Frontiers in Sustainable Cities

Impact of smart city policy on environmental, social, and governance performance of enterprises in China

2026-03-31

Tianyu Wang, Ganlin Shen

Based on the data of listed companies in China’s A-share market, this paper takes the smart city policy as a quasi-natural experiment and employs the progressive difference-in-differences (DID) model and the mediation model to investigate the influence effect and mechanism of the smart city policy on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of enterprises. The research reveals that the smart city policy can significantly enhance the ESG performance of local enterprises, and this conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests. The mechanism test indicates that the smart city policy mainly improves the ESG performance of enterprises by alleviating financing constraints and promoting green innovation, and the facilitating effect of the smart city policy is more pronounced in enterprises with stronger managerial capabilities. Additionally, the smart city policy has a more substantial impact on improving the ESG performance of enterprises in the eastern region, those in non-heavy pollution industries, non-state-owned enterprises, small-scale enterprises, and profitable enterprises. There is no “greenwashing” phenomenon in the ESG performance of Chinese enterprises, which provides enlightenment for the subsequent development direction of the smart city policy. Based on the above findings, this paper proposes policy recommendations such as actively responding to the smart city policy, alleviating financing constraints, accelerating the green innovation of enterprises, enhancing the managerial capabilities of enterprises, and differentially stimulating the ESG development of enterprises. This paper provides theoretical support and empirical evidence from the perspective of the smart city policy for enhancing the ESG performance of enterprises and expanding the development paths of ESG.

The paradox of the dense city: when greenness fuels exclusion

2026-03-30

Mercurio Ceballos, Daniel Jato-Espino

Stairway to health: motivational stair interventions increase stair use in Vienna metro stations

2026-03-23

Juliane Stark, Julia Elisabeth Hecht, Stephanie Weidinger, Michael Meschik

Urban mobility systems are expected to ensure accessibility while also offering opportunities for everyday physical activity. In practice, mechanized ascent aids such as escalators and elevators are widely used, which can reduce incidental physical activity and limit availability for people with mobility impairments. This study examined factors influencing ascent aid choice and assessed the effects of a low-cost stair-promotion intervention in three central metro stations in Vienna. Using a mixed-methods design, we combined observations of 30,862 passengers with short interviews conducted before and after the installation of humorous, positively framed stair-riser stickers. Baseline observations showed that escalators were the dominant mode of ascent, with stair use ranging from 7% to 26%, while elevators were primarily used for functional reasons. Following the intervention, stair use increased by four percentage points at two of the three stations. This corresponds to several thousand additional stair uses per day in a high-volume transit system. The effect was greater in women, who noticed the stickers significantly more often. Survey results indicate that humorous and positively framed messages were perceived as more motivating than purely informational or negatively framed approaches. Overall, findings suggest that simple, low-cost behavioral interventions can encourage incidental physical activity in everyday travel and ease pressure on mechanized ascent aids. The results provide insights for urban planners and public health policymakers seeking to integrate physical activity into daily commuting routines.

PM2.5 inhalation exposure and associated health risk in young adults at University campus, Delhi, India

2026-03-20

Saurabh Sonwani, Ronak Raj Sharma, Anju Srivastava, Pallavi Saxena

The present study determines PM₂.₅ concentrations during winter months (late October 2023–early January 2024) to assess the inhalation exposure-related health risks among young adults in the University campus in Delhi. The winter mean PM₂.₅ concentration (269.35 ± 143.43 μg/m³) was ~7 times higher than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and ~18 times the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. Health risk analyses were conducted using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) inhalation risk assessment framework together with a Relative Risk (RR) model recommended by WHO. Seasonal Hazard Quotient (HQₛₑₐₛₒₙₐₗ) values during winter exceeded the safety threshold of unity, i.e. ~5–6 times higher than summer and monsoon levels, indicating pronounced short-term non-carcinogenic risk during peak pollution periods. In contrast, three-year Hazard Quotient (HQ₃ᵧᵣ) values, remained above unity despite being lower than winter peaks, suggesting sustained non-carcinogenic risk over campus residence. Gender-specific assessment showed marginally higher HQ₃ᵧᵣ values among males due to differences in inhalation rate and body weight. The RR model indicate a projected 1.65-fold increase in cardiopulmonary mortality and a 2.11-fold increase in lung cancer-related mortality under prevailing annual ambient PM₂.₅ concentrations, reflecting long-term risk rather than immediate disease occurrence within the cohort. Health status surveys were conducted among young adults and revealed with 10.3% of respondents had respiratory conditions (bronchitis or asthma), whereas 60.7% reported worsened symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, shortness of breath, or eye irritation during highly polluted winter months. Such observations also align with empirical data and provide a clearer understanding of the on-ground health impacts. In reference to the annual mean PM₂.₅ concentration (98.72 ± 74.51 μg/m³) at the University of Delhi North Campus [Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) monitoring station] in 2023, the exposure was found to be associated with reductions in life expectancy at the population level. Substantial longevity gains could be achieved by meeting NAAQS or WHO's annual standards for PM2.5 (AQLI, 2025). Overall, the findings demonstrate that wintertime PM₂.₅ exposure poses considerable health risks to young adults, underscoring the urgency of long-term air quality management in urban academic settings and establishing a baseline for future mitigation-oriented research.

