Urban Innovation and Sustainability

This book is a collection of context-specific ICT-based interventions to achieve sustainability from various perspectives or dimensions. The book is based on case study examples in the strategic context of Hainan, South China. Five ICT-based pilot studies were conducted, surveyed, and analysed in 2021 and 2022. The studies explore impacts on four main sustainability dimensions of environmental, social, economic, and institutional. Several ICT-based interventions are suggested to enhance environmental protection, promote health and support in elderly communities, augment social media for place promotion, create online opportunities for local markets, and help boost local tourism industries. 

Urban Innovation and Sustainability is an attempt to highlight the positive side of ICT-based interventions in cities and communities. We also need to note the negative side of ICTs, which are partly covered in the case study examples. However, this book focuses on case study pilot examples to promote the nexus between innovation and sustainability. It is essential to explore opportunities that could later be scaled up, transform practices, and help develop context-specific policies. In essence, paradigm shifts, infrastructural development, and human-centric development are necessary. This book’s findings interest scholars/researchers, practitioners, and authorities in various disciplines of urbanism, urban/human geography, urban studies, planning, innovation, and sustainability.