Search

The use of AI has progressed rapidly in recent years, and the notion of smartness is commonplace. However, while the topic of smart cities has received considerable research attention, there has been a lack of discussion about the use of smart technologies in prisons. While, especially in Eastern countries, AI in law enforcement is mainly used for security and control purposes (in Hong Kong, intelligent CCTV can detect unusual behaviour, and wristbands are used to collect data on prisoners), in Northern Europe the trend is to build smart prisons where AI is used as a rehabilitation tool (in Finland, Virtual Reality is employed to help rehabilitation). Adopting a comparative approach, the aim of this article is to demonstrate that AI is a transformative technology that is provoking structural changes in criminal law enforcement – especially in prisons – and that these changes express two opposing tendencies, that could transform the essence of penalties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of an increasingly complex and unstable external development environment, enhancing economic resilience has become a key task in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This paper analyzes the changes in the economic resilience of the Guangdong-Hong Kong- Macao Greater Bay Area and its constituent cities after the 2008 global financial crisis by virtue of the regional economic resilience assessment method proposed by Martin et al. It constructs an economic connection network for the Guangdong-Hong Kong- Macao Greater Bay Area using the data from corporate headquarters and branches of A-share listed companies to analyze its impact on the economic resilience of the Area. The study reveals the three following conclusions. Firstly, the economic resilience of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area generally outperforms the national average level, seeing a rapid boost over the recent years and exceeding the level witnessed during the 2008 financial crisis. However, there are marked disparities in the economic resilience of various cities within the Greater Bay Area, with Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Dongguan emerging as the most robust in this regard. Secondly, the economic connection network has a positive impact on the economic resilience of the cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Specifically, there is a positive correlation between a city's economic resilience and its centrality in the economic connection network. Such centrality exerts a positive spillover effect on the economic resilience of surrounding cities. Thirdly, from the perspective of industry-specific networks, circulation and service industry networks are more conducive to improving the economic resilience of a city. Given the significant role of the economic connection network in shaping regional and urban economic resilience, it is imperative for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to prioritize ensuring economic development security and enhancing economic resilience, promote the development of the economic connection network, and enhance the network centrality of its constituent cities. This can improve the economic resilience of itself and its constituent cities in an effective manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photorealistic 3D models are important data sources for digital twin cities and smart city applications. These models are usually generated from data collected by aerial or ground-based platforms (e.g., mobile mapping systems (MMSs) and backpack systems) separately. Aerial and ground-based platforms capture data from overhead and ground surfaces, respectively, offering complementary information for better 3D mapping in urban areas. Particularly, backpack mapping systems have gained popularity for 3D mapping in urban areas in recent years, as they offer more flexibility to reach regions (e.g., narrow alleys and pedestrian routes) inaccessible by vehicle-based MMSs. However, integration of aerial and ground data for 3D mapping suffers from difficulties such as tie-point matching among images from different platforms with large differences in perspective, coverage, and scale. Optimal fusion of the results from different platforms is also challenging. Therefore, this paper presents a novel method for the fusion of aerial, MMS, and backpack images and point clouds for optimized 3D mapping in urban areas. A geometric-aware model for feature matching is developed based on the SuperGlue algorithm to obtain sufficient tie-points between aerial and ground images, which facilitates the integrated bundle adjustment of images to reduce their geometric inconsistencies and the subsequent dense image matching to generate 3D point clouds from different image sources. After that, a graph-based method considering both geometric and texture traits is developed for the optimal fusion of point clouds from different sources to generate 3D mesh models of better quality. Experiments conducted on a challenging dataset in Hong Kong demonstrated that the geometric-aware model could obtain sufficient accurately matched tie-points among the aerial, MMS, and backpack images, which enabled the integrated bundle adjustment of the three image datasets to generate properly aligned point clouds. Compared with the results obtained from state-of-the-art commercial software, the 3D mesh models generated from the proposed point cloud fusion method exhibited better quality in terms of completeness, consistency, and level of detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes public perceptions about the impact of 'smart cities' programs on governance and quality-of-life. With smart city scholarship focusing primarily on technical and managerial issues, political legitimacy remains relatively underexplored—particularly in non-Western contexts. Drawing on a Hong Kong-based survey of over 800 residents conducted in 2019, this study analyzes the results of probit regressions on dependent variables for governance (participation, transparency, public services, communication, and fairness) and quality-of-life (buildings, energy-environment, mobility-transportation, education, and health). Findings show more optimism about the impact of smart cities on quality-of-life than on governance. Awareness about the smart city concept associates positively with expectations about smart city benefits, but the effect is sensitive to education level and income. This study deepens understandings about the political legitimacy of smart cities, at a time when urban governments are accelerating investments in related technologies. More broadly, it adds contextual nuance to research about state-society relations and, at a practical level, supports policy recommendations to strengthen information and awareness campaigns, better articulate smart city benefits, and openly acknowledge limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing data is a primary means of obtaining information about the Earth's surface, widely used in various fields such as geographic