Big Data for Urban Sustainability: A Human-Centered Perspective

This book presents a practical framework for the application of big data, cloud, and pervasive and complex systems to sustainable solutions for urban environmental challenges.  It covers the technologies, potential, and possible and impact of big data on energy efficiency and the urban environment. The book first introduces key aspects of big data, cloud services, pervasive computing, and mobile technologies from a pragmatic design perspective, including sample open source firmware. Cloud services, mobile and embedded platforms, interfaces, operating system design methods, networking, and middleware are all considered. The authors then explore in detail the framework, design principles, architecture and key components of developing energy systems to support sustainable urban environments. The included case study provides a pathway to improve the eco-efficiency of urban transport, demonstrating how to design an energy efficient next generation urban navigation system by leveraging vast cloud data sets on user-behavior. Ultimately, this resource maps big data’s pivotal intersection with rapid global urbanization along the path to a sustainable future.