Smart technologies and urban life: A behavioral and social perspective

The explosive advancements of sensing technologies, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Internet of Things (IoT) have given rise to various smart technologies that brought profound changes in various aspects of urban life. Such changes may suggest a paradigm shift in the ways of experiencing and researching urbanism. However, we still know very little about what to expect and how to cope with these changes based on scientific investigations from a behavioral and social perspective. To fill this void, this special issue Smart technologies and urban life: A behavioral and social perspective presents a collection of ten papers covering four themes, namely smart technologies-generated big data and urban research, smart technologies and travel behavior, smart technologies and energy consumption, and smart technologies and urban life. Specific topics include the application of open source data and deep learning techniques, the development of smart street lighting system, the usage and social implications of smartphone applications, the ownership and application of emerging mobility services, household decisions on investments in renewable energy equipment, travel behavior, smartness and sustainability etc. Building upon findings from these studies, we speculate on the prospects and future applications of smart technologies and their implications for social and environmental sustainability.