Smart Cities are transforming our urban life with digital technologies, offering new citizen-centric public services, optimizing the usage of resources and reducing the impact of service provisioning on the environment. Cities are too big to ignore, they are at the core of our work and leisure lives, hosting the majority of World's population, and the majority of its innovation infrastructure and assets.

Regarding key fundamental dynamics and mobility issues, many cities continue to grow in world-wide while demographic aging will also create pressure of the costs of running staff-intensive mobility infrastructure. It is necessary to improved performance in basic city management areas starting from smart and sustainable mobility, traffic and road networks, to transport systems, but also considering street cleaning to water management, to sustainable energy and affordable low carbon environments.

Generally, a smart city combines legacy networks and new communication architectures in order to achieve compatibility and interoperability among public administrations, operators, companies and population. Then, it goes beyond the use of ICT to provide new advanced services in diverse business and technological domains, such as urban transports, water supply, disposal facilities, lightning, heat buildings and so on. To this aim, the integration of information and communication systems, sensors and data analytics over different systems and infrastructures of a city is necessary.

Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Applications for Smart Cities able to leverage Big-Data Applications, ICT devices used in Factory of the Future, HPC, Industrial Processes, Energy Efficiency Systems, Social Platforms, etc.
Building Trust-based communication and computing systems for IoT and Clouds applications being Secure for Citizens
eHealth applications for Citizens.
Connecting in City Buildings for optimizing resources and utilities.
Software engineering methodology for the design of Smart Cities Systems
Energy Efficient and Green Software-defined Infrastructures aimed at Smart Cities facilities.
Re-allocation of resources and services (independently of their location) across distributed computing and geographically separated data storage and processing infrastructures. Inter-Cities along with Federation Services: availability, Disaster recovery, etc.
Federation of Services (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) aimed at Public Administrations
Service discovery in Smart Cities - device Discovery and Data Discovery.
Easy and Large Deployment and autonomic management of densely interconnected and decentralised Cloud, Networks and IoTs infrastructures aimed at Smart Cities.
Control Architectures/Network Programmability in Smart Cities aimed at mobility, traffic and road networks, transport systems, energy, economy, and so on.
ICT applications enabling Energy-aware, smart and sustainable mobility solutions for Smart Cities.
Verification/Debugging/ Auditing Tools for all Applications in Smart Cities Domains
Energy-aware and sustainable computing solutions for Smart Cities applications

Andrea Prati (University of Parma)
Antonio Celesti (Universitá degli Studi di Messina)
Antonio Jara (University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland)
Bin Guo (Northwestern Polytechnical University)
Burak Kantarci (University of Ottawa)
Dhananjay Singh (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea)
Luca Foschini (University of Bologna)
Marco Zappatore (University of Salento)
Maria Fazio (Universitá degli Studi di Messina)
Philipp Leitner (University of Zurich)
Rajiv Ranjan (Newcastle University)
Yanmin Zhu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
Mohd Abdul Ahad (Jamia Hamdard, India)
Sérgio Adriano Fernandes Lopes (University of Minho Portugal)
Gautami Tripathi (School of Engineering Sciences and technology, Jamia Hamdard, India)
Anand Nayyar (Duy Tan University, Viet Nam)
Yuanqing Zheng (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
Nishu Gupta (Vaagdevi College of Engineering, India)

Henrique Santos¹

Henrique M. Dinis Santos received his first degree in Electric and Electronic Engineering, from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 1984. In 1996 he received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering, from the University of the Minho, Portugal and the habilitation degree in 2013, by the same institution. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the Information Systems Department, University of Minho, being responsible for several graduate and postgraduate courses. The research work has been framed within ALGORITMI Research Centre, at the same university, where he is responsible by the supervision of several postgraduate students and the coordination of several R&D projects, mainly in the Information Security area – emphasis on Intrusion Detection, biometrical technologies and Information Security Management – and Computer Architecture area – emphasis on Computer Vision and Cloud Computing. He authored and co-authored several scientific publications in journals, conferences and books within his field of interests and co-authored a patent with an industrial partner, in 2012, in the biometric area. He is also the President of a national Technical Committee (CT 136) for information system security standardization, Vice President for Conferences and Workshops of IEEE Education Society, President of the Portuguese Association for Data Protection (APPD) and integrates frequently advice and scientific committees supporting civil, governmental and military organizations, concerning Information Security subjects. During the second semester of 1990, under an ERASMUS program, he was teaching at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, where he was recognized as University Academic staff.

Sara Paiva²

Sara Paiva is an Associate Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, a PhD in Informatics Engineering from University of Vigo in 2011 and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oviedo since January 2018, under advanced driving assistants and urban mobility. She is the coordinator of a recently created research centre in the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo. Her main line of research is mobility solutions with a focus on accessibility and social inclusion and has oriented several final projects of Bachelor and Master in her main line of work. She is frequent book editor of Springer and IGI books, has authored and co-authored several scientific publications in journals and conferences, is a frequent reviewer of international journals and international conferences.