information, natural resource management, urban planning, and environmental monitoring. However, due to the large volume and high complexity of remote sensing image data obtained from satellites, drones, and other equipment, efficient processing of this data and visualization of the results have become important issues. This paper presents a Cesium-based platform for visualizing multi-source remote sensing data, aimed at contributing to urban development efforts and providing additional insights for surveying education.This platform allows users to intuitively understand the spatial distribution and dynamic changes of remote sensing data. It not only integrates different types of remote sensing data into a unified 3D scene but also allows users to interact with the data according to their needs. A Cesium-based urban visualization platform was developed to display the geographic location of a specific region in Hong Kong and provide spatial measurement functions. This platform has wider applications in surveying and mapping education, as it can incorporate more remote sensing and geospatial data, allowing for increased student-teacher interaction and helping students better understand surveying and mapping concepts.Focusing on the construction of smart cities, the platform improves spatial awareness and interactivity for urban planning and management. Moreover, the platform has great potential in surveying and mapping education, providing a more immersive learning experience for students and cultivating talents in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013, the first electric taxis were launched in Hong Kong. In 2021, the HKSAR government announced that no new registration of fuel-propelled private cars, including hybrid vehicles, will be granted by the year 2035. Local public policies have shown a breakthrough milestone in the passenger transport sector and fostered the development of a smart city in Hong Kong as an international metropolis. This paper aims to study the feasibility of gradually introducing electric vehicles (EVs) in the Hong Kong taxi industry in the next decade. In particular, taxi license owners' intentions of purchasing electric vehicles for operational use and the driving behavior of taxi drivers in Hong Kong are investigated. Multiagent modelling with an integrated behavioral model is then adopted to analyze the survey data collected from 250 taxi drivers in Hong Kong, followed by interviews with industrial experts. The implications for future public policies are then discussed. To achieve emission reduction, the paper suggests a gradual, step-by-step promotion and transfer from conventional taxis to electric taxis in Hong Kong, with consideration of various factors and the interests of different stakeholders in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges brought by a growing number of large-scale land development projects (e.g., Northern Metropolis, Lantau Tomorrow, and related infrastructures) in Hong Kong must be met by innovative land acquisition planning and processes. A recent quick win solution to land supply for Works projects has been in trial commissioning the provisional draft land resumption plan preparations and related survey works from the government to consultants, specifically the Authorized Land Surveyor (ALS) in the private sector. The industry therefore must consider the necessary and diverse sources of expertise available, and the existing land surveying technical resources that will render support to such new initiatives. Collaboration is called for between the spheres of public sector, education, and works industry to successfully move the use of cadastral survey for land management forwards, bridging the gap between lands and works practices for efficient processing of Works projects, and smart city development of Hong Kong.This paper will examine the new approach of professional surveying that private practicing ALSs bring, and why the overall number of ALS and engineering surveyors in the construction industry is growing so slowly. It will additionally compare Hong Kong's practice with that of the mainland China, Singapore, and the UK to grasp global learning points. The paper recommends the establishment of a Cadastral Survey Lab (CSL) firstly to explore the policy implementation of a sound cadastral system. The processing of lot boundary determination by ALS is reviewed. The regulatory roles of the Land Survey Authority (LSA) are requested in approving new land boundary plans; this both replaces the Demarcation District (DD) Sheet boundary and improves land boundary records. Secondly, the CSL can serve as a coordinating body in curating various kinds of land records from diverse sources, and aids the research and knowledge management of cadastral survey, land law, land tenure, land registration systems, land boundary record keeping, problematic lot boundary determination, etc. These topics can be considered in the refining geomatics education curriculum, and furthermore developed into guidance notes for geomatics survey practitioners.The evolution of the traditional land surveying profession into the geomatics services has become a recent international trend that is growing in popularity in the survey profession. Combining geo-spatial data from the planning and design stages, alongside the use of standardised survey data processing in project implementation and asset management, would encourage data sharing, avoid duplicate efforts, and facilitate the formation of a digital city. The spectrums of geomatics education in universities should be widened with a refined curriculum on combining geomatics with cadastral survey that has evolved from the traditional lot boundary survey to multi-purpose cadastre, city information modelling, urban informatics, smart city administration, and a full-blown Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many cities in advanced economies, Hong Kong has embraced the "smart city" agenda. In this article, we engage with a number of ethical issues surrounding smart city development. We assess the ethical implications of four different smart city initiatives in Hong Kong - the use of a facial recognition system, the Smart Lamppost Pilot Scheme, the Free-flow Tolling System, and Electronic Health Records System - from the perspective of relational egalitarianism. Our analysis suggests that there are various moral risks - that a particular smart city initiative may fall short of some relevant normative requirements - depending on the levels of their voluntariness and transparency. Finally, we consider a number of strategies for mitigating these moral risks and maintaining socially egalitarian relationships among citizens of a smart city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based mainly on a Hong Kong-wide survey carried out in March-April 2021, while also drawing on a round of stakeholder interviews from July 2020 to December 2021, the article interprets the linked phenomena of trust and the smart city in the specific context of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In the main body of the article, four angles are used to understand facets of trust-smart city relations, centred on characteristic trust, trust and technology, the role of intermediaries, and trust in government. The main findings of the survey centre around the data trust paradox (of high support for technology in a low-trust environment), the social impact of trust and mistrust (strongly correlated with age and political affiliation), and trust in the smart city as a weathervane of trust in government. Factors such as a digitally literate population, a decades-long investment in technology, and a substantial record of delivery provide solid reasons to believe that a strategic-technical narrative on the smart city might succeed where others have failed to convince. