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The smart and sustainable cities concept has become a globally hot topic during the last few decades, particularly following the catastrophic impacts of global climate change. The assessment of smart and sustainable cities, however, is a major challenge due to complex, complicated, and chaotic nature of our cities. This makes the available monitoring and evaluation tools difficult to adopt and apply in different urban contexts to support urban planning and governance and foster evidence-based policymaking. In order to address this issue, the paper brings together knowledge-based development concept with smart and sustainable cities. Knowledge-based development is a vision of development that considers knowledge as the central structuring element of a development strategy. Similarly, its more territory focused version, knowledge-based urban development is an integrated approach for the transition of cities and regions into sustainable, liveable and prosperous localities. The methodological approach of the paper includes the review of the literature on existing approaches on smart and sustainable cities assessment, describing their main aspects, strengths and limitations, and discuss the potential contribution of a knowledge-based urban development strategy for the successful promotion of smart and sustainable cities, presented in a proposed conceptual framework.

Cities are hubs of social and cultural activity, and culture is key to what makes cities creative, and sustainable. The Post-2015 Development Agenda has prioritized culture and how it may help people and communities create the future they desire. The study aims to determine the link between cultural heritage and urban sustainability and how multidisciplinary education can help organize urban issues. The article is of relevance to the emerging multicultural urban society with wide socio-economic disparities straining the global urban resilience and posing a challenge for future policy implementation. A systematic literature review was conducted using the Dimension database, and the results were analyzed using VOS viewer. The study also employed the PRISMA quantitative approach for selection criteria. This paper has identified understudied themes including community heritage, sustainable urban governance, and behavioral and multidisciplinary approaches. It is strongly felt that undertaking this study will not only add to the literature in cultural heritage study but also help further multidisciplinary and knowledge-based inquiry, which is currently evolving in the academic domain. Therefore, urban academics have a duty to resolve the issue confronting global urban sustainability and cultural disputes. Future research is required to simplify the current complex issue to make it more relevant and inclusive.

Since the advent of the second digital revolution, the exponential advancement of technology is shaping a world with new social, economic, political, technological, and legal circumstances. The consequential disruptions force governments and societies to seek ways for their cities to become more humane, ethical, inclusive, intelligent, and sustainable. In recent years, the concept of City-as-a-Platform was coined with the hope of providing an innovative approach for addressing the aforementioned disruptions. Today, this concept is rapidly gaining popularity, as more and more platform thinking applications become available to the city context—so-called platform urbanism. These platforms used for identifying and addressing various urbanization problems with the assistance of open data, participatory innovation opportunity, and collective knowledge. With these developments in mind, this study aims to tackle the question of “How can platform urbanism support local governance efforts in the development of smarter cities?” Through an integrative review of journal articles published during the last decade, the evolution of City-as-a-Platform was analyzed. The findings revealed the prospects and constraints for the realization of transformative and disruptive impacts on the government and society through the platform urbanism, along with disclosing the opportunities and challenges for smarter urban development governance with collective knowledge through platform urbanism.

During the past two decades, Qatar, a developing country, has invested heavily in infrastructure development to address several challenges caused by the rapid urbanization. Qatar has made a significant step toward its urban sustainability vision through the construction of the Doha Metro system. By adopting Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), Qatar is overcoming some urban challenges. TOD promotes compact, walkable, and mixed-use development around the transit nodes, which enhances the public realm through providing pedestrian-oriented and active spaces. Additionally, Qatar aims to transfer to a knowledge-based economy through developing an environment that will attract knowledge and creative human power. Qatar Foundation is taking the lead toward implementing a Knowledge-Based Urban Development (KBUD) through its flagship project: Education City (EC). This study aims therefore to evaluate the integration of TOD and KBUD strategies to leverage the potential of TOD in attracting knowledge and creative economy industries. The selected case study is Qatar National Library (QNL) metro station at the EC in Doha. The study examines the potential of QNL as a destination TOD to enhance the area's mission as a driver for a knowledge-based economy. The methodological approach is based on the analytical concepts obtained from the Integrated Modification Methodology as a sustainable urban design process. The study’s results revealed that void and function, followed by volume, are the weakest layers of the study area's Complex Adaptive System which require morphological modification to achieve sustainability and a knowledge-hub TOD. The study offers recommendations to assist planners and designers in making better decisions toward regenerating urban areas through a knowledge-hub TOD contributing to the spill out of knowledge and creativity into the public realm creating a human-centric vibrant public space adjacent to metro stations.

Environmental externalities of the Anthropocene—mainly generated from population growth, rapid urbanization, high private motor vehicle dependency, the deregulated market, mass livestock production, and excessive consumerism—have placed serious concerns for the future of natural ecosystems, which we are a part of. For instance, global climate change—the biggest challenge we have ever faced—is directly impacting wellbeing, and even the existence of humankind, in the long run. During the last two decades, the notion of the smart city—particularly the sustainable development of smart cities—has become a popular topic not only for scholars, particularly in the fields of technology, science, urban and environmental planning, development, and management, but also for urban policymakers and professional practitioners. This was due to digital technologies becoming a powerful enabler in stimulating paradigmatic shifts in urban development-related visions, strategies, implementation, and learning. This paper offers a critical review of the key literature on the issues relating to approaches, advances, and applications in the sustainable development of smart cities. It also introduces contributions from the Special Issue, and speculates on the prospective research directions to place necessary mechanisms to secure a smart and sustainable urban future for all.

