Smart cities in Arabian cultures: Dubai as a case study

• Autor(a) principal: Abbara, Arwa
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/7974
• topic: Cidade Inteligente; Dubai.; Infraestruturas; Países e Cultura Árabe; Requisitos e Questões da Sustentabilidade; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Civil

This Dissertation “Smart cities in Arabian cultures: Dubai as a case study”, introduces an overview of a particular field of Civil Engineering, the urban studies. It aims to present some results about the literature review, focused on some of the main problems that are facing the cities, and how they are dealing with them by a new concept for smartness, including infrastructures, economic, social and environmental issues. It starts by considering that some of the current challenges on the global scale, trying to find solutions regarding urban societies, are based on the concept of “smart city”. Therefore, is clear that new ideas regarding the cities improvements, which are on the top of global agenda, could be found at the concept of “smart city”. This is a topic reason among the researchers, in a continuous development, in particular regarding societies, countries or regions where it is emerging, such as in the Arabian world. The case study is focused on Dubai, a city in the United Arab Emirates, which is an example where in a short period of time, after the oil discovery in the 1970s, one small and badly known urban settlement became a pioneer reference in terms of smart cities requirements. Thus, this Dissertation presents a background information about smart cities, their assets and key pillars, their smart infrastructures and features in cultural, social and environmental terms. The main goals are based on a theoretical approach, developed in order to get more details and requirements about smart cities, regarding the features of the Arabian culture. It argues around the case of Dubai, as a pioneer smart city in the Arab world. Among of the main conclusions, there is the idea that the urban transformation process in contemporary societies to secure the smartness, should apply to the use of ICT / information and communication technologies. This use will increase the efficiency concerns to the natural resources, and provide a high quality of life for citizens. The example of Dubai has shown that the decision-makers have built each sector and part of the city in a solid performance, in order to achieve the smart sustainability concept. This city is nowadays a reference on this matter, not only in the Middle East but also considering the global scale.