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Hong Kong's smart city development as the case study, this paper aims to discover the influence of public trust on citizens' perception of Hong Kong's smart city performance in an international dimension, comparing with the smart city ranking by research agencies. Our central investigation further focuses on the association of public trust and digital trust, using COVID19 contact tracing app as an example. This paper uses data from a Hong Kong-based territory-wide survey in 2021 to conduct the analysis. The result suggests a positive relationship between public trust, subjective perception and digital trust, and supports that public acceptability is a cornerstone of an effective public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sector innovation is crucial for smart city development. This paper compares progress in Singapore and Hong Kong (HK). Although similarly competitive in many areas, SG is ahead of HK in rankings. Why does this disparity exist? What forms of public sector innovation are crucial for smart city development? This paper answers these questions for policy-makers by examining the role of public sector innovation in driving smart city developments, and underscores the importance of research and development within the public sector. ABSTRACT Since the 2000s, Hong Kong (HK) and Singapore (SG) have been working to reinvent themselves as smart cities. Despite their similarities, SG has consistently ranked ahead of HK on several smart city indices. To explain this gap, the smart city initiatives of both cities were categorized using a six-factor typology of public sector innovation. Further analysis indicated that SG was ahead of HK because its government has been more aggressive in funding and fostering innovation. This paper suggests that a government's financial support for public sector innovation, as well as its ability to redirect resources within the public sector and get citizens involved, will catalyse transformational efforts into a smart city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity and inclusion continue to pose significant challenges for many cities. Disparities in access to resources and facilities among the residents of these areas are often influenced by factors such as geographical location and income level, among others. Therefore, creating a quantitative basis to detect spatial and socio-economic inequities in residents' access to vital infrastructures is crucial for advancing smart cities. This paper introduces a novel measure of Spatial Inequity that is based on 1) computing building-level scores for each building in terms of access to facilities, and 2) comparing the distribution of the scores of these facilities using the Gini coefficient. The proposed building-level scores will enable the identification of GIS hotspots at a high resolution. Then, the Gini-based measure will facilitate a comparison of the distribution of the scores, and determine if they are evenly distributed and equitably accessible. The Gini coefficient was highest (0.89) for waste management and elderly care, and lowest (0.56) for hospitals, reflecting varying levels of inequality. This study applies this Spatial Ineqity methodological framework to Hong Kong, a representative of Highly Dense Cities. The framework benchmarks urban infrastructure, identifies hotspots, and selects interventions for equitable urban development. • Novel approach identifies spatial inequities via building-level scores & Gini coefficient. • Precise hotspot identification enhances targeted interventions in dense urban areas. • Applied methodology in Hong Kong offers insights into urban development complexities. • Gini coefficient unveils varying degrees of inequality across essential services. • Geospatial analysis & quantitative measures support equitable urban resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2020 introduction by China's central government of a national security law (NSL) in Hong Kong marked a watershed moment in the social and political history of the semiautonomous city. The law emerged after months of street protests that reflected declining public trust in Hong Kong's government. Against this turbulent backdrop, Hong Kong's policy projects moved forward, including smart city development. This article explores public trust in and political legitimacy of Hong Kong's smart cities endeavors in the period leading up to the introduction of the NSL. At a theoretical level, the smart cities phenomenon invites critical reflection about tensions between technocracy and democracy, but this topic remains largely unexploited by empirical literature. Using survey data from 1,017 residents, this study identifies confidence in the benefits of smart cities but lesser trust in privacy and security and lesser satisfaction with participation opportunities in related policymaking. Probing these dynamics, the study finds that trust in smart city mechanics and governance associate positively with support for smart cities, controlling for ideology and issue awareness. Illuminating a theoretical and practical puzzle, these findings contribute empirically to discussions about the political legitimacy of scientific, technological, and technocratic undertakings in the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of dense urban development, hilly terrain, and intense seasonal rainfall has caused acute landslide problems in Hong Kong, which are manifested by a death toll of over 470 people since the late 1940s. Tackling landslide problems in an urban setting, in particular under the effect of climate change, calls for a development and implementation of a holistic risk management strategy. It entails the use of engineering and non-engineering approaches, involving policy, legislative, administrative, innovation, technical, educational, community-based, and emergency-preparedness provisions. In this paper, these two approaches are showcased by the slope safety system that has been developed and promulgated in managing landslide risk for building Hong Kong as a world-class smart city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart cities are spurred by rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Cost justification has been a challenging