Sustainable Cities and Communities

Amidst rapid urban development, sustainable transportation solutions are required to meet the increasing demands for mobility whilst mitigating the potentially negative social, economic, and environmental impacts. This study analyses autonomous vehicles (AVs) as a potential transportation solution for smart and sustainable development. We identified privacy and cybersecurity risks of AVs as crucial to the development of smart and sustainable cities and examined the steps taken by governments around the world to address these risks. We highlight the literature that supports why AVs are essential for smart and sustainable development. We then identify the aspects of privacy and cybersecurity in AVs that are important for smart and sustainable development. Lastly, we review the efforts taken by the ​federal government in the US, the UK, China, Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, France, and the EU, and by US state governments to address AV-related privacy and cybersecurity risks in-depth. Overall, the actions taken by governments to address privacy risks are mainly in the form of regulations or voluntary guidelines. To address cybersecurity risks, governments have mostly resorted to regulations that are not specific to AVs and are conducting research and fostering research collaborations with the private sector.

Recently we have witnessed the worldwide adoption of many different types of innovative technologies, such as crowdsourcing, ridesharing, open and big data, aiming at delivering public services more efficiently and effectively. Among them, ridesharing has received substantial attention from decision-makers around the world. Because of the multitude of currently understood or potentially unknown risks associated with ridesharing (unemployment, insurance, information privacy, and environmental risk), governments in different countries apply different strategies to address such risks. Some governments prohibit the adoption of ridesharing altogether, while other governments promote it. In this article, we address the question of how risks involved in ridesharing are governed over time. We present an in-depth single case study on Singapore and examine how the Singaporean government has addressed risks in ridesharing over time. The Singaporean government has a strong ambition to become an innovation hub, and many innovative technologies have been adopted and promoted to that end. At the same time, decision-makers in Singapore are reputed for their proactive style of social governance. The example of Singapore can be regarded as a revelatory case study, helping us further to explore governance practices in other countries.

Seferihisar Belediyesi 2009 yılında Cittaslow (Sakin Şehir) Birliği’ne üye olmuş ve bu üyeliğin takip ettiği 10 yıl içinde kent dokusunda dikkat çekici değişimler yaşanmıştır. Sakin şehir kapsamında kent yönetimi kendi kimliğini korumak, sürdürülebilirlik ve yereli desteklemek gibi ilkeler çerçevesinde faaliyetler gerçekleştirmeye başlamıştır. Yerli tohumların kullanılması, yerel üreticilerin desteklenmesi, üretici örgütlenmesi gibi küreselleşmeye alternatif olduğu vurgulanan faaliyetler uygulanırken bir yandan da inşaat sayısı ve arsa fiyatları artmış ve özellikle bir zamanlar küçük bir balıkçı kasabası olan Sığacık Kaleiçi bölgesinin turistik bir gösteri alanına dönüşmesi söz konusu olmuştur. Bu araştırmanın amacı, yereli güçlendirerek kapitalist kent yönetimine alternatif bir kent yönetimi ortaya koyma iddiasında olan Sakin Şehir hareketinin Seferihisar’a etkisinin mekân kullanımındaki değişimler üzerinden değerlendirilmesidir. Kentin kendi değerlerini tespit etmesi ve bu değerleri küreselleşmenin kentleri metalaştırmasına karşı bir hareket olan Sakin Şehir hareketi Türkiye’de 2009 yılında Seferihisar’ın üyeliği ile yayılmaya başlamıştır. Seferihisar’ın kendi özellikleri doğrultusunda uygulanan projeler yerel üretimin desteklenmesi ve turizm ağırlıklıdır. Seferihisar’da bir yandan yerli tohum merkezi, sosyal mutfak, kadın kooperatifi, üretici pazarları ve benzeri yerel değerleri ve üreticileri destekleyen projeler uygularken bir yandan tek katlı müstakil evler yerine çok katlı apartmanlar, butik oteller ve restoranlar yapılmaya başlanmıştır. Kentte hâkim ideoloji kendi mekânlarını yaratmaya çalışır. Kapitalizm, kentleri metalaştırarak bir tüketim unsuru haline getirmekte ve sanayileşmenin kârlılığının azaldığı ya da mümkün hale gelmediği durumlarda, bu şekilde gayrimenkul ve inşaat sektörleriyle kentleri pazarlamaktadır. Bunun sonucu olarak, kapitalizm özellikle kent merkezlerini ve turistik mekânları soylulaştırıp, tüketim mekânları haline getirerek ranta açar. Bu çalışma kapsamında, Seferihisar özelinde yukarda bahsedilen bu değişimlerin nasıl deneyimlendiği ortaya konularak Sakin Şehir hareketi ele alınacaktır.

USM has envisioned sustainability as a core development
theme of the university in light of global  sustainability issues. In becoming a world-renowned university for sustainability, USM facilitates  sustainability attainment through i) innovations and technology, and ii) changes in lifestyles. Subsequently, CGSS has launched a project that engages its surrounding communities via the dissemination of USM's sustainability lifestyle practices– focusing on the areas of recycling and composting involving
awareness campaigns at stakeholder's venues. It was initiated by conducting  situational analyses with stakeholders, after which specific sustainability awareness/practices campaigns were then devised, encompassing the setting-up and monitoring of composting units and recycling bins at six schools (SMK Bukit Jambul, SMK Bukit Gambir, SMK Dato‟ Haji Mohd Noor Ahmad, SK Minden Height, SK Sungai Gelugor and SK Bukit Gambir), commercial entities (Giant Supermarket), residential areas (Taman Brown, Sungai Gelugor and Taman Tun Saadon) and an SME industry (Cincaria Sdn.Bhd) all located around USM's vicinity. We believe that this project will  provide a platform to assess the level of sustainability integration across USM and its neighboring communities via community engagement practices. Participation from various community groups in the study area will also facilitate better understanding in finding ways to promote sustainability through awareness campaigns, knowledge transfer and community engagement on various levels.