SDI-Enabled Smart Governance: A Review (2015–2025) of IoT, AI and Geospatial Technologies—Applications and Challenges

Sofianos Sofianopoulos, Antigoni Faka and Christos Chalkias ()
Additional contact information
Sofianos Sofianopoulos: Department of Geography, Harokopio University of Athens, El. Venizelou 70, 17676 Athens, Greece
Antigoni Faka: Department of Geography, Harokopio University of Athens, El. Venizelou 70, 17676 Athens, Greece
Christos Chalkias: Department of Geography, Harokopio University of Athens, El. Venizelou 70, 17676 Athens, Greece

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-28

Abstract: This paper presents a systematic, narrative review of 62 academic publications (2015–2025) that explore the integration of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) with emerging smart city technologies to improve local governance. SDIs provide a structured framework for managing geospatial data and, in combination with IoT sensors, geospatial and 3D platforms, cloud computing and AI-powered analytics, enable real-time data-driven decision-making. The review identifies four key technology areas: IoT and sensor technologies, geospatial and 3D mapping platforms, cloud-based data infrastructures, and AI analytics that uniquely contribute to smart governance through improved monitoring, prediction, visualization, and automation. Opportunities include improved urban resilience, public service delivery, environmental monitoring and citizen engagement. However, challenges remain in terms of interoperability, data protection, institutional barriers and unequal access to technologies. To fully realize the potential of integrated SDIs in smart government, the report highlights the need for open standards, ethical frameworks, cross-sector collaboration and citizen-centric design. Ultimately, this synthesis provides a comprehensive basis for promoting inclusive, adaptive and accountable local governance systems through spatially enabled smart technologies.

Keywords: spatial data infrastructures (SDIs); artificial intelligence (AI); internet of things (IoT); machine learning (ML); smart local governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/7/1399/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/7/1399/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:7:p:1399-:d:1693989

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().