but essential decision-making aspect for smart city projects. Whilst market costs are measurable, non-market costs are often obscure and even intangible. The adverse effects on individuals arising from ICT services are usually underestimated due to the exclusion of intangible elements. This study is devoted to the non-market costs of ICT to users (i.e. Privacy leak, Cyber-attack, Non-availability, and Impediment) and non-users (due to Digital divide) in smart cities. Contingent Valuation is conducted on representative ICT services in Hong Kong which is an emerging smart city. Ordinal regression is adopted to calculate Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for avoiding detriments as the proxy of non-market cost. The results indicate that the WTPs increase with data input needs. Information overload is remarkable in smart cities. Age is identified as a significant determinant through a discussion of influential factors of WTP. The impacts of Age on digital divide are studied with further insights through supplementary interviews. The estimated non-market costs should be incorporated into the Cost–Benefit Analysis of smart city projects for decision-making. Accordingly, policy recommendations on ICT use and security are provided for smart city managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article maps the parameters of an emerging field of struggle around "openness" pertaining to digital data in the postcolonial smart city. Whereas colonial governance operated in relative secrecy with archives not quite available to ordinary citizens, what do we make of current institutions from government departments to banks flaunting their commitment to Open Data? Looking at data activism in Hong Kong, this article highlights the (post)colonial histories that have shaped the reception of Open Data in this context. More so, it explores the ways in which the techno-materialities of data infrastructures affect and reconfigure postcolonial struggle. Building on Kelty's discussion of "recursive publics" and Hui's account of recursivity, my notion of recursive politics underscores the mutuality of social history and techno-materiality. While recursive politics can contribute to technodiversity, I analyze how such politics weigh up against the political and ethical investments of postcolonial struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart cities are aimed at improving citizens' life quality. However, they also bring unintended pitfalls of information insecurity, and these have not been studied sufficiently in an empirical way. System reliability as one of the quality attributes of information security, was investigated within the context of smart parking information system due to its close relevance with the ongoing smart city development globally. Through fuzzy fault tree analysis with the aid of structured interviews, it was found that a failure in a central system server may be caused by malicious attacks, human errors, and hardware and software failures. Survey results showed that improving firewalls and renewing recovery plans are necessary to defend against rampant malicious attacks; human errors as a non-technological factor may be reduced by well-planned training programs besides good operational governance and a timely recovery plan. Although system downtime is unavoidable, it can be reduced by proactive solutions including data backup and the provision of redundant servers and power supplies. All in all, an integrated approach is needed to mitigate against system unreliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to illustrate where facility management (FM) is having an impact on the urban environment and what other work needs to be done to easier facilitate achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This is important for practices as it highlights opportunities where the FM discipline can develop and to research to illustrate where the discipline is going. The societal benefit is that we see Urban FM as an intermediator between citizens, public and private practices providing the platform of how they can work together for mutual benefit. Design/methodology/approach: The method used is a literature review, looking latest state-of-art in the mentioned field has been assessed and the developments along with potential future research focuses, have been identified. The current scope to expand FM role were also taken into consideration from a recent workshop at the EuroFM conferences 2019 and 2020, several presentations at the CIB World Congress Hong Kong 2019, CIRRE 2018 and 2019, and special Facilities' issue, illustrating how FM works within Urban environments and the potential contribution the discipline makes on neighbourhoods, communities and broader city-scale. Findings: The authors present how FM fits in with a Smart and Sustainable City context by positioning communities as core for meeting SDGs, but they often fall out of needs perspective for hard and soft services. Since 2018, the authors have intensely worked on this topic developing conference papers at both a European and international level. The topic of Urban FM is growing in importance based on out interactions at these conferences and interactions with FM network groups. In addition, the authors have been identifying gaps, with communities that are currently not being met by current urban practice perspectives but could be met through an Urban FM practice perspective. They have engaged an educational perspective of Urban FM by developing workshops, summer schools with students from around Europe and new courses. With a specific focus on this concept, it is important to branch out ideas and disseminate of what a more structured urban FM is. Research limitations/implications: Smart and Sustainable Cities has been a focus for many years now from various perspectives such as urban planning and technology providing solutions and frameworks on how to manage increasing populations in cities. What these studies neglect is a service-oriented perspective supporting the livability requirements and social values of future and current communities living in cities which goes beyond operating and maintaining infrastructure of cities. This neglect which highlights the need to develop an understanding where FM expands its role in the urban environment. Originality/value: The aim is to highlight solidify research that is happening in this area where FM links to the urban environment and the benefit it has in terms of sustainability. It illustrates to practice and teaching that the concept of FM is relevant within an urban environment, creates stronger connections within and between citizens and cities and illustrate how Urban FM is necessary in facilitating community facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the making of place-led smart neighborhoods. Based on a multimethod research design that combines narrative city walks, participant observations, secondary research, and in-depth interviews, this study takes two older neighborhoods in the Northwest New Territories of Hong