Smart cities can use business models to evaluate what value they offer citizens by integrating ICT into their infrastructure and services. The article introduces the concept of the ‘city business model’ and proposes a practical framework for analysing it. The City Model Canvas (CMC)—based on the Business Model Canvas for firms—shows the elements that city councils should consider during the design, delivery and assessment of smart services, including the smart service’s expected economic, environmental and social impacts. An example of how the CMC was used to design an ICT platform in Bristol shows its utility as a planning tool.

Discarded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles have damaged our ecosystem. Problems of marine fauna conservation and land fertility have been related to the disposal of these materials. Recycled fibre is an opportunity to reduce the levels of waste in the world and increase the mechanical performance of the concrete. PET as concrete reinforcement has demonstrated ductility and post-cracking strength. However, its performance could be optimized. This study considers a statistical-experimental analysis to evaluate recycled PET fibre reinforced concrete with various fibre dose and aspect ratio. 120 samples were experimented under workability, compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile tests. The results pointed out that the fibre dose has more influence on the responses than its fibre aspect ratio, with statistical relation on the tensional toughness, equivalent flexural strength ratio, volumetric weight, and the number of fibres. Moreover, the fibre aspect ratio has a statistical impact on the tensional toughness. In general, the data indicates that the optimal recycled PET fibre reinforced concrete generates a superior performance than control samples, with an improvement similar to those reinforced with virgin fibres.

Infrastructure construction, one of the biggest driving forces of the economy nowadays, requires a huge analysis and clear transparency to decide what projects have to be executed with the few resources available. With the aim to provide the public administrations a tool with which they can make their decisions easier, the Sustainability Index of Infrastructure Projects (SIIP) has been defined, with a multi-criteria decision system called MIVES, in order to classify non-uniform investments. This index evaluates, in two inseparable stages, the contribution to the sustainable development of each infrastructure project, analyzing its social, environmental and economic impact. The result of the SIIP allows to decide the order with which projects will be prioritized. The case of study developed proves the adaptability and utility of this tool for the ordinary budget management.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Sustainability is pivotal in the urban transformation strategy in order to reach more resource-efficient, resilient and smarter cities. The goal of being a sustainable city should drive the decisions for city interventions, and measuring city progress is a key step for this process. There are many initiatives aiming at defining indicators and assessment procedures, but there is no convergence in the definition of terms and application methodologies, making their real implementation complex. Within mySMARTLife project (GA#731297), a KPI-driven evaluation framework has been defined with the aim of covering the multiple pillars of a smart and sustainable city (i.e., environment, energy, mobility, ICT, citizens, economy, governance) in a holistic way. This methodology also defines the concepts and terms to guide urban planners and/or experts at the time of implementing the framework for any specific city. The evaluation framework has been deployed in the cities of Nantes, Hamburg and Helsinki, and some lessons have been learned, such as the necessity of providing a definition of measurement boundary to avoid biased interpretations. Due to a co-creation strategy, the main issues from the cities have been taken into consideration in order to increase the replicability of the results.

Maintenance management of the hydraulic structures requires the selection of the most necessary maintenance intervention to ensure their proper operation and structural safety. Given the characteristics of these structures, many types of damage may appear, so it is not easy to take a decision. The purpose of this paper is to present the Prioritisation Index for the Management of Hydraulic Structures (PIMHS), a multi-criteria decision-making system based on the three axioms of sustainability (social, environmental and economic), which orders and prioritises non-similar maintenance investments in hydraulic structures. The results obtained show that PIMHS can be used by decision-makers to prioritise, in hydraulic structures, all kinds of maintenance interventions where the damages cannot lead to dam break.