Big Data: The Engine to Future Cities—A Reflective Case Study in Urban Transport

Christopher James Pettit, Simone Zarpelon Leao, Oliver Lock, Matthew Ng and Jonathan Reades
Additional contact information
Christopher James Pettit: City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
Simone Zarpelon Leao: City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
Oliver Lock: City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
Matthew Ng: City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
Jonathan Reades: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: In an era of smart cities, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data is purported to be the ‘new oil’, fuelling increasingly complex analytics and assisting us to craft and invent future cities. This paper outlines the role of what we know today as big data in understanding the city and includes a summary of its evolution. Through a critical reflective case study approach, the research examines the application of urban transport big data for informing planning of the city of Sydney. Specifically, transport smart card data, with its diverse constraints, was used to understand mobility patterns through the lens of the 30 min city concept. The paper concludes by offering reflections on the opportunities and challenges of big data and the promise it holds in supporting data-driven approaches to planning future cities.

Keywords: big data; data analytics smart cities; visualisation; dashboards; urban modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1727/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1727/ (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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:3:p:1727-:d:740947

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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