Kong as case sites to examine, elaborate on, and envisage the idea of constructing smart neighborhoods through digital placemaking. It finds that neighborhood residents are potentially the most significant actors and hosts of smart spatial attributes. The mechanism emerges through people's diverse and technologically mediated interactions. At the neighborhood scale, the everyday urban smart neighborhood is produced via individuals' socializing and the sharing of information about events. Smart neighborhoods are facilitated and sustained by relatively practical and simple technologies, and their making is more an approach for improving the quality of urban life than a designated goal to achieve. This research concludes that residents' digital placemaking plays a significant role in developing lived smart cities. Three main implementation directions are proposed. • Residents' everyday digital placemaking plays significant role in developing lived urban smartness at the neighborhood scale. • The making of smart neighborhood is more an approach for improving quality of urban life rather than a designated goal to achieve. • Examining urban neighborhoods as smart places in a highly context-sensitive everyday setting reveals the complexity of smart city research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A decision-making approach for determining strategic priority of SC services is established. • SC services in smart environment domain should be enhanced. • SC services with long-term impacts and serving wider user groups should be prioritized. • High demand priority for SC services to satisfy physiological, safety, and self-actualization needs are testified. The development of sustainable smart city (SC) services is often carried out with limited resources, but there is little discussion about the strategic priority of promoting SC development from the citizens' perspective. This study developed a decision-making approach to determine the supply and demand priority of SC services using utility and need theories, with Hong Kong as a case study. The results show that smart environment services should be prioritized for all population groups, while the differences in priority among older adults, people with lower digital literacy, and people with lower income were relatively small. On the one hand, the supply of SC services should be prioritized for those that are closely linked to citizens' daily lives, have a long-term impact on communities, and are targeted to large user groups. On the other hand, priority should be given to those services that meet citizens' demands for physiological, safety, and self-actualization needs. This study enriches the theoretical framework of people-centric SC research through the innovative integration of Bradley-Terry and rank-ordered logit models for determining the development priority for SC services, which can serve as a practical decision-making tool for policy makers to effectively allocate resources for sustainable SC development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As smart cities flourish amidst rapid urbanization and information and communication technology development, the demand for building more and more data centers is rising. This paper aims to examine the principal issues and considerations of data center facilities from the cost and benefit dimensions, with an aim to illustrate the approaches for maximizing the net benefits and remain "green." Design/methodology/approach: A comprehensive literature review informs the costs and benefits of data center facilities, and through a case study of a developer in Hong Kong, the significance of real estate costs is demonstrated. Findings: Major corporations, establishments and governments need data centers as a mission critical facility to enable countless electronic transactions to take place any minute of the day. Their functional importance ranges from health, transport, payment, etc., all the way to entertainment activities. Some enterprises own them, whilst others use data center services on a co-location basis, in which case data centers are regarded as an investment asset. Real estate costs affect their success to a great extent, as in the case of a metropolitan where land cost forms a substantial part of the overall development cost for data centers. Research limitations/implications: As the financial information of data center projects are highly sensitive due to the competitive status of the industry, a full set of numerical data is not available. Instead, the principles for a typical framework are established. Originality/value: Data centers are very energy intensive, and their construction is usually fast tracked costing much to build, not to mention the high-value equipment contents housed therein. Their site locations need careful selection due to stability and security concerns. As an essential business continuity tool, the return on investment is a complex consideration, but certainly the potential loss caused by any disruption would be a huge amount. The life cycle cost and benefit considerations are revealed for this type of mission-critical facilities. Externalities are expounded, with emphasis on sustainable issues. The impact of land shortage for data center development is also demonstrated through the case of Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photorealistic three-dimensional (3D) models play an indispensable role in the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) of a smart city. Recent developments in aerial oblique photogrammetry, and the popularity of terrestrial mobile mapping systems (MMSs) offer possibilities for deriving 3D models with centimeter-level accuracy in urban areas. Additionally, advances in image matching and bundle adjustment have allowed 3D models derived from the integration of aerial and ground imagery to overcome typical problems related to 3D mapping in urban areas (e.g., geometric defects, blurred textures on building façades). Nevertheless, this approach may not be suitable for all scenarios owing to innate differences between each platform. Besides, MMS images may not cover regions that cannot be reached by mobile vehicles in urban areas (e.g., narrow alleys, areas far from roads). Meanwhile, backpack systems have garnered attention from the photogrammetry community in recent years due to their flexibility, and regions neglected in previous works can be adequately reconstructed from images collected by backpack systems. This paper presents an approach for effectively integrating multi-source images collected by aerial, MMS, and backpack platforms for seamless 3D mapping in urban areas. The approach includes three main steps: (1) data pre-processing, (2) combined structure-from-motion, and (3) optimal generation of a textured 3D mesh model. The experimental results using aerial, MMS, and backpack datasets collected in a typical urban area in Hong Kong demonstrate the promising performance of the proposed approach. The described work is significant for boosting various types of imagery for integrated 3D mapping