Can Smart Cities Be Sustainable? An Emerging Field of Research

ABSTRACT

Research on smart sustainable cities (SSCs) has fueled a rapid expansion of scholarly work in recent years. However, the key trends and future research avenues in this field are still ambiguous. This article examines the content of SSC research by conducting network and bibliometric analyses. We analyze data from 312 articles to identify and map the emerging field of SSC research. Our analysis suggests that SSC research is grounded in five distinct clusters, namely, implementation, technology, performance, policy, and value. Further, this review provides a holistic examination of the issues and challenges facing SSC research and how they are being addressed. We identify, diagnose, and tackle these challenges. The results of this study can help academics and practitioners navigate the SSC literature. We provide a map of existing scholarly work and recommend promising avenues for future research. This study also provides valuable guidance to policymakers and government agencies that are directly involved in SSC projects.

KEYWORDS:

• smart cities
• sustainable cities
• smart sustainable cities (SSC)
• network analysis
• bibliometric analysis

Acknowledgements

Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fateh Belaid

Fateh Belaid is a principal fellow at KAPSAR, specializing in energy and environmental economics. Previously, he held positions as a professor at Lille Catholic University and was the director of their Smart & Sustainable Cities research unit.

Boumediene Ramdani

Boumediene Ramdani is an associate professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Qatar University.

Mahmoud Abdellatif

Mahmoud Abdellatif is an associate professor of economics at the College of Business and Economics, Qatar University. Further, Mahmoud is the founding Director of Center for Entrepreneurship (Currently Center for Entrepreneurship and Organization Excellence).