Technology first, sustainability later: a systematic review on the literature on the policy development of China’s smart city strategy
In China, like in other countries, smart cities have been proposed to make cities more efficient and, ideally, also more sustainable and low-carbon. Unlike other countries, China pursued a smart city strategy since 2008 with substantial funding and intermediate goals, resulting in high data and comp...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ad9ed7 |
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| author | Ke Ge Felix Creutzig Marie Josefine Hintz |
| author_facet | Ke Ge Felix Creutzig Marie Josefine Hintz |
| author_sort | Ke Ge |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In China, like in other countries, smart cities have been proposed to make cities more efficient and, ideally, also more sustainable and low-carbon. Unlike other countries, China pursued a smart city strategy since 2008 with substantial funding and intermediate goals, resulting in high data and computational-intensive digital infrastructures in some cities. However, there is a lack of systematic understanding of how Chinese smart city policies and practices evolved. It is also unclear if and how smart cities achieve sustainability goals. Here, we fill these gaps by conducting a systematic literature review on the timeline of China’s smart city policies during the past three Five-Year Plans. The literature review, based on screening 7995 papers, and analyzing 364 relevant articles, shows that priority research topics are smart city systems and governance, including surveillance, with a more limited focus on policy. China’s net-zero carbon strategy is far less developed than its smart city strategy. The funding and development of large-scale data and AI technology is exemplified in Hangzhou’s ‘Urban Brain’. While sustainability goals are often associated with smart cities, we find few applications with demonstrated sustainability benefits. We suggest that mutual learning is possible by combining the net zero strategy and sustainable city strategy of cities like Copenhagen, Nairobi, Singapore and Toronto with the urban brain strategy of cities like Hangzhou. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1ad36f256c9f4b978ff3c7220a9f146f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2634-4505 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability |
| spelling | doaj-art-1ad36f256c9f4b978ff3c7220a9f146f2025-01-06T07:07:38ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability2634-45052025-01-014404200310.1088/2634-4505/ad9ed7Technology first, sustainability later: a systematic review on the literature on the policy development of China’s smart city strategyKe Ge0https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5673-7443Felix Creutzig1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5710-3348Marie Josefine Hintz2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2996-5976Sustainability Economics of Human Settlements, Technical University Berlin , Str. des 17. Juni 145, 10623 Berlin, Germany; Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change , EUREF Campus 19, 10829 Berlin, GermanySustainability Economics of Human Settlements, Technical University Berlin , Str. des 17. Juni 145, 10623 Berlin, Germany; Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change , EUREF Campus 19, 10829 Berlin, Germany; Bennett Institute for Innovation and Policy Acceleration, University of Sussex Business School , Brighton, United KingdomSustainability Economics of Human Settlements, Technical University Berlin , Str. des 17. Juni 145, 10623 Berlin, Germany; Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change , EUREF Campus 19, 10829 Berlin, Germany; Hertie School , 10117 Berlin, GermanyIn China, like in other countries, smart cities have been proposed to make cities more efficient and, ideally, also more sustainable and low-carbon. Unlike other countries, China pursued a smart city strategy since 2008 with substantial funding and intermediate goals, resulting in high data and computational-intensive digital infrastructures in some cities. However, there is a lack of systematic understanding of how Chinese smart city policies and practices evolved. It is also unclear if and how smart cities achieve sustainability goals. Here, we fill these gaps by conducting a systematic literature review on the timeline of China’s smart city policies during the past three Five-Year Plans. The literature review, based on screening 7995 papers, and analyzing 364 relevant articles, shows that priority research topics are smart city systems and governance, including surveillance, with a more limited focus on policy. China’s net-zero carbon strategy is far less developed than its smart city strategy. The funding and development of large-scale data and AI technology is exemplified in Hangzhou’s ‘Urban Brain’. While sustainability goals are often associated with smart cities, we find few applications with demonstrated sustainability benefits. We suggest that mutual learning is possible by combining the net zero strategy and sustainable city strategy of cities like Copenhagen, Nairobi, Singapore and Toronto with the urban brain strategy of cities like Hangzhou.https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ad9ed7China’s smart citypolicyFive-Year Plansnet-zero goalssustainable citylow-carbon |
| spellingShingle | Ke Ge Felix Creutzig Marie Josefine Hintz Technology first, sustainability later: a systematic review on the literature on the policy development of China’s smart city strategy Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability China’s smart city policy Five-Year Plans net-zero goals sustainable city low-carbon |
| title | Technology first, sustainability later: a systematic review on the literature on the policy development of China’s smart city strategy |
| title_full | Technology first, sustainability later: a systematic review on the literature on the policy development of China’s smart city strategy |
| title_fullStr | Technology first, sustainability later: a systematic review on the literature on the policy development of China’s smart city strategy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Technology first, sustainability later: a systematic review on the literature on the policy development of China’s smart city strategy |
| title_short | Technology first, sustainability later: a systematic review on the literature on the policy development of China’s smart city strategy |
| title_sort | technology first sustainability later a systematic review on the literature on the policy development of china s smart city strategy |
| topic | China’s smart city policy Five-Year Plans net-zero goals sustainable city low-carbon |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ad9ed7 |
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