1: University of Minho, Portugal
2: Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Online First
Recently Published
Most Popular

Aspects of Mechanism Design for Industry 4.0 Multi-Robot Task Auctioning
Appears in:
sc 18: e8

Authors:
Ajay Kattepur, Sourav Khemkha

Published:
12th Aug 2021

Abstract:
Collaborative multi-robotic tasks are essential in complex Industry 4.0 deployments, involving autonomous robots. As such autonomous robots work with minimal centralized control, analysis of strategies for effective cooperation in task completion are needed. This is specially crucial when automatio…Collaborative multi-robotic tasks are essential in complex Industry 4.0 deployments, involving autonomous robots. As such autonomous robots work with minimal centralized control, analysis of strategies for effective cooperation in task completion are needed. This is specially crucial when automation tasks are outsourced to specialized vendors without centralized control. Mechanism Design techniques have been proposed to create scenarios among multiple autonomous (possibly selfish) entities to result in desired outcomes. In this paper, we
study the effect of varying bidding auction mechanism design protocols to result in multi-agent task auctioning. We demonstrate this approach over a realistic use case of task allocation involving multiple pick and place robots in Industry 4.0 warehouses. Multiple realistic auction/bidding scenarios considered including selfish agents, erroneous estimates of temporal features, heterogeneous capacities and composite bids. The results
demonstrate that effective mechanisms can lead to fair outcomes despite erroneous or biased bids for tasks from agents.
more »
Medbot-Medical Diagnosis System using Artificial Intelligence
Appears in:
sc 18: e7

Authors:
Sanjay Kumar M, Vishnu Prasad Reddy G, Sai Ganesh K V, N. Malarvizhi

Published:
20th Jul 2021

Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: One of the fastest developing technologies in the present world is the Virtual assistants. These assistants could manage with the medical-related tasks and helps both the providers as well as the patients. Through Artificial Intelligence, users can com…INTRODUCTION: One of the fastest developing technologies in the present world is the Virtual assistants. These assistants could manage with the medical-related tasks and helps both the providers as well as the patients. Through Artificial Intelligence, users can communicate through voice or text interface with the chatbot and also receive responses based on that. Basically, a chatbot can converse with a real person.

OBJECTIVES: In this paper, a chatbot named Medbot stands for Medical Diagnosis System using Artificial Intelligence mainly focusing of skin and eye related problems.

METHODS: The Medbot helps in connecting the available patients, make their appointments, helps in finding the specialized person and provide them access to get the accurate treatment.

RESULTS: This Medbot helps in providing healthcare support online for 24×7 and it also responds to common and precise questions.

CONCLUSION: It helps in generating the leads and forwarding them to the sales automatically. By querying the patients sequentially, it guides them with the problem they are facing with.
more »
Food Supply Chain Management Using Blockchain in Food Traceability
Appears in:
sc 18: e6

Authors:
D. Lekha, S. Chakaravarthi, P. Visu

Published:
30th Jun 2021

Abstract:
The objective of the project is to avoid the food adulteration in public society. People want awareness on food chain management. The blockchain is used to trace the food items can be identified by the packet backside is packing date, expiry date, packing …The objective of the project is to avoid the food adulteration in public society. People want awareness on food chain management. The blockchain is used to trace the food items can be identified by the packet backside is packing date, expiry date, packing place, ingredients are added etc like that each and every things can identified. A detailed network security of blockchain analysis is performance of the investigation to capture the vulnerability of tamper proof of the digital database in proposed architecture under different types of attacks called hackers. The organisation as decided that to create the food safety on the public society. The company will collect the product from farmer then the manufacturer will produce the product then the distributer will buy the product from manufacturer. The consumer will buy the product from distributer through the online transaction with the help of blockchain. Scanning the QR code will get the details of the foodproduct. Nowadays people are suffering from the food borne illness. To avoid the food borne illness we are tracing the food in many items starting from the farmer to the consumer. To trace the food items are updating in the blockchain.
more »
IOT Enabled Weedicide Control Using Image Processing at Agriculture Field
Appears in:
sc 18: e5

Authors:
G. Manjula, P. Visu, S. Chakaravarthi

Published:
30th Jun 2021

Abstract:
The Aim of this project is to automate plant monitoring and smart gardening using IOT in the Arduino Mega Platform. Identifying diseases in plants leave is a challenging task for farmers and also for researchers. The key highlight of the project is able to detect the type…The Aim of this project is to automate plant monitoring and smart gardening using IOT in the Arduino Mega Platform. Identifying diseases in plants leave is a challenging task for farmers and also for researchers. The key highlight of the project is able to detect the type of disease by use of image processing. Image Processing steps are pre-processing, spot segmentation and features extraction, and classification. The extracted features are optimized by genetic algorithm and classified by KNN Classifier. We proposed a methodology that is tested for four types of apple plant disease including healthy leaves, Black Rot, Rust, and Scab. When the disease is identified we provided a pesticide solution displayed in the LCD Display and the same is sent to the farmer mobile with the help of GSM. All the Stages are monitored in an IOT Webpage.
more »
Waste Management in Smart Cities: A Survey on Public Perception and the Implications for Service Level Agreements
Appears in:
sc 18: e4

Authors:
A. McCurdy, C. Peoples, A. Moore, M. Zoualfaghari

Published:
27th May 2021

Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: Waste management in cities has not advanced at the same rate as technology in general. Furthermore, there is little evidence that citizens are satisfied with services in smart cities. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this paper is therefore to capture citizen perspectives in relation …INTRODUCTION: Waste management in cities has not advanced at the same rate as technology in general. Furthermore, there is little evidence that citizens are satisfied with services in smart cities.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this paper is therefore to capture citizen perspectives in relation to smart city services and, specifically, that of waste management.

