Smart Cities research theme

Overview

The Smart Cities theme carries out applied research and covers various facets of the system development life cycle for smart city solutions. This includes stakeholder engagement and requirements management, city data governance and analytics, security and privacy, piloting and evaluation. Our main areas of interest include but are not limited to remote sensing, AI for cross-thematic urban analytics, citizen science and citizen participation in urban governance, geospatial analytics and social network analysis. More specifically, we apply distributed technologies including but not limited to Cloud, distributed ledgers, IoTs, generative AI and digital twin for smart city solutions.

Recent examples of our work are on ICT-enabled participatory governance, making effective use of city open data and remote sensing data, design and development of citizen observatories, digital twin and digital ledgers in smart city applications. We collaborate with a number of organisations from different sectors locally, nationally and internationally to design and develop smart city solutions. 

Theme Lead

Professor Zaheer Khan

Members

• Dr Elisa Covato
• Ms Barkha Javed
• Dr Ahsan Kazmi
• Dr Zaheer Khan
• Dr Trupti Padiya
• Dr Kamran Soomro 

Activities

GREENGAGE (EU Horizon Europe, 2023-2025)

The GREENGAGE project is about engaging citizens - mobilising technology - delivering the green deal. The GREENGAGE project brings together technology providers (mobile apps, Copernicus remote sensing, web tools, blockchain, AI/ML, visualisation, wearable sensors, IoT, UX, software engineering), social science, environmental and urban planning experts from seventeen organisations across Europe to develop citizen observatories across four pilots (Bristol, Copenhagen, Noord Brabant and Turano-Gerace). It leverages citizens’ participation and quips them with innovative digital solutions that will transform citizens’ engagement and cities’ effectiveness in delivering European Green Deal objectives for carbon neutral cities and shaping their climate mitigation and adaptation policies. This project is a collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments.

For further information, contact Professor Zaheer Khan.