in both city scale and street level to facilitate various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A quantified approach to evaluate users' attitudes towards Crowd Management System. • Estimating the Willingness-to-Pay with the Contingent Valuation method. • Perceived usefulness and online payment habit greatly influence users' attitudes. • Good indications for future research on the use of ICT for safety enhancement. Smart city projects are being launched globally to enhance the well-being of citizens. Meanwhile, the value-added of the projects is not easy to evaluate due to the non-market nature of the public services provided. This study intends to investigate the attitudes of potential users of a Crowd Management System (CMS) to help with the decision-making on smart city projects. The CMS studied in this paper is applied in large-scale events to enable safe and efficient dissipation of event participants as one of the pilot Smart City projects in Hong Kong. It does so by providing real-time information on public transport for their return journeys when a large number of participants all finish their activities within a short time span. Reducing injuries of pedestrians can be achieved in major gatherings to improve safety. This paper presents an experimental analysis of users' attitudes towards the CMS with the Contingent Valuation (CV) method. A marathon event in Hong Kong was chosen for an on-the-spot survey of actual users as part of an experimental study. Subsequently a similar survey was carried out off-site among marathon runners not participating in that event (as a control group) for data reliability comparison. The Willingness-to-Pay value is also derived from the pooled samples to evaluate users' attitudes. Besides, the results indicate that runners' perceived usefulness and online payment habit significantly influence the stated Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for the CMS in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent Parking Information Systems (IPIS) being implemented in the built environment are regarded as an effective measure for transport management in smart cities, where congestion due to parking search has caused air pollution apart from time wastage. An IPIS improves the efficiency of disseminating real time parking vacancy information and provides convenience to drivers via Apps installed in their smart phones. After giving an overview of various IPISs being applied globally, this research on a typical IPIS is aimed at valuing the benefits to drivers and modelling how variations in the independent variables affect their use. A stated preference approach is presented with a discrete choice survey conducted in Hong Kong with more than 800 valid samples. Contingent Valuation (CV) is applied to evaluate the intangible benefits associated with the use of IPIS, based on the estimation of Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for its installation with a binary logit model. An aggregated WTP would be useful to policy makers when making decisions to scale up the system. It was found that three factors (download habit , parking time , and parking App usage) have positive impacts on WTP, whereas length of driving experience turned out to have a significantly negative influence. The econometric analysis provides useful contributions for the objective assessment of the viability of IPIS projects and their further investment in an emerging smart city environment. • Intelligent Parking Information Systems are increasing popular in smart cities. • Intangible benefits include reductions of congestion, parking time, pollution and accidents. • Contingent valuation is useful to evaluate the intangible benefits with demonstrable results. • Three related econometric models have been built to identify significant factors affecting the Willingness-to-Pay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The drive towards open data aims at improving government transparency, motivating citizen participation and unlocking commercial innovation. However, various intertwining barriers hinder the adoption of open data. They are stemming from legislation and licensing, technology and operation, use level, institution and governance, as well as economic considerations. Through the use of social network analysis (SNA), this study identified 43 barriers faced by stakeholders in an open data project in Hong Kong and investigated their interdependencies. Hong Kong was selected as a representative case due to its relatively low ranking in the Global Open Data Index (24th) and poor data quality. It was found that the lack of an open data policy should be tackled as a matter of priority to provide technical guidance for the public sector, ensure data quality and achieve expected outcomes. It is also necessary to improve the IT literacy/mindset of the public sector, refine the governance structure relating to the delivery of open data initiatives, encourage engagement from private entities and provide a feedback loop for users. This study explored the interrelationships between various barriers to open data adoption and proposes practical recommendations to enhance open data development in the context of emerging "smart cities". • The adoption of open data has encountered five categories of barriers faced by different stakeholders. • A barrier which is not properly solved can predispose other barriers within the project. • The lack of open data policy should be tackled as a matter of priority in Hong Kong. • Open mindset and IT literacy within the government organizations remain to be improved. • Other practical recommendations were proposed to enhance open data development in the context of emerging "smart cities". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to the Asiascape: Digital Asia special issue on 'smart communities' discusses how new technologies have created a paradigm of 'smartness' that informs how innovators, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and administrators imagine sociality in urban spaces. This is visible in plans for turning Singapore, Hong Kong, or Taipei into 'smart cities', and countries such as India, Japan, and South Korea are similarly rolling out initiatives that promise to revamp urban life across the region. Such 'solutionist' attempts to address the complexities of contemporary social life through technology cleverly fuse surveillance techniques, capitalist structures, free labour practices, and neoliberal governance to create urban utopias of safety, convenience, and community. We have asked the contributors to this special issue to explore what people do, through and with digital technologies, as they establish, claim, contest, and alter various social relations in the name of 'smart community', and this article introduces and discusses their results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart cities are built upon information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enable a broad range of advanced services. Through a comprehensive literature review, this study