A multi-scale feature fusion framework for urban functional zone identification using automatic ensemble learning method

2026-03-19

Yansong Wang, Huarong Jia, Yuhuan Zhang, Tianming Zhang, Lu Wang, Wei Guo

In the process of the continuous expansion of global urbanization, the identification and classification of urban functional zones (UFZs) are essential for accurately mapping the internal organization of cities and scientifically planning urban layout patterns. Multi-source remote sensing data are significant for identifying the distribution patterns of UFZ and achieving sustainable urban development. However, the current research mainly uses remote sensing images and point of interest (POI), although the effect of the area of interest (AOI) has great potential, its role has been overlooked. In addition, multi-scale features are difficult to integrate. To solve these problems, in this study, a multi-scale feature fusion framework is proposed for identifying the UFZ distribution. This study integrates five types of features extracted from GF-2 hyperspectral images, POI, AOI, SDGSAT-1 nighttime light images, and building data. Based on these datasets, a plot ratio-enhanced nightlight index (PRENI) was proposed to identify UFZs more accurately and efficiently. The overall accuracies of the UFZs in Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai were 90.70, 91.23 and 90.75%, respectively, confirming the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method. In addition, a comparative analysis was performed against a deep learning–based UFZ classification approach using only GF-2 imagery, which further demonstrates the superior performance of the proposed method in terms of structural rationality and computational efficiency. This study provides a scientific basis for supporting accurate urban planning and development policies to achieve cities’ sustainable development goals.

A unified framework for forecast-adaptive and regime-aware ICT design in smart waste collection

2026-03-18

Pradeep Bedi, Sanjoy Das, Devesh Pratap Singh, Indrani Das

Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled smart waste collection is typically evaluated based on operational savings, while the electricity use and emissions of the enabling digital infrastructure are rarely quantified. This article presents a unified, resource-aware evaluation framework that computes a net environmental balance by jointly accounting for operational impacts and end-to-end information and communication technology (ICT) energy use and CO2emissions across the device, network, edge, and cloud layers. To ground the assessment in realistic urban conditions, the daily atmospheric context was constructed from Sentinel-5P Level-3 time series over New Delhi from 2020 to 2025 using the UV Aerosol Index (UVAI), CO, and NO2. After QA-masked compositing and preprocessing, pollution regimes were identified via standardized multivariate clustering and evolved using a Markov scenario generator. Multi-horizon forecasting (7-day and 30-day horizons) was then compared across ARIMA, ridge regression, random forest, gradient boosting, and long short-term memory (LSTM) to estimate risk and drive a forecast-adaptive ICT policy that tunes sensing and communication rates. The results showed that ensemble learners provided the highest forecasting accuracy across pollutants, while the adaptive ICT design reduced average ICT emissions, showing measurable, regime-aware energy and CO2savings without sacrificing predictive capability for city-scale evaluation.

Smart cities in Turkey: a systematic synthesis and AHP–DEMATEL-based prioritization of urban innovation themes

2026-03-17

Fatma Kürüm-Varolgüneş, María de la Cruz del Río-Rama, José Álvarez-García

As cities face mounting pressures of urbanization, technological innovation, and sustainability, the smart city paradigm has emerged as a multidimensional strategy to modernize infrastructure and enhance quality of life. This study adopts a hybrid review and decision-support approach, presenting a comprehensive synthesis of Turkey’s smart city literature through a two-stage systematic review of 107 peer-reviewed articles (55 international, 52 national) published between 2010 and 2024. Thematic content analysis reveals 20 distinct clusters, which are mapped onto six globally recognized smart city pillars: governance, mobility, economy, people, living, and environment. Moving beyond a conventional systematic review, the study applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize thematic dimensions and the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to uncover causal relationships among them. Expert input (n = 12) from urban planning, ICT, and environmental policy domains was used to evaluate criteria. Findings indicate that smart governance and smart environment are the most influential drivers, while the smart economy remains underdeveloped. A notable misalignment is observed between local priorities and global frameworks, with institutional fragmentation and uneven technological capacity acting as persistent barriers. This research contributes a context-sensitive analytical model that integrates global smart city theory with the realities of an emerging economy. Limitations include reliance on expert judgment and the absence of longitudinal validation. Future studies should incorporate empirical project data and expand stakeholder perspectives to strengthen the strategic relevance of identified priorities. By explicitly integrating systematic synthesis with expert-driven decision-support modeling, the paper offers a context-sensitive and conditionally transferable framework, which may inform smart city planning in other emerging economies facing comparable institutional and fiscal constraints.

Travel behavior and mobility patterns of live-out domestic workers in Centurion, South Africa

2026-03-16

Babra Duri

IntroductionDomestic workers are an essential but often marginalized component of the urban labor force in South Africa, and their daily mobility experiences remain overlooked in urban and transport planning. This study applies spatial mismatch and transport disadvantage theories to analyze how structural inequalities shape the commuting patterns and transport challenges of live-out domestic workers in Centurion.MethodsA quantitative research approach was employed, using a structured questionnaire administered to 100 female domestic workers selected through purposive sampling. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with Principal Axis Factoring and Oblimin rotation.ResultsRegarding travel behavior, the study found a predominant reliance on minibus taxis as the primary mode of transport; on mobility patterns, the results revealed a significant spatial separation between home and work, with most respondents spending more than 40 min on work-related commutes; and the main transport-related challenges included a heavy financial burden, as transport costs are high relative to the typical monthly income earned by domestic workers.DiscussionThe four key dimensions influencing transport experiences are fear of harassment, perceived travel safety, access and cost constraints, and information and waiting-time constraints. This study advocates for the development of mixed-income housing and increasing the provision of low-income housing within or near higher-income areas. The findings also highlight the need for targeted policies to improve public transport safety, affordability, and accessibility, thereby supporting inclusive urban mobility.