Society with future: smart and liveable cities

Abstract

We are delighted to introduce the proceedings of the first edition of the European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) International Conference on Society with Future: Smart and Livable Cities (SC4Life 2019). This conference brought together researchers, developers, and practitioners from around the world who are leveraging and developing new knowledge on the topic of “smart cities”, offering more efficiency to main infrastructures, utilities, and services, while creating a sustainable urban environment that improves the quality of life for its citizens and enhances economic development. However, despite the accepted concept of smart cities, as a result of the utilization of the latest information and communication technologies (ICT), the concepts of smart, sustainable, resilient, safe, inclusive, and liveable cities, must be jointly considered, linking ICT advancements with the most innovative technology and systems of the built and natural environment, as well as with the most relevant component being its citizens, to offer efficient cities and territories. With this context in mind, the theme of SC4Life 2019 was “Society with a Future – Smart and Liveable Cities”. In this first edition, the following main topics were considered: Cities and Territories, Information and Technologies, and Citizen-centred Needs. In addition to papers in the referred topics, contributions with an interdisciplinary nature were particularly encouraged. The technical program of SC4Life 2019 consisted of 13 full papers, presented in oral sessions at the main conference tracks. Apart from the high-quality technical paper presentations, the technical program also featured a keynote speech by Professor Filippo Practicó from the Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Italy. Coordination with the general chair, Paulo Pereira, and the publication chair, Rita Ribeiro, was essential for the success of the conference. We sincerely appreciate their constant support and guidance. It was also a great pleasure to work with such an excellent Organizing Committee and we thank them for their hard work in organizing and supporting the conference. In addition to this, we would like to highlight the great work led by the Technical Program Committee, including Paulo Novais and Ivo Oliveira. We are also grateful to conference manager, Karolina Marcinova, for her support and to all the authors who submitted their papers to SC4Life 2019. The SC4Life conference series provides a liveable forum for the exchange of scientific ideas and practical results, technological innovations and social challenges, and new visions, from academics, companies, and municipalities, also taking into account the irreplaceable role of the intervention of citizens, fostering the innovations to support a better quality of life with social cohesion.