State-of-play in addressing urban environmental pressures: Mind the gaps

• Published in: Environmental science & policy Vol. 132; pp. 308 - 322
• Main Authors: Georgiadis, Charalampos, Patias, Petros, Verde, Natalia, Tsioukas, Vassilios, Kaimaris, Dimitris, Georgoula, Olga, Kocman, David, Athanasopoulou, Eleni, Speyer, Orestis, Raudner, Astrid, Karl, Matthias, Gerasopoulos, Evangelos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-06-2022
• Subjects: Air quality & health; Disasters; Gap analysis; Legal framework; Migration; Smart cities; State of the art; Urban growth; User needs; Urban growth; State of the art; Smart cities; Disasters; Legal framework; Migration; Gap analysis; Air quality & health; User needs
• ISSN: 1462-9011; 1873-6416
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2022.02.030

The creation of Smart Cities is an emerging research and application field that has the objective to increase city resilience and improve the quality of life for citizens. In this paper an extensive and thorough gap analysis that was performed in the framework of the SMURBS11https://smurbs.eu/ project is presented. The gap analysis identified 117 gaps in the legal, methodological, and technological framework, in the thematic areas of air quality, disasters, urban growth and migration. The identified gaps can be used by policy makers in local, regional, national, or even at EU or UN level to form new policies that will bridge these gaps and lead to the creation of resilient and sustainable smart cities.
•Earth observation and smart cities.•Gap analysis, gap prioritization.•Legal, technological, methodological frameworks.•Air quality, disasters, health, urban growth, social inequality.