METHODS: An online survey was disseminated using Google Forms to twenty-five homeowners within the Tourism Ireland office in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. The objective was to gather the typical citizen perspective of smart cities, their views on the meaning of ‘smart waste management’, and any features which they would like to experience with regard to their waste collection process and/or schedule in a future smart city.

RESULTS: It was found that a common perception of a smart city exists, it being one concerned with efficiency and recycling; fewer citizens are, however, familiar with the term ‘smart waste management’. Homeowners generally acknowledge that improvements to their current bin collection schedule are necessary.

CONCLUSION: The paper concludes with a discussion of the ways in which citizens believe that a bin collection schedule which they are in control of would be an improvement on a council-defined one. We correlate this with extensions necessary to service provisioning processes, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), to support future smart city services.
more »
Prognostic Modelling for Smart cities using Smart Agents and IoT: A Proposed Solution for Sustainable Development
Appears in:
sc 18: e3

Authors:
Shafqat Ul Ahsaan, Ashish Kumar Mourya

Published:
13th May 2021

Abstract:
Currently, Scientists are working on smart cities for providing artificial intelligence based smart facilities and services that can tackle different problems raised by rapid urbanization and boom in population growth. The Internet of things is also being used with other smart technologies to prov…Currently, Scientists are working on smart cities for providing artificial intelligence based smart facilities and services that can tackle different problems raised by rapid urbanization and boom in population growth. The Internet of things is also being used with other smart technologies to provide better solutions to the environment. It is also known as a network of networks. Mobile agent technology has also gained more attention. We are using it with different internet-based services. In this research, we have proposed two models with a sustainable approach. Our first model focused on monitoring air quality which consisted of several sensors, Arduino Uno board, and Raspberry Pi 3. The Second model explores the potential of the mobile agent technique to lever the Internet of Things in the modernization and personalized services for Smart Cities.
more »
Bike-sharing mobility patterns: a data-driven analysis for the city of Lisbon
Appears in:
sc 18: e2

Authors:
Vitória Albuquerque, Francisco Andrade, João Carlos Ferreira, Miguel Sales Dias, Fernando Bacao

Published:
4th May 2021

Abstract:
New technologies applied to transportation services in the city, enable the shift to sustainable transportation modes making bike-sharing systems (BSS) more popular in the urban mobility scenario. This study focuses on understanding the spatiotemporal station and trip …New technologies applied to transportation services in the city, enable the shift to sustainable transportation modes making bike-sharing systems (BSS) more popular in the urban mobility scenario. This study focuses on understanding the spatiotemporal station and trip activity patterns in the Lisbon BSS, based in 2018 data taken as the baseline, and understand trip rate changes in such system, that happened in the following years of 2019 and 2020. Furthermore, our paper aims to understand the COVID-19 pandemic impact in BSS mobility patterns. In this paper, we analyzed large datasets adopting a CRISP-DM data mining method. By studying and identifying spatiotemporal distribution of trips through stations, combined with weather factors, we looked at BSS improvements more suitable to accommodate users’ demand. Our major contribution was a new insight on how people move in the city using bikes, via a data science approach using BSS network usage data. Major findings show that most bike trips occur on weekdays, with no precipitation, and we observed a substantial growth of trip count, during the observed time frame, although cut short by the pandemic. We believe that our approach can be applied to any city with available urban mobility data.
more »
Transfer learning-based method for automated e-waste recycling in smart cities
Appears in:
sc 18: e1

Authors:
Nermeen Abou Baker, Paul Szabo-Müller, Uwe Handmann

Published:
16th Apr 2021

Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: Sorting a huge stream of waste accurately within a short period can be done with the support of digitalization, particularly Artificial Intelligence, instead of traditional methods. The overlap of Artificial Intelligence and Circular Economy can flourish many service…INTRODUCTION: Sorting a huge stream of waste accurately within a short period can be done with the support of digitalization, particularly Artificial Intelligence, instead of traditional methods. The overlap of Artificial Intelligence and Circular Economy can flourish many services in the environmental technology domain, in particular smart e-waste recycling, resulting in enabling circular smart cities.

OBJECTIVES: We analyse the growing need for automated e-waste recycling as an essential requirement to cope with the fast-growing e-waste stream and we shed the light on the impact of Artificial Intelligence in supporting the recycling process through smart classification of devices, where the smartphone is our case study.

METHODS: Our study applies transfer learning as a special technique of Artificial Intelligence by fine-tuning the output layers of AlexNet as a pre-trained model and perform the implementation on a small-size dataset that contains 12 classes from 6 smartphone brands.

RESULTS: We evaluate the performance of our model by tuning the learning rate, choosing the best optimizer, and augmenting the original dataset to avoid overfitting. We found that the optimizer of Stochastic Gradient Descent with Momentum and 3 𝑒𝑒−4 as a learning rate brings almost 98% model accuracy with generalization.