identified four pitfalls brought by the pervasive application of ICT, including information insecurity, privacy leakage, information islands, and digital divide. Therefore, a questionnaire survey together with 27 interviews was conducted in Hong Kong to investigate how the public perceived these pitfalls within the context of mobile apps providing real-time parking information which form a major part of smart mobility. System insecurity and privacy leakage were found to arouse worries among the app-users while their awareness of protecting personal data was found to have room for improvement. Islands of real-time parking information occur as a result of the lack of collaboration among private carpark operators. Digital divide existed widely among the disadvantaged groups and the problem cannot be solved by mere provision of ICT facilities. Overall, technologies alone cannot make a city smart or smarter. It is the suitable way in which ICTs are used to serve all citizens that matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by advances in smart grid technologies, building prosumers have closer interaction in sharing energy and information towards net-zero energy communities with energy flexibility and smart readiness. Many studies have focused on transactive energy systems, whereas limited attention was paid to coordinated prosumer management involving electric and electro-thermal energy storages. In this paper, a hierarchical energy management system was developed for a commercial neighbourhood, where distributed prosumers can share their generation and batteries, and manage cooling loads and thermal storages, in subtropical Hong Kong. Several operational scenarios were formulated considering building-level and neighbourhood-level controls, to explore the synergies through peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing and demand flexibility. Techno-economic-environmental impacts were analysed comprehensively from the perspectives of the network, the utility, and each participant. Results show that by integrating the demand-side flexibility, the P2P system could use electricity more effectively and economically. The formulated P2P operation strategy utilising neighbourhood-level control minimised the operational cost by 24.6% and net equivalent CO 2 emission by 7.1%, compared to the traditional peer-to-grid operation. The profit for each participant can be allocated by regulating the compensating price in the dynamic internal trading. The study provides prosumers energy-flexible and grid-friendly operation to facilitate the sustainability of the smart grid. • Hierarchical energy management for active prosumers with hybrid energy storages. • Performance comparison under individual and coordinated demand-side controls. • Enhancing local self-sufficiency by 22.8% via the power and information sharing. • Analysis of the participants' cost savings with a dynamic internal trading model. • Guidelines for system planners and operators to promote low-carbon communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Walkability-enhanced ICT (WICT) is essential towards a walking-friendly built environment. • Intangible benefits of WICT to pedestrians are monetised quantitatively for a Cost-Benefits Analysis. • An objective evaluation approach is demonstrated to assist decision-making on continued investment. • Influential factors affecting Willingness-to-Pay as valuation proxy are identified in econometric analysis. • Recommendations are proposed with increased concern on 'people' demand in planning decisions of a smart city. Smart cities are rapidly developing with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Walkability-enhanced ICT (WICT) caters to pedestrian needs and preferences by providing intelligent real-time information as a person strolls in an urban environment. Governments invest heavily in various ICTs and big data as part of their planning decisions in smart cities. The walkability enhancement enabled by integrated ICTs needs to be evaluated by urban planners, but this aspect is not covered in previous studies. WICT is usually provided free of charge to users. The benefits enjoyed by pedestrians are intangible with a non-market nature. This research looks into the walkability performance of WICT by evaluating its benefits to pedestrians. A survey was carried out in Hong Kong for a WICT installable in smartphones. The Contingent Valuation was used to evaluate the non-market benefits quantitatively, employing ordinal regression. Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) is estimated as the proxy of monetary value for the benefit enjoyed by individual users, which may be aggregated for a Cost-Benefits Analysis. This econometric approach intends to assist in decision making for continued investment in similar information systems of Smart City. Influential factors affecting WTP are also highlighted for targeting policies. Recommendations for city managers are proposed to establish a rational basis for planning smart cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the increase of big data and the advancement of technologies, comprehensive data-driven knowledge of urban systems is becoming more attainable, yet the connection between big-data research and its application e.g., in smart city development, is not clearly articulated. Focusing on Human Mobility, one of the most frequently investigated applications of big data analytics, a framework for linking international academic research and city-level management policy was established and applied to the case of Hong Kong. Literature regarding human mobility research using big data are reviewed. These studies contribute to (1) discovering the spatial-temporal phenomenon, (2) identifying the difference in human behaviour or spatial attributes, (3) explaining the dynamic of mobility, and (4) applying to city management. Then, the application of the research to smart city development are scrutinised based on email queries to various governmental departments in Hong Kong. The identified challenges include data isolation, data unavailability, gaming between costs and quality of data, limited knowledge derived from rich data, as well as estrangement between public and private sectors. With further improvement in the practical value of data analytics and the utilization of data sourced from multiple sectors, paths to achieve smarter cities from policymaking perspectives are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexity and variety of buildings and the defects of point cloud data are the main challenges faced by 3D urban reconstruction from point clouds, especially in metropolitan areas. In this paper, we developed a method that embeds multiple relations into a procedural modelling process for the automatic 3D reconstruction of buildings from photogrammetric point clouds. First, a hybrid tree of constructive solid geometry and boundary representation (CSG-BRep) was built to decompose the building bounding space into multiple polyhedral cells based on geometric-relation constraints. The cells