Advanced Technologies in Smart Cities

Abstract

World urbanization is an important process: it is predicted that by 2050 about 64% of the developing world and 86% of the developed world will be urbanized. This phenomenon creates enormous social, economic, and environmental changes, which provide opportunities to use resources more efficiently. Furthermore, considering the looming problem of the pandemic, limiting contact between people in tight environments has become one of the major problems facing cities, where space, resources, and transport are increasingly shared. In this context, advanced technologies such as big data, IoT, and artificial intelligence are used to cope with ever-growing towns and with problems related to the phenomenon of hyper urbanization, to enhance the organization of urban services, reduce costs and resource consumption, and increase contact between citizens and governments. Advanced technologies make towns and cities become “smarter”, solving problems related to the organization of a society in which many people share the resources of cities, such as spaces, services, and public places. Smart city applications are developed to manage urban flows and allow for real-time responses. In this Special Issue entitled “Advanced Technologies in Smart Cities”, we provide a comprehensive view of the modern city from different perspectives, and include contributions from different research areas, enforcing the interdisciplinary interest in modern city development.

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Citation: Mazza, D.; Tarchi, D.; Juan,
A.A. Advanced Technologies in
Smart Cities. Energies 2022,15, 4764.
https://doi.org/10.3390/en15134764
Received: 27 May 2022
Accepted: 25 June 2022
Published: 29 June 2022
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energies
Editorial
Advanced Technologies in Smart Cities
Daniela Mazza 1,† , Daniele Tarchi 2,*,† and Angel A. Juan 3,†
1Government of Emilia-Romagna Region, 40100 Bologna, Italy; danielamazza@gmail.com
2
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, Università di Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy
3Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research, Universitat Politècnica de València,
03801 Alcoi, Spain; ajuanp@upv.es
*Correspondence: daniele.tarchi@unibo.it
† These authors contributed equally to this work.
World urbanization is an important process: it is predicted that by 2050 about 64%
of the developing world and 86% of the developed world will be urbanized. This phe-
nomenon creates enormous social, economic, and environmental changes, which provide
opportunities to use resources more efficiently. Furthermore, considering the looming prob-
lem of the pandemic, limiting contact between people in tight environments has become
one of the major problems facing cities, where space, resources, and transport are increas-
ingly shared. In this context, advanced technologies such as big data, IoT, and artificial
intelligence are used to cope with ever-growing towns and with problems related to the
phenomenon of hyper urbanization, to enhance the organization of urban services, reduce
costs and resource consumption, and increase contact between citizens and governments.
Advanced technologies make towns and cities become “smarter”, solving problems related
to the organization of a society in which many people share the resources of cities, such
as spaces, services, and public places. Smart city applications are developed to manage
urban flows and allow for real-time responses. In this Special Issue entitled “Advanced
Technologies in Smart Cities”, we provide a comprehensive view of the modern city from
different perspectives, and include contributions from different research areas, enforcing
the interdisciplinary interest in modern city development.
This Special Issue on “Advanced Technologies in Smart Cities” includes seven papers
ranging over different technological aspects of the modern cities ranging from the opti-
mization of the telecommunication network in densely urban areas [
1
], to the evaluation
of Blockchain-based technologies for IoT applications [
2
], from the optimization of the
last-mile means of transport for freight distribution [
3
], to an agile approach for Intelligent
Transportation System exploiting Edge Computing technologies [
4
], a survey approach
for Quality of Life evaluation in sustainable cities [
5
], and finally, a Collaborative Energy
Community perspective in Europe [
6
], as well a proposal of a joint wireless power and
information transfer in IoT scenarios [7].
A brief summary of the content associated with each of the selected papers belonging
to this Special Issue is included below:
In Cano-Ortega and Sánchez-Sutil
[1]
the authors focus on an optimization framework
for improving the performance of a long-range (LoRa) based communication system. The
authors propose to use an artificial bee colony algorithm, allowing to reduce the packet
loss in a residential environment with a reduced measurement time span. The algorithm
calculates the configuration parameters of the LoRa network, monitoring in real-time the
data traffic, and is implemented in the gateway LoRa network monitor (GLNM). This
developed system allows performing demand dwelling forecasting studies, analysis of
home consumption, optimization of electricity tariffs, etc., applied to smart grids
Furthermore, the work by Saputro and Sari
[2]
is based on LoRa network implemen-
tations for the Internet of Things (IoT). The authors focus here on integrating blockchain
technology in the IoT topology to secure the data and transactions that occur in the IoT
network. In particular, they focus on establishing a lightweight blockchain platform with
Energies 2022,15, 4764. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15134764 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies

Energies 2022,15, 4764 2 of 3
low latency that could run on devices with low computing resources as well as IoT devices.
In this paper, the authors simulate how the broadcast domain works and verify the results
in lower latency and energy transmission compared to the standard blockchain model.
A case study regarding freight transportation in the center of a mid-size city is consid-
ered in Serrano-Hernandez et al.
[3]
. Using the analytic hierarchy process methodology,
the authors are able to propose alternative transportation modes and routes for last-mile
delivery. These alternative distribution plans are assessed considering the economic, envi-
ronmental, and social dimensions, which make use of an online questionnaire distributed
among citizens. Their study promotes the use of drones and bikes in last-mile delivery. The
authors also conclude that pedestrian safety and life quality are the most valuable indicators
according to citizens, while cargo bikes are seen as the best alternative for deliveries in the
city center.
With the focus on smart cities, where new data on the traffic status is continuously
being provided by the Internet of Things systems, Peyman et al.
[4]
discuss how the
combination of cloud with fog and edge computing can influence modern transportation
systems. To deal with these challenging ecosystems, these authors propose the use of agile
optimization algorithms, which are capable of providing real-time solutions to large-scale
vehicle routing problems. To illustrate these concepts, a dynamic ride-sharing problem is
modeled and solved using an agile optimization algorithm, which employs well-tested
biased-randomization techniques.
In Ligarski and Wolny
[5]
the key role played by citizens in the development of
sustainable smart cities is highlighted. In fact, the authors planned and conducted empirical
studies to examine the areas influencing the quality of life from the point of view of
municipalities, conducting a survey on a sample of 84 municipal offices in Poland. They
thoroughly investigated the areas influencing the quality of life, their impact, and their
importance and determined that people responsible for research in municipal offices are
aware that the quality of life is influenced by many areas and conditions, however, they
cannot indicate what can be extended to them.
In Boulanger et al.
[6]
the authors investigate an active involvement from a bottom-up
perspective, creating energy communities, and give a qualitative overview of energy com-
munity concepts and strategies at the European level. Providing a threefold methodology,
they identify common approaches that are framing the development of energy communities
and analyze the most successful steps leading to their creation and growth. The results
outline useful considerations for implementing this transition pathway in a real case.
Finally, in Tarchi et al.
[7]
the authors propose a system enabling the implementation
of a self-sustainable wireless network. An energy-efficient fog network architecture for
IoT scenarios, jointly implements computation offloading operations and simultaneous
wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT), hence, enabling the possibility of jointly
transferring energy and computational tasks among the nodes. The system under con-
sideration is composed of three nodes, where an access point (AP) is considered to be
always connected to the power network, while a relay node and an end node can harvest
energy from the AP. The proposed solution allows for jointly optimizing the computation
offloading and the energy harvesting phases while maximizing the network lifetime, to
maximize the operational time of the network.
Author Contributions:
Writing—original draft preparation, D.T.; writing—review and editing, D.M.
and A.A.J. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Energies 2022,15, 4764 3 of 3
References
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Cano-Ortega, A.; Sánchez-Sutil, F. Performance Optimization LoRa Network by Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm to Determination
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2.
Saputro, M.Y.A.; Sari, R.F. Performance Evaluation of Broadcast Domain on the Lightweight Multi-Fog Blockchain Platform for a
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3.
Serrano-Hernandez, A.; Ballano, A.; Faulin, J. Selecting Freight Transportation Modes in Last-Mile Urban Distribution in
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