ecology, living standards, development of

economic ties, etc.).

2. Not all digital technologies in a smart city are

aimed at improving the resilience of the living

environment. This problem is especially manifested

in matters of environmental preservation.

3. Assesment of the results of the concept of a

smart city implementation shall be carried out in a

shorter period of time in comparison with the

planning horizon for a sustainable city.

4. Within the framework of a smart city, investors

try to introduce as many new technologies as

possible, but not all of them shall be required if we

consider the living environment and from the point of

view of sustainability.

5. Problems of sustainability of the living

environment already require immediate solutions,

while smart city technologies are often aimed at

solving potential problems that leads to the

accumulation of unresolved problems in the field of

sustainability of the living environment, which will

be even more difficult to solve in the future.

6. A smart city is largely aimed at the economic

and technological development of the territory, with

less, than in a sustainable city, taking into account the

social and environmental results of certain

innovations.

7. A smart city shall be assessed in terms of the

economic efficiency of the introduction of new

technologies, while sustainable technologies

spreading shall not be always associated with profit,

since there are indirect environmental and social

effects.

In addition, the problematic aspects in the field of

the formation of a smart sustainable city, presented in

Fig. 1, are interrelated, and their solution requires

taking into account the experience and knowledge of

specialists in different fields of activity. Each of these

blocks has obstacles on the path of transformation,

and in the aggregate, these problems must be solved

systematically.

Figure 1: The problematic aspects in the field of the

formation of a smart sustainable city (Shmelev &

Shmeleva, 2009).

Currently, the development of the human

environment is associated with the use of an

interdisciplinary approach, since the implementation

of the concept of a smart sustainable city requires the

development of solutions that are at the intersection

of areas of scientific knowledge (Ablyazov, 2020).

Problems of Development Comfortable Human Life Environment based on Sustainable City Concept

Moreover, in order to successfully overcome the

problems in the implementation of the concept of a

smart sustainable city, it is necessary to involve the

population and business entities in the process of

finding optimal solutions (PwC, 2015). The

inhabitants of the territory can both focus the

attention of professionals on previously unaccounted

for problems, and offer solutions based on their own

experience. Entrepreneurial structures can, on the one

hand, gain practical experience in introducing their

own technologies, and on the other hand, receive

information about the existing problems in the city in

order to subsequently develop new solutions that the

population needs.

Also, the most important element of a smart

sustainable city is the availability of open big data,

related to the state of the environment and transport,

consumer behavior, population involvement in

management processes, etc. Open big data is

fragmented, and only interdisciplinary approach will

allow to analyze and make a comprehensive forecast,

taking into account the many interconnections

between problem areas of the city.

Thus, the implementation of the concept of a

smart sustainable city currently faces a number of

problems associated with the lack of simultaneous

consideration of aspects of both smart and sustainable

cities. In our opinion, overcoming these obstacles is

largely associated with the use of an interdisciplinary

approach, especially in the context of the increasing

importance of open data accumulated in the process

of life of the territory.

4 DISCUSSION

The development of the human environment based on

the concept of a smart sustainable city is largely

associated with the analytics of the data generated

during the functioning of the city. There is an opinion

that the main technologies that contribute to the

sustainable development of territories are big data and

the Internet of Things, which together allow to

optimize infrastructure, improve the quality of the

environment, increase the level of convenience of

providing services to the population, and make the

living environment safer and more comfortable

(Susanti et al, 2016).

Big data has three characteristics - volume, variety

and velocity, although more and more scientists note

the fourth characteristic - veracity, which is largely

important for building adequate models of the

development of the living environment (Gandomi &

Haider, 2015; Philip Chen & Zhang, 2014;

Rodríguez- Mazahua et al, 2015). Data collection is

provided through the Internet of Things, which

connects the physical objects of the city and transfers

information to data processing centers. As of 2020,

there are around 50 billion data collection devices all

over the world (Sta, 2017). However, 95% of the

received information is not structured, it makes

difficult to carry out analysis and forecasting in order

to develop optimal solutions for the development of

the living environment (Miah et al, 2016).

In order to provide information support for the

implementation of the concept of a smart sustainable

city, it is necessary to use data analysis platforms,

among which are Hadoop MapReduce, Spark,

Stratosphere and NoSQL-database system

management (Al Nuaimi et al, 2015; Fan & Bifet,

2013; Karun & Chitharanjan, 2013).

Moreover, the processing of results prepared

using special software requires an interdisciplinary

approach. The obtained results of the analysis cover

certain aspects of the city's life, and decisions made

without taking into account the state of all aspects will

not allow achieving the planned results of the

transformation of the territory, that will lead to the

fragmentation of the city's development and,

possibly, negative consequences in the long-term

period of the assessment. The presence of

interdisciplinary project teams for the development of

the living environment will allow for a

comprehensive assessment of data and model the

most realistic forecasts, taking into account the

relationship between all areas of the city's

functioning.

Thus, despite the important role of digital

technologies and big data in particular, the knowledge

and experience of specialists is still an important

factor in the effective development of the human

environment. Therefore, along with the spread of new

technologies, it is necessary to involve specialists in

various fields of knowledge in the development of the

living environment in order to take into account the

many factors inherent in both the concept of a smart

and sustainable city, find contradictions between

them and successfully remove of them.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The development of the human environment in the

digital economy is inextricably connected with the

introduction of new technologies. Carrying out the

transformation of the human environment, the

subjects of the functioning of the territory shall be

guided by the provisions of the concept of a smart city

or the concept of a sustainable city. Currently it is

necessary to unify the ideas and principles which

WFSDS 2021 - INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC FORUM ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

contained in these concepts into a smart sustainable

city.

Nevertheless, due to the novelty of the concept of

a smart sustainable city and also the contradictions

presence between the main provisions of the two

previously separate concepts, the process of

development of the living environment shall be

accompanied by a number of problems discussed in

this article.

In our opinion, overcoming the obstacles in the

implementation of the concept of a smart sustainable

city requires an interdisciplinary approach. Modern

cities generate large amounts of information in all

areas of the functioning of the living environment,

and their effective analysis is possible exactly within

the framework of interdisciplinary projects.

The development of the human life environment

based on the concept of a smart sustainable city will

increase the comfort of life of the subjects of the city

territory, however, in order to achieve the long-term

goals of city transformation, it is necessary to remove

the existing conceptual contradictions, based of an

interdisciplinary approach.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The article was written as part of the work on the

Grant of the President of the Russian Federation МК-

462.2020.6.

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