Smart and Resilient Urban Futures for Sustainability in the Post COVID-19 Era: A Review of Policy Responses on Urban Mobility

Christina Kakderi, Eleni Oikonomaki and Ilektra Papadaki
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Christina Kakderi: URENIO Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece
Eleni Oikonomaki: URENIO Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece
Ilektra Papadaki: URENIO Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-21

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has put lifestyles in question, changed daily routines, and limited citizen freedoms that seemed inalienable before. A human activity that has been greatly affected since the beginning of the health crisis is mobility. Focusing on mobility, we aim to discuss the transformational impact that the pandemic brought to this specific urban domain, especially with regards to the promotion of sustainability, the smart growth agenda, and the acceleration towards the smart city paradigm. We collect 60 initial policy responses related to urban mobility from cities around the world and analyze them based on the challenge they aim to address, the exact principles of smart growth and sustainable mobility that they encapsulate, as well as the level of ICT penetration. Our findings suggest that emerging strategies, although mainly temporary, are transformational, in line with the principles of smart growth and sustainable development. Most policy responses adopted during the first months of the pandemic, however, fail to leverage advancements made in the field of smart cities, and to adopt off-the-shelf solutions such as monitoring, alerting, and operations management.

Keywords: urban planning; COVID-19; urban mobility; sustainability; smart cities; smart growth; pandemic; resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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