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Scientific Article details

Title Are smart city projects catalyzing urban energy sustainability?
ID_Doc 45010
Authors Haarstad, H; Wathne, MW
Title Are smart city projects catalyzing urban energy sustainability?
Year 2019
Published
DOI 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.03.001
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between smart cities and urban energy sustainability. Because achieving a "smart city" is a wide agenda rather than a specific set of interventions, smartness itself cannot easily be measured or quantifiably assessed. Instead, we understand smart cities to be a broad framework of strategies pursued by urban actors, and ask whether and how smart city projects catalyze urban energy sustainability. We use case studies of three cities (Nottingham, Stavanger, and Stockholm) funded by the Horizon 2020 Smart Cities and Communities program and examine how urban energy sustainability was advanced and realized through the smart city initiatives. We find first that while sustainability is not always a major objective of local implementation of smart city projects, the smartness agenda nevertheless increases the ambition to achieve energy sustainability targets. Second, the sustainability measures in smart cities are rarely driven by advanced technology, even though the smart city agenda is framed around such innovations. Third, there is significant sustainability potential in cross-sectoral integration, but there are unresolved challenges of accountability for and measurability of these gains.
Author Keywords Smart city; Urbanism; Sustainability; European Union; Framing
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED); Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
EID WOS:000468012900083
WoS Category Economics; Energy & Fuels; Environmental Sciences; Environmental Studies
Research Area Business & Economics; Energy & Fuels; Environmental Sciences & Ecology
PDF https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.03.001
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