The Theoretical and Disciplinary Underpinnings of Data–Driven Smart Sustainable Urbanism: An Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Perspective

Abstract

Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity have become a widespread mantra for research within diverse fields, accompanied by a growing body of academic and scientific publications. The research field of smart sustainable/sustainable smart urbanism is profoundly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary in nature. It operates out of the understanding that advances in knowledge necessitate pursuing multifaceted questions that can only be resolved from the vantage point of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Indeed, related research problems are inherently too complex and dynamic to be addressed by single disciplines. In addition, this field does not have a unitary approach in terms of a uniform set of concepts, theories, and disciplines, as it does not represent a specific direction of research but rather multiple directions. These are analytically quite diverse. Regardless, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity as scholarly perspectives apply, by extension, to any conceptual, theoretical, and/or disciplinary foundations underpinning this field. Such perspectives in this chapter represent a rather topical and organizational approach as justified and determined by the interdisciplinary aid transdisciplinary nature of the research field of smart sustainable urbanism. In this subject, additionally, theories from academic and scientific disciplines constitute a foundation for action—data–driven smart sustainable urbanism and related urban big data development as informed by data science practiced within the fields of urban science and urban informatics, as well as by sustainability science and sustainable development. In light of this, it is of relevance and importance to develop a foundational approach consisting of the relevant concepts, theories, discourses, and academic and scientific disciplines that underpin smart sustainable urbanism as a field for research and practice. With that in regard, this chapter endeavors to systematize this complex field by identifying, distilling, mixing, fusing, and thematically analytically organizing the core dimensions of this foundational approach. The primary intention of setting such approach is to conceptually and analytically relate urban planning and development, sustainable development, and urban science while emphasizing why and the extent to which sustainability and big data computing have particularly become influential in urbanism in modern society. Being interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary in nature, such approach is meant to further highlight that this scholarly character epitomizes the orientation and essence of the research field of smart sustainable urbanism in terms of its pursuit and practice. Moreover, its value lies in fulfilling one primary purpose: to explain the nature, meaning, implications, and challenges pertaining to the multifaceted phenomenon of smart sustainable urbanism. This chapter provides an important lens through which to understand a set of theories that is of high integration, fusion, applicability, and influence potential in relation to smart sustainable urbanism.