CONCLUSION: Our study supports automated e-waste recycling in decreasing the error-rate of e-waste sorting and investigates the advantages of applying transfer learning as the best scenario to overcome the rising challenges.
more »

Towards strategies to capture and retain mobile ticketing customers
Appears in:
sc 21(15): e5

Authors:
Marta Campos Ferreira, Catarina Ferreira, Teresa Galvão Dias

Published:
9th Apr 2021

Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: When compared to traditional ticketing systems, mobile ticketing has several advantages, allowing ubiquitous and remote access to payments, avoiding queues and replacing notes and coins. It also allows service providers to reduce their costs and achieve operational and pro…INTRODUCTION: When compared to traditional ticketing systems, mobile ticketing has several advantages, allowing ubiquitous and remote access to payments, avoiding queues and replacing notes and coins. It also allows service providers to reduce their costs and achieve operational and productivity gains. However, while some cities have implemented mobile ticketing solutions on their public transport network, the adoption of such services appears to have limited success. The causes that lead to such a low rate of use of the service are still unknown.

OBJECTIVES: This paper presents an in-depth study of the reasons that lead mobile ticketing customers to adopt or abandon this type of service and establishes a series of strategies to attract and retain customers.

METHODS: It uses the city of Porto, Portugal, as an illustrative example, where a mobile ticketing solution, called Anda, was launched. Customer complaints related to 6 months of using Anda were analysed and usability tests were carried out with real customers in the context of use.

RESULTS: This analysis allowed to identify a series of factors that lead people to adopt or abandon this type of services. Then, a series of strategies were defined and identified that allow to capture and retain mobile ticketing customers during the various stages of the mobile ticketing lifecycle: user onboarding, user engagement, user retention and user reinstall. For each of the stages of this life cycle, the main concerns to be considered were also listed, a series of tactics were defined to reverse the abandonment trend and a series of KPIs were specified to measure the efficiency of the strategies.

CONCLUSION: This paper fills an important research gap in the literature, being very useful in shaping future strategies for successful mobile ticketing solutions.
more »
Apps in Time of Pandemic: Digital Usage and Gratifications in Transition towards #SmartCity
Appears in:
sc 21(14): e5

Authors:
Surhita Basu, Baby Gharami

Published:
19th Jan 2021

Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: The study explores how during COVID-19 pandemic online apps helped people applying uses gratification paradigm to identify needs, usages and gratification of users. OBJECTIVES: The paper investigates how COVID-19 pandemic has affected the usage pattern of onlin…INTRODUCTION: The study explores how during COVID-19 pandemic online apps helped people applying uses gratification paradigm to identify needs, usages and gratification of users.

OBJECTIVES: The paper investigates how COVID-19 pandemic has affected the usage pattern of online apps? What is the gratification level of using online apps during COVID-19 pandemic? How users perceive the use of online apps during COVID-19 pandemic?

METHODS: The study employs small scale snowball sampling survey across major cities of India addressing questions on comparative usage pattern of online apps before and during the pandemic, users’ gratification and users’ opinion of using online apps.

RESULTS: Usage of few apps like news, video, health increased during the pandemic with frequency and intensity of usage. Users are concerned with misinformation spread through social media, demeaning family bonding due to high usage of apps, digital divide failing to provide enough job opportunities.

CONCLUSION: Specific apps to deal with health emergencies should be developed along with mechanism against spread of misinformation and strategic attempts for digital inclusion.
more »
Spatio-temporal Prediction of Air Quality using Distance Based Interpolation and Deep Learning Techniques
Appears in:
sc 21(14): e4

Authors:
K. Krishna Rani Samal, Korra Sathya Babu, Santos Kumar Das

Published:
15th Jan 2021

Abstract:
The harmful impact of air pollution has drawn raising concerns from ordinary citizens, researchers, policy makers, and smart city users. It is of great importance to identify air pollution levels at the spatial resolution on time so that its negative impact on human he…The harmful impact of air pollution has drawn raising concerns from ordinary citizens, researchers, policy makers, and smart city users. It is of great importance to identify air pollution levels at the spatial resolution on time so that its negative impact on human health and environment can be minimized. This paper proposed the CNN-BILSTM-IDW model, which aims to predict and spatially analyze the pollutant levelin the study area in advance using past observations. The neural network-based Convolutional Bidirectional Long short-term memory (CNN-BILSTM) network is employed to perform time series prediction over the next four weeks. Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) is utilized to perform spatial prediction. The proposed CNN-BILSTM-IDW model provides almost 16% better prediction performance than the ordinary IDW method, which fails to predict spatial prediction at a high temporal period. The results of the presented comparative analysis signify the efficiency of the proposed model.
more »
Application of Sentiment Analysis in Understanding Human Emotions and Behaviour
Appears in:
sc 21(13): e4

Authors:
Sweta Saraff, Roman Taraban, Rishipal Rishipal, Ramakrishna Biswal, Shweta Kedas, Shakuntala Gupta