that approximate the shapes of buildings were then selected based on topological-relation constraints and geometric building models were generated using a reconstructing CSG-BRep tree. Finally, different parts of buildings were retrieved from the CSG-BRep trees, and specific surface types were recognized to convert the building models into the City Geography Markup Language (CityGML) format. The point clouds of 105 buildings in a metropolitan area in Hong Kong were used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Compared with two existing methods, the proposed method performed the best in terms of robustness, regularity, and topological correctness. The CityGML building models enriched with semantic information were also compared with the manually digitized ground truth, and the high level of consistency between the results suggested that the produced models will be useful in smart city applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-objective optimisation of interactive buildings-vehicles energy sharing network. • A synergic buildings-vehicles energy sharing network with multiple interactions. • Energy flexibility exploitation with the advanced grid-responsive control strategy. • Techno-economic and multiple criteria with cost, emission and energy flexibility. • Multi-objective optimization using the Pareto archive NSGA-II algorithm. • Optimal solutions to energy-related conflicts for multi-criteria decision-makers. Systematic interactions between buildings, vehicles, and renewables can increase eco-economic viability on a neighbourhood scale. In this study, an interactive buildings-vehicles energy sharing network with multidirectional energy interactions was formulated for energy interactions and integrations together with a grid-responsive strategy for the management of off-peak renewable energy and grid electricity. Energy flexibility indicators (e.g., off-peak surplus renewable shifted ratio and off-peak grid shifted ratio) were introduced, developed, and implemented in an interactive buildings-vehicles energy sharing network for the energy flexibility assessment. Several energy-related conflicts, such as energy congestion contradiction and energy-related economic and environmental conflicts, were presented and discussed together with effective solutions provided to decision-makers for optimal design and robust operation. To reach a trade-off between energy-related conflicts, multi-objective optimisation was conducted, and implemented with an advanced multi-objective optimisation algorithm (called Pareto archive NSGA-II). The research results show that the formulated interactive buildings-vehicles energy sharing network demonstrates greater robustness and competitiveness than the conventional isolated system in terms of cost, emissions, and energy flexibility. Regarding multiple energy-related conflicts in the formulated interactive energy sharing network, the results show that multi-objective optimisation is able to decrease the equivalent CO 2 emissions of the buildings-vehicles energy system by 7.5%, from 147.4 to 136.4 kg/m2.a, and reduce the import cost from the electric grid by 8.5%, from 212.7 to 194.6 HK$/m2.a, together with a high energy flexibility: a maximum of 11.03% (1.5% in a conventional isolated system) of the off-peak grid electricity can be stored by the electrical storages and a maximum of 52.48% (33.6% in the conventional isolated system) of the off-peak surplus renewable electricity can be shifted to peak period. This study formulates an interactive energy sharing network between buildings and vehicles, together with quantifiable energy flexibility assessment criteria and effective solutions for dealing with multiple energy-related conflicts, which are critical for interactive buildings-vehicles energy sharing networks with high energy flexibilities in smart cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban rail system is a critical component of a smart and sustainable city. This paper applies the triple bottom line framework to assess Hong Kong's mass transit railway (MTR) performance. We collected data from MTR's annual reports and sustainability reports over the period 2008–2017. The data showed that MTR's urban rail system consumed 1,573 GW-hour (GWh) in 2017, up from 1,290 GWh in 2008. In terms of service capacity, MTR's urban rail system made 1.767 billion passenger-trips in 2017, up from 1.309 billon passenger-trips in 2008. The average passenger-km (pkm) travelled ranged from 10.4 to 11 km for city lines and from 28.4 to 29.5 km for airport express. The total pkm travelled by rail was 19.38 billion in 2017, up from 13.82 billion in 2008. Sustainability analysis showed that MTR's urban rail system had an efficiency of 0.076–0.093 kWh per pkm and produced 0.055–0.071 kg CO 2 -eq per pkm. Tobin's q value ranged from 0.638 to 1.043, suggesting that MTR's stock was undervalued in the capital market over the past decade. In terms of social performance, MTR's rail operations provided over 15 thousand jobs and handled 38.2 percent of public transport in 2017. • HK's urban rail handled 1.767 billion passenger-trips and consumed 1,573 GWh in 2017. • The total passenger-km travelled was 19.38 billion in 2017. • HK's urban rail system had an energy efficiency of 0.076–0.093 kWh per passenger-km. • HK's urban rail system emitted 0.055–0.071 kg CO 2 -eq per passenger-km. • The system's environmental and social performance has improved in the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart cities are emerging in most parts of the world. The cost-benefit analysis of such initiatives should include an unbiased consideration of potential procurement modes, especially when a substantial investment is entailed to scale up projects to the city level. Despite the enticing trend of public private partnerships (PPPs), city governments should evaluate the available options using an objective approach such as Multi-Attribute Utility Analysis (MAUA). The technique takes into account prioritized assessment criteria (which are tailor-made for smart city projects) and the relative utilities of the procurement options in meeting the criteria. The methodology of MAUA is demonstrated through a questionnaire survey and a focus group meeting involving public and private sector practitioners, and applied to 8 types of common smart city projects in Hong Kong, which is one of the metropolises earmarked to become a smart city by putting concepts into practice. Results show that not all projects are best suited to PPP and that there may be divergent views between the public and private sectors, with possibilities for a compromised decision which both sectors would accept. • Smart city projects need substantial investment to scale up to city level. • A variety of approaches may be used for procuring such projects; including PPP. • Different smart city projects need to be assessed individually due to their unique characteristics. • Multi-Attribute Utility Analysis is an objective evaluation method suiting this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]