Author Profile

Dr. Naomi Jacobs is Lecturer in Design Policy and Futures Thinking in The School of Design at Lancaster University. As an interdisciplinary academic, her work crosses various disciplines including design, computer science, social science, and fan and audience studies. Naomi's previous work has focused primarily on interaction; between individuals, communities, disciplines or sectors, and between people and technology and the media they consume. Her current research often uses speculative design methods and design fiction, and focuses on how technologies such as IoT and AI are being implemented and governed. This includes research related to design for policy, particularly in the context of policy for ethical use of new technologies. She also co-leads the cross-university Fan Studies Lancaster research group. Naomi has published papers on topics including the impact of AI on design teaching, the governance of smart cities, livestreaming of fan conventions, speculative uses of data and technology in food supply chains, and how to use zombie apocalypse modelling for epidemiology education. Her research is interdisciplinary and crosses areas including design, computer science, and fan and audience studies. She is particularly interested in supervising PhD projects relating to: Speculative Design and Design Fiction; Ethical challenges relating to new and emerging technologies; Fan studies, particularly relating to digital/physical fan activity and online communities; The interaction with the above topics and Design for Policy.

About The Book

Regardless of the source, energy is a major factor for development. It is needed for transport, industrial and commercial activities, buildings and infrastructure, water distribution, and food production. Most of these activities take place in or around cities, which are on average responsible for more than 75 per cent of a country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and therefore the main engines of global economic growth. To run their activities, cities require an uninterrupted supply of energy. They consume about 75 per cent of global primary energy and emit between 50 and 60 per cent of the world's total greenhouse gases. Future cities will prioritize energy, resource, and environmental economics through sustainable practices like renewable energy integration, improved energy efficiency, and smart resource management to combat challenges like pollution and increased demand from urbanization. This shift involves a combination of new technologies, urban planning, economic policies, and citizen participation to create more resilient and productive urban environments. This book will equip students with the tools necessary for economic analysis and quantification of impacts of energy systems. It will review the availability of energy resources and study methods for quantification of resource depletion and scarcity. The book will cover basic concepts in economics and their application to energy systems. Tools and techniques for project economics for an individual/company perspective and macro-decision making for society will be introduced. It will discuss basic concepts of welfare economics and environmental economics that are necessary for energy systems analysis and their environmental impacts. The author discusses in detail the new tools that enable the development of better smart cities, such as big data, digital twins, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, which will enable the exploration of scenarios of development much more efficiently than in the past.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1 Innovation and Smart Cities: Future Directions
Chapter 2 4 IR Technologies to Facilitate Planning in Smart Cities of the Future
Chapter 3 Financing of Smart City Projects
Chapter 4 Smart Cities: Development and Align Benefits
Chapter 5 Cities: The New Form of International Environmental Governance
Chapter 6 Smart Energy Cities: The Role of Behavioral Interventions in Reducing Electricity Demand
Chapter 7 Back to the Future: Toward Ancient Knowledge Human-Centered Sustainable Smart Cities
Chapter 8 Environmental Retrofitting, Fighting Urban Heat Island Toward NEZ Sustainable Smart Cities
Chapter 9 A Comprehensive Smart System for the Social Housing Sector
Chapter 10 Smart Green Planning for Urban Environments: Digital City
Chapter 11 MUST-B: A Multiagent Model to Address the Future Challenges of Sustainable Urban Development
Chapter 12 A Twenty-First Century Transit-Oriented Development
Chapter 13 Disposing of Daily Life Resources by Active Modes
Chapter 14 Mobility Hubs, an Innovative Concept for Sustainable Urban
Mobility
Chapter 15 Benefits of Promoting Intermodality and Active Modes in Urban Transportation
Chapter 16 Smart Cities Initiatives and Perspectives in the MENA......
Region and Saudi Arabia
Chapter 17 Smart Transportation Systems in Smart Cities: Practices, .
Challenges, and Opportunities
Chapter 18 Smart Cities: GCC and Kuwait Experience
Chapter 19 Smart Cities from an Indian Perspective: Evolving Ambitions
References
Index