Published:
6th Oct 2020

Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: Presently, naturalistic observation is considered as critical in understanding, and predicting the complexities of feelings and sentiments. Emerging trends of social media has completely revolutionized the process of communication. Social media, microbloggi…INTRODUCTION: Presently, naturalistic observation is considered as critical in understanding, and predicting the complexities of feelings and sentiments. Emerging trends of social media has completely revolutionized the process of communication. Social media, microblogging, and other means of e-communication can be used for extracting the content to decode the quality, valence, and effectiveness of communication. OBJECTIVES: In this paper, we represent the explanatory urge of mental health assessment during a pandemic situation, especially in a smart city scenario. METHODS: We reviewed the role of sentimental analysis, as an emerging application tool for emotional and behavioural analysis for the population affected by a pandemic. This paper examines the prospect of analysing the sentiments through machine learning tools to understand, describe, and predict human behavior. CONCLUSION: Further analysis of this psychological e-content can be used to understand and predict the patterns of human sentiments.
more »
Risk Assessment Model: Roadmap to Develop Kolkata into a Smart City
Appears in:
sc 21(14): e3

Authors:
Sweta Saraff, Raman Kumar, Ayooshi Mitra, Sayantani Ghosh, Shrayana Ghosh, Sulagna Das

Published:
5th Oct 2020

Abstract:
Risk assessment is an analytical instrument used to measure a person's likelihood of certain diseases and disorders by quantitative risk factors in health (such as age, weight, living condition, literacy, the family history of a disease, etc.). A risk assessment model is a combi…Risk assessment is an analytical instrument used to measure a person's likelihood of certain diseases and disorders by quantitative risk factors in health (such as age, weight, living condition, literacy, the family history of a disease, etc.). A risk assessment model is a combined effort to identify and analyse potential events that can adversely affect individuals, assets, and the environment. Since times immemorial, infectious diseases have been the leading cause of widespread mortality globally. New ones are materializing, and old ones are resurging. Early identification of infectious disease and evaluating the risk factors are essential first steps towards executing successful disease intervention and planning control measures—various air-borne diseases like influenza, chickenpox, COVID-19, etc. are candidates for such models. By customizing the risk assessment model for Kolkata, we will monitor the factors responsible for the growth and spread of diseases. The current paper aims to focus on risk assessment based on the aggregation of various factors relevant to the prediction of disease transmission (RAAPDT).
more »
A Comparative Study of Challenges and Strategic Management: Lessons Learned from SARS, MERS, HIV & Ebola Outbreaks
Appears in:
sc 21(13): e3

Authors:
Sweta Saraff, Rishipal Rishipal, Camelia Bhattacharyya, Debangana Brahma, Sagnik Nag

Published:
5th Oct 2020

Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: The challenges related to several viral outbreaks spanning over the centuries have exceeded human resources and capacities of the health departments to deal with the consequent adversities. Each epidemic or pandemic faced has brought out the inequalities and gaps in our …INTRODUCTION: The challenges related to several viral outbreaks spanning over the centuries have exceeded human resources and capacities of the health departments to deal with the consequent adversities. Each epidemic or pandemic faced has brought out the inequalities and gaps in our systems and infrastructure. OBJECTIVES: The focus of the current paper is to do a comparative study of complex challenges faced and strategies adopted by governments during the SARS, MERS, HIV, and Ebola outbreaks. METHODS: To achieve the objective, a comprehensive summary of the challenges that the world has faced, and lessons learned from the strategic management of these viral outbreaks were analysed. CONCLUSION: An inclusive approach for the development of a multi-pronged strategic framework to benefit the concerned or affected stakeholders is discussed. These actions can guide health care workers and individuals to be aware of health hazards and complexities.
more »
Exploring the Effectiveness of Lockdown and Disaster Preparedness in Combating COVID 19 Pandemic in India
Appears in:
sc 21(13): e2

Authors:
Antarjeeta Nayak, Soumya Subhadarshini Padhee, Aditya Pinaki Nayak, Ramakrishna Biswal

Published:
5th Oct 2020

Abstract:
OBJECTIVES: 'Stay Home, Stay Safe' is the till now available effective remedy for novel Coronavirus. India is the first nation compared to other countries affected by COVID-19 to enforce a 'Nationwide Lockdown' at the earliest. METHODS: Google mobility data and Disaster Preparedness…OBJECTIVES: 'Stay Home, Stay Safe' is the till now available effective remedy for novel Coronavirus. India is the first nation compared to other countries affected by COVID-19 to enforce a 'Nationwide Lockdown' at the earliest. METHODS: Google mobility data and Disaster Preparedness metrics were analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of Lockdown as a social distancing intervention. RESULTS: Results showed that in India, Lockdown is a useful measure in flattening the epidemic curve. Second, Odisha's disaster preparedness is more efficient in containing and combating COVID 19 pandemic. CONCLUSION: Further, a brief analysis of the travel histories showed that the period of coming in contact with the virus and being tested is quite long, thus increasing the chances of spreading the virus through contact with others. We suggest, instead of fourteen days of quarantine, thirty five to forty days of quarantine would be more effective in combating the spread.
more »
Mobile health applications during epidemic management in India: a review
Appears in:
sc 21(13): e1

