Sustainable Urbanism in the Digital Age: The Smart City Approach

Abstract

The word \"smart\" represents something modern and handled quickly; in the case of a smart city, it refers to a sector that is very modern, prosperous in every facility, and well-functioning for people. That is the reason for growing up in urbanisation and vice versa. As smart cities possess multifunctional qualities, urban growth occurs rapidly, which presents major problems for people from an environmental perspective. As the population has grown, concrete buildings and other structural developments have been constructed for people’s comfort, like the increase of web-based networks to make cities more modern and digital, along with smart cities, which affect the ecosystem and environment and have some return gifts to the earth’s people. These days, people swiftly apply technology to enhance their ability to navigate the digital world. But people should consider their activities and the development of society as sustainable, instinctively extending from the present into the future. There are significant challenges for planners in making a city smart through the application of modern technologies. These two words have a very impactful and impressive effect on the urban people and the growth of urbanisation. So, the growth of a smart urbanisation should be made with the concern of both words in a single term, i.e., smart-sustainable city.

Introduction

Urbanisation is the gradual development of human habitats, encompassing population growth, socio-economic advancement, technology adoption, and enhanced civic amenities. While it drives quantitative growth and qualitative upliftment, uncontrolled urbanisation, especially in developing regions, strains resources, local governance, and infrastructure.

Smart cities represent a strategic response to urbanisation, using digital infrastructure, ICT, and data-driven governance to enhance sustainability, efficiency, and quality of life. Key characteristics include investment in people, participatory governance, resource management, and technological integration. Smart cities are often defined through frameworks like the six pillars model (Smart Economy, Smart People, Smart Governance, Smart Environment, Smart Living, Smart Mobility) and emphasize multidimensional development.

Sustainability is a core aspect, ensuring long-term environmental, social, and economic balance while meeting current urban needs. The concept of a wise city evolves from smart cities by integrating knowledge, collective experience, and adaptive decision-making.

Digital and physical urban infrastructure—such as smart grids, renewable energy integration, and smart buildings—is central to operationalising smart cities. Effective interaction between technology, human capital, and governance enables cities to become smart sustainable urban environments, balancing economic growth, ecological health, and social equity.

Conclusion

1) Summary of the paper: The overall view from this paper is that although there have many opportunities and gainful offers in every smart city, there are some limitations related to corporate control, digital exclusion, and privacy-related issues (Gere, 2018; Pourahmad et al., 2018; Rudewicz, 2023). The wise city concept highlights the limitations of the conventional smart city by incorporating spatial and temporal dimensions, creating a three-dimensional framework that transforms the city from smart to wise (Seymen & Arabac?o?lu, 2024). A sustainable smart city authority always focused on the needs of city people, i.e., called city-driven, uses ICT for better communication and uses collaborative behaviour with engaging stakeholders\' participation (Azambuja et al., 2020). 2) Future research approaches: Ahvenniemi et al. (2017) said that the concept of a sustainable smart city needs more analytical discussion of the standardised indicators and their application (Azambuja et al., 2020). There is a need for participatory governance, and citizens should be involved in decision-making sectors that will make smart citizens (UNCTAD, 2016; Gere, 2018). Bokhad et al. (2023) suggested investigating the impact of the technological tools on governance and democracy, which are used in smart cities, and exploring the citizens’ engagement with these tools and the abuse of power in urban localities. Citing Martin et al. (2019) and Azambuja et al. (2020), it was noted that, to develop and transfer a city to a sustainable smart city, it is essential to find out the power and include the citizens in the city\'s governance.

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Copyright © 2026 Madhuchhanda Dhole. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.