During the last couple of decades, making cities smarter and more sustainable has become an important urban agenda. In this perspective, knowledge-based development is seen as a strategic approach for cities seeking to thrive through innovation and resilience. Accomplishing a knowledge-based development agenda is, however, challenging, and cities need support mechanisms to effectively develop and then incorporate such agendas into their decision-making processes. This study investigates the role of international events as one of these support mechanisms for the development and implementation of local knowledge-based development agendas. The study aims to address how international events contribute to the local knowledge-based development efforts. This study takes the Knowledge Cities World Summit (KCWS) series as the exemplar international event, and the Brazilian city of Bento Gonçalves as the case study city. The methodological approach of the study consists of semi-structured interview-based qualitative analysis and case study investigations. The findings of the study revealed the following: (a) international events can be fundamental drivers of local knowledge-based agendas; (b) these events contribute to host cities’ development, especially at an institutional level, by generating outcomes such as engagement in cooperation networks and leveraging local actors’ influence on the development process; and (c) KCWS was instrumental in placing the local university as a protagonist of the knowledge-based development movement of Bento Gonçalves. The study reported in this paper provides invaluable insights for cities seeking to use international knowledge-based development events for smart and sustainable city formation.

Unarguably, smart, sustainable, and knowledge-based development is critical for securing a livable future for our rapidly urbanizing world. The aim of this study is to generate insights into determining effective and efficient strategies to increase sustainability and innovation capabilities of cities to achieve long-term desired urban outcomes. This paper places the city of Florianópolis (Brazil) under the smart, sustainable, and knowledge-based urban development microscope. The methodological approach of the study involves a qualitative analysis through surveys (100 submitted forms, 55 responses received) and interviews (12) with key experts and stakeholders from Florianópolis. The findings of the study reveal that Florianópolis’ innovation ecosystem has high potential to thrive, but the city still has structural issues to deal with first, related to the gap between the potential to grow, and acknowledgement from key actors of the city to support the overall territory development considering the complex dimensions. This issue suggests amplifying the ecosystem’s vision, including different sectors and, especially, addressing innovation for the common good. The insights generated from the investigation of Florianópolis’ case are also invaluable to other cities’ planning for strategizing their transformation, and seeking smart, sustainable, and knowledge-based development pathways.

During the last several decades, the diversification of economic activities has become a paramount policy for nations and cities with heavy dependence on a single economic driver. Particularly island economies, relying mainly on tourism income, are among the most vulnerable ones to the shocks of global financial crises. In the recent years, some of these tourist islands had attempts to diversify their economic activities by moving towards a knowledge and innovation economy. This paper places one of these islands—Florianópolis, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina—under the microscope to address the question of ‘what it takes to transform a tourist island into an innovation capital’. In order to tackle this question, the study examines economic, social, spatial, and governance conditions and performances, along with the plans and processes of Florianópolis in moving towards an internationally recognized smart innovation island. The methodologic approach includes systematic review of the literature and qualitative analysis of the key development domains of Florianópolis through the lens of knowledge-based urban development. The results of this study provide insights into how to transform a resource-based economy into a knowledge-based one—by disclosing the transition journey of Florianópolis, including progress, challenges, and the new path creation processes. The findings are particularly useful for tourist islands that are aiming for an aspiring knowledge-based urban development and smart city transformation.

Innovation and creativity have become the driving force of a new round of urban development. Innovation districts have increasingly attracted the attention of domestic and foreign governments and scholars. An informal communication space is the main place for knowledge spillover, innovation communication, and transmission in innovation districts, and its spatial quality plays a vital role in the cultivation and development of innovation districts. The existing quality evaluation of informal communication spaces is less innovative. Based on the perspective of innovation, this paper selects the spatial characteristics of parks, squares, and pedestrian streets from three dimensions of morphology, function, and image, and establishes a preliminary evaluation index system. On the other hand, this paper combs the influence theory of knowledge spillover on innovation and summarizes the communication atmosphere, communication frequency, communication object and communication quality as the dependent variables of innovation. Through correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis, innovative informal communication space features are screened out, and the spatial quality evaluation index systems of parks, squares, and pedestrian streets are constructed, respectively. In the empirical study, 24 samples of Gaoxin South District (GXSD) are selected for spatial quality evaluation. Subjective evaluation and objective evaluation are used to obtain the advantages and disadvantages of different spaces to stimulate innovation. This study is helpful for urban designers and planners to better carry out space design to promote innovation through evaluating space status.

Innovation districts, as a particular place for knowledge-based urban development strategies, have been praised for promoting sustainable economic developments. They have, however, been criticized for contributing to gentrification, urban inequality, and other problems that hinder sustainability. There has been little research addressing how planners maintain economic sustainability and promote the social and environmental sustainability of innovation districts. This paper takes Hangzhou as a case study, using the policy zoning—a new zoning method based on suitability evaluation—to formulate the applicable place plan for building innovation districts. The results show that the policy zoning can help planners arrange the construction of innovation districts in certain urban areas and take the most targeted measures to improve the sustainability of possible innovation districts. These measures include either enhancing the foundations of the metropolitan area or promoting innovation development by referring to suitability evaluation results. Planning based on policy zoning is of benefit to the sustainability of innovation districts through avoiding the impulsive behavior of policymakers, as well as promoting the better distribution of development achievements among the people, rather than concentrating on land developers and stakeholders who pursue maximum profits.