Authors:
Rajgourab Ghosh, Sanjeev Kumar

Published:
5th Oct 2020

Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: Smart cities endeavour to provide a good quality of life to its inhabitants. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitates redrawing the framework of epidemic management in India. Information, Communication & Technology (ICT) solutions such as mobile health (mHealth) …INTRODUCTION: Smart cities endeavour to provide a good quality of life to its inhabitants. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitates redrawing the framework of epidemic management in India. Information, Communication & Technology (ICT) solutions such as mobile health (mHealth) can complement this. OBJECTIVES: To review ICT and mHealth used for epidemic management in smart cities of India. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted to identify the use of ICT or mHealth applications for epidemic management in smart cities. A predefined search strategy and a predefined eligibility criterion to search for articles published in English on Medline were used. RESULTS: Our study showed ICT and mHealth use has increased during the recent COVID-19 pandemic in India and available solutions can be applied in smart city framework to improve epidemic management and achieve mHealth targets. CONCLUSION: We conclude that there have been many advances in the provisions of ICT and mHealth interventions in India in context to smart cities and scope for improvements abound.
more »
Does collective consciousness compromise during epidemics and pandemics?
Appears in:
sc 21(13): e5

Authors:
Anoushka Khanna, Namita I, Rina Chakrabarti, Prem Kumar Indraganti

Published:
22nd Sep 2020

Abstract:
The ongoing pandemic, COVID-19, has received unprecedented global attention. Though a pathogen is essentially the causative agent, the dynamics of the cause-effect in major events like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is not well understood. It is not even clear …The ongoing pandemic, COVID-19, has received unprecedented global attention. Though a pathogen is essentially the causative agent, the dynamics of the cause-effect in major events like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is not well understood. It is not even clear if the focused attention of the normal population impacts the safety and health of the exposed victims and in what way the different groups interact with each other, is also a big question. The idea of panpsychism and hierarchical consciousness suggests that consciousness functions beyond an individual and works at distinct levels such as family, community, state, territories, nations, and world. In this perspective, keeping in mind, the idea of hierarchical consciousness, the impact of higher consciousness in major events like the COVID-19 pandemic, on the well-being and fate of the exposed population along with the probable role of quantum entanglement, has been discussed.
more »
An Analysis of Trends, Developments and Transparent Issues in the making of Indian Smart Cities
Appears in:
sc 21(15): e4

Author:
Aatif Jamshed

Published:
31st Aug 2020

Abstract:
During the past few years, interest has grown in the creation and application of methods, structures for smart city evaluation. This reflects the increasing awareness of the value of systems for better planning and architecture of efficient and stable communities. A city is a vas…During the past few years, interest has grown in the creation and application of methods, structures for smart city evaluation. This reflects the increasing awareness of the value of systems for better planning and architecture of efficient and stable communities. A city is a vast and permanent human community that offers many resources and opportunities for its people. The rapid urbanization and growth have put a lot of pressure on local services and service delivery. The research discusses many potential resources that can make a city smart across growing city dimensions and also discusses the initiatives of the Indian government towards a Smart city. This paper is a survey of a variety of papers, covering the actual case study from a more comprehensive framework, such as e-mobility, which covers the smart city subject from.
more »

Implementation of Decentralized Blockchain E-voting
Appears in:
sc 20(10): e4

Authors:
Saad Moin Khan, Aansa Arshad, Gazala Mushtaq, Aqeel Khalique, Tarek Husein

Downloads:
1330

Abstract:
E-voting reduced the cost of election and provided convenience to some extent as compared to the traditional approach of pen and paper but it was considered to be unreliable as anyone having access to the machine physically can obstruct the machine and alter the votes. Also in order to control the …E-voting reduced the cost of election and provided convenience to some extent as compared to the traditional approach of pen and paper but it was considered to be unreliable as anyone having access to the machine physically can obstruct the machine and alter the votes. Also in order to control the entire procedure from electronic voting to electoral results and tracking the outcomes, a central system is required. Voters are not completely secure as vote can be targeted easily. It also possesses a great threat to the right to vote and transparency. This paper provides a solution for removing inconveniences from conventional elections using blockchain that has emerged as an exciting technology for various application due to its unique characteristics that outperform other technologies. The goal of this research is to establish a system for e-voting that is decentralized rather than centralized by using blockchain technology that guarantees protection to electorate’s identity, data transfer privacy and verifiability by an open and transparent voting process.
more »
Road Traffic RFID Pedestrians Detecting System for Vehicles
Appears in:
sc 20(9): e2

Authors:
Michal Balog, Angelina Iakovets, Stella Hrehova

Downloads:
1328

Abstract:
Safe road traffic, clean environment, environmentally friendly vehicles and eco-buildings are components of the world’s vision of immediate future supported by scientists and statesmen. Aspiration for healthy environment and sustainable development of technologies give life for idea of smart cities…Safe road traffic, clean environment, environmentally friendly vehicles and eco-buildings are components of the world’s vision of immediate future supported by scientists and statesmen. Aspiration for healthy environment and sustainable development of technologies give life for idea of smart cities which consist of all these visions towards modern world.
The aim of research was connection pedestrians and alarm system of the vehicle to prevent road incidents with the help of RFID technology. There were proposed vehicle RFID system and tags for pedestrians. System was designed on the basis of scientists’ research in this area. The main factors influencing the construction of proposed system were working range of the system and coverage width of the reading devices. Further were compared existent subsidiary systems for drivers
versus designed system. The study represents the expected effectiveness of the proposed RFID system as well as the ability to implement it even in old vehicle control systems.
more »
Emulating Vehicular Ad hoc Networks for Evaluation and Testing of Automotive Embedded Systems
Appears in:
sc 16(2): e2

