Sustainable Smart Cities: A Comprehensive Framework for Sustainability Assessment of Intelligent Transport Systems

This paper is an extended version of a previously published paper [22], which proposes a framework for assessing the sustainability impact of intelligent transport systems (ITS). Building on this research, this paper shows the practical application of the framework by assessing three exemplary ITS projects and discussing potential future use. Due to the increasing relevance of ITS to improve the efficiency of transport in highly congested areas, this framework has high practical relevance for smart mobility initiatives and (future) smart cities. Municipalities increasingly recognize their responsibility for creating a sustainable environment for citizens in the face of challenges like overpopulation, land shortage, and climate change. Nevertheless, many ITS initiatives still mainly focus on technical solutions and overlook their impact on sustainability despite the relevance for the environment, society, and economy. This paper bridges the gap between technical applications and their impact on sustainability by proposing a framework for assessing the sustainability of ITS applications and initiatives. It discusses and analyzes different perspectives on the complex concepts of sustainability and ITS to derive a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that can be targeted by ITS in one central framework. Besides this theoretical contribution, this paper focuses on demonstrating the practical use of the framework with a diverse set of projects. Hence, this work bridges two fundamental perspectives for further research and supports decision-makers in choosing ITS initiatives that contribute to both smart mobility and sustainability.