Authors:
Manuel Schiller, Alois Knoll

Downloads:
1238

Abstract:
The evaluation and testing of cooperative applications based on Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) in real testbeds is difficult due to the need for repeatable scenarios and large-scale experiments. Therefore a novel virtualization-based framework is presented to evaluate automotive software in the…The evaluation and testing of cooperative applications based on Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) in real testbeds is difficult due to the need for repeatable scenarios and large-scale experiments. Therefore a novel virtualization-based framework is presented to evaluate automotive software in the context of emulated VANETs. The approach enables the precise and large-scale evaluation of real-world implementations through the synchronized execution of network and vehicle simulators as well as the applications encapsulated in virtual Electronic Control Units. This paper provides a detailed description of the framework's structure and its components as well as an validation of the proposed synchronization algorithm. The performance comparison with pure network simulation indicates that despite additional overhead large-scale experiments can be conducted without loss of accuracy.
more »
IoT Applications to Smart Campuses and a Case Study
Appears in:
sc 17(5): e4

Author:
D. Minoli

Downloads:
996

Abstract:
Internet of Things (IoT) concepts are now being broadly investigated for actual deployment initiatives. Although ecosystem-wide architectures and standards are still slowly evolving and/or still lacking, some progress is being made; standardization fosters flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and ubiqu…Internet of Things (IoT) concepts are now being broadly investigated for actual deployment initiatives. Although ecosystem-wide architectures and standards are still slowly evolving and/or still lacking, some progress is being made; standardization fosters flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and ubiquitous deployment. Applications range from infrastructure and critical-infrastructure support (for example smart grid, smart city, smart building, and transportation), to end-user applications such as e-health, crowdsensing, and further along, to a multitude of other applications where only the imagination is the limit. This article discusses a specific example of an IoT application supporting Smart Campuses. Smart Campuses are part of a continuum that spans cities at the large-scale end to smart buildings at the small-scale end, and encompass universities, business parks, hospitals, housing developments, correctional facilities, and other real estate environments. The specific Use Case example covered in this article relates to an actual project to automate some key functions at a set of large campuses, but the nature of the campus is not directly revealed. After a review of the applicable IoT and control technologies, this Best Practices article describes technological solutions that were employed to support the requisite control functions and serves as an example for the applicability of IoT to Smart Campus applications.
more »
Oil and Gas supply chain optimization using Agent-based modelling (ABM) integration with Big Data technology
Appears in:
sc 20(9): e1

Authors:
Jamal Maktoubian, Mehran Ghasempour-Mouziraji, Mohebollah Noori

Downloads:
950

Abstract:
The worldwide oil & gas industry is one of the world's most complex business networks, and is connected with almost every supply chain branch. It includes international and domestic transportation, materials handling, ordering and inventory visibility and control, import/export facilitation and soc…The worldwide oil & gas industry is one of the world's most complex business networks, and is connected with almost every supply chain branch. It includes international and domestic transportation, materials handling, ordering and inventory visibility and control, import/export facilitation and social network, etc. Traditionally, it has been influenced by big oilfield companies. However, in recent years the industry has been changing into a more heterogeneous and diverse network of businesses, and the oilfields are getting smaller and more diverse. One of the reason could be dwindling the oil reserves and growing specialized companies which are able to extract hydrocarbons; another reason is the restructuring and globalization of the entire business as well as some new technology implementing. Using agent-based modeling and big data technology integrity, we are able to optimize supply chain in oil and gas industries.
more »
An Open Agent-Based Model to Simulate the Effect of WOM Marketing Campaigns
Appears in:
sc 16(4): e3

Authors:
Paul Leger, Manuela López, Carmen Hidalgo-Alcázar, Hiroaki Fukuda

Downloads:
915

Abstract:
Word-Of-Mouth (WOM) is the opinion of consumers about a product. There is currently a clear trend in the use of WOM to diffuse information about a new product, known as WOM marketing campaigns. Marketing researchers are studying the impact of the different types of these campaigns has. The difficul…Word-Of-Mouth (WOM) is the opinion of consumers about a product. There is currently a clear trend in the use of WOM to diffuse information about a new product, known as WOM marketing campaigns. Marketing researchers are studying the impact of the different types of these campaigns has. The difficulty in getting data and isolating the effect that is analyzed limits the research of marketers in this topic. Lastly, some simulation models based on agents have overcome previous difficulty. However, these models are ad-hoc and specific solutions for every study. This poster proposes an open implementation of an agent-based model to simulate different scenarios of WOM marketing campaigns. Through customizations, this proposal will allow marketing researchers to test WOM marketing campaigns in different scenarios.
more »
Computational Viability of Fog Methodologies in IoT Enabled Smart City Architectures-A Smart Grid Case Study
Appears in:
sc 18(7): 3

Authors:
Md. Muzakkir Hussain, Mohammad Saad Alam, M.M. Sufyan Beg

Downloads:
878

Abstract:
The gradual evolution in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) support of Smart City (SC) architecture leveraged with meshes of Internet of Things (IoT) creates and welcomes research and investment efforts from academia, R&Ds and policymakers. The IoT utilities are being deployed at eve… The gradual evolution in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) support of Smart City (SC) architecture leveraged with meshes of Internet of Things (IoT) creates and welcomes research and investment efforts from academia, R&Ds and policymakers. The IoT utilities are being deployed at every layers of a typical SG backbone namely Application layer, Energy layer and Communication layer. The geo-distributed clusters of IoT “objects” produce galactic volume of data that exacerbates the need to make a paradigm shift from centralized data center based processing to a hybrid model that supports both in situ as well as cloud based storage and computational resources. To combat such SC issues, Fog Computing (FC) emerges as a promising solution, which pushes the computation resources onto the network edge nodes. This work investigates the high performance of Fog Computing over generic cloud computing in terms of metrics viz. latencies, power consumption etc, through a Smart Grid (SG) use-case. Through an operational cost optimization framework, the work comprehends the suitability of fog methodologies to make a synergistic interplay with the core centered clouds thus empowering a wide breed of real-time and latency free services. Finally, an overview of the core orchestration issues, challenges, and future research directions are presented for FC enabled SCs.
more »
Multi Agent System Optimization in Virtual Vehicle Testbeds
Appears in:
sc 16(2): e1

Authors:
Patrick Lange, Rene Weller, Gabriel Zachmann

Downloads:
850

Abstract:
Modelling, simulation, and optimization play a crucial role in the development and testing of autonomous vehicles. The ability to compute, test, assess, and debug suitable configurations reduces the time and cost of vehicle development. Until now, engineers are forced to manually change vehicle…Modelling, simulation, and optimization play a crucial role in the development and testing of autonomous vehicles. The ability to compute, test, assess, and debug
suitable configurations reduces the time and cost of vehicle development.
Until now, engineers are forced to manually change vehicle configurations in virtual testbeds in order to react to inappropriate simulated vehicle performance.
Such manual adjustments are very time consuming and are also often made ad-hoc, which decreases the overall quality of the vehicle engineering process.
In order to avoid this manual adjustment as well as to improve the overall quality of these adjustments, we present a novel comprehensive approach to modelling, simulation, and optimization of such vehicles.
Instead of manually adjusting vehicle configurations, engineers can specify simulation goals in a domain specific modelling language. The simulated vehicle performance
is then mapped to these simulation goals and our multi-agent system computes for optimized vehicle configuration parameters in order to satisfy these goals.
Consequently, our approach does not need any supervision and gives engineers visual feedback of their vehicle configuration expectations.
Our evaluation shows that we are able to optimize vehicle configuration sets to meet simulation goals while maintaining real-time performance of the overall simulation.
more »
Sophisticated Route Calculation Approaches for Microscopic Trafﬁc Simulations
Appears in:
sc 16(2): e3

Authors:
Karl Huebner, Bjoern Schuenemann, Ilja Radusch

Downloads:
845

Abstract:
In order to implement meaningful microscopic traffic simulations, a sophisticated calculation of the vehicle routes is essential. In this paper, different route calculation approaches for microscopic traffic simulators are analysed and compared. Various simulations are performed to detect traffic d…In order to implement meaningful microscopic traffic simulations, a sophisticated calculation of the vehicle routes is essential. In this paper, different route calculation approaches for microscopic traffic simulators are analysed and compared. Various simulations are performed to detect traffic distribution and traffic flow resulting from the used route calculation approaches. To have simulations as realistic as possible, real OD matrices of the city of Fulda (Germany) were used for the evaluation of the different approaches. The results show that simple route calculation algorithms are not appropriate for microscopic traffic simulations. However, approaches that are more sophisticated and that integrate additional heuristics produce good results regarding traffic distribution and traffic flow and can improve iterative techniques to find a user equilibrium.
more »
Evaluation of LPWAN technology for Smart City
Appears in:
sc 17(6): e3

Authors:
Hussein Mroue, Guillaume Andrieux, Eduardo Motta Cruz, Gilles Rouyer

Downloads:
819

Abstract:
In this paper, we explore technologies for low power wide area networks (LPWAN) serving the Internet of Things (IoT). These networks are ded-icated to long-range and low-speed communication to ensure a good autonomy up to 10 years and a budget link up to tens of kilometers. The performance of two …In this paper, we explore technologies for low power wide area networks (LPWAN) serving the Internet of
Things (IoT). These networks are ded-icated to long-range and low-speed communication to ensure a good autonomy up to 10 years and a budget link up to tens of kilometers. The performance of two LPWA technologies is investigated, where the well known LoRa and Sigfox technologies are evaluated according to their sensitivity to the interference and the impact of the spreading spectrum technique on the receptor sensitivity. Numerical results are presented and discussed.
more »

Publisher: EAI
ISSN: 2518-3893
Number of Volumes: 5

Last Published: 2021-08-10

EAI Endorsed Transactions on Smart Cities

Henrique Santos1

Sara Paiva2

Henrique Santos¹

Sara Paiva²