The recent proliferation of ubiquitous computing technologies has led to the emergence of urban computing that aims to provide intelligent services to inhabitants of smart cities. Urban computing deals with enormous amounts of data collected from sensors and other sources in a smart city. In this article, we investigated and highlighted the role of urban computing in sustainable smart cities. In addition, a taxonomy was conceived that categorized the existing studies based on urban data, approaches, applications, enabling technologies, and implications. In this context, recent developments were elucidated. To cope with the engendered challenges of smart cities, we outlined some crucial use cases of urban computing. Furthermore, prominent use cases of urban computing in sustainable smart cities (e.g., planning in smart cities, the environment in smart cities, energy consumption in smart cities, transportation in smart cities, government policy in smart cities, and business processes in smart cities) for smart urbanization were also elaborated. Finally, several research challenges (such as cognitive cybersecurity, air quality, the data sparsity problem, data movement, 5G technologies, scaling via the analysis and harvesting of energy, and knowledge versus privacy) and their possible solutions in a new perspective were discussed explicitly.

Geographic information system (GIS) is designed to generate maps, manage spatial datasets, perform sophisticated “what if” spatial analyses, visualize multiple spatial datasets simultaneously, and solve location-based queries. The impact of big data is in every industry, including the GIS. The location-based big data also known as big spatial data has significant implications as it forces the industry to contemplate how to acquire and leverage spatial information. In this study, a comprehensive taxonomy is created to provide a better understanding of the uses of GIS and big spatial data. The taxonomy is made up of big data technologies, GIS data sources, tools, analytics, and applications. The authors look into the importance of big spatial data and its implications, review the data sources, and GIS analytics, applications, and GIS tools. Furthermore, in order to guide researchers interested in GIS, the challenges that require substantial research efforts are taken into account. Lastly, open issues in GIS that require further observation are summarized.

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a novel strain of Coronavirus. COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic on 11th March 2020, and it has impacted almost every aspect of human life. Education is crucial to individuals and society, and COVID-19 has affected educational systems worldwide. According to UNESCO monitoring, over 100 countries have implemented nationwide closures, impacting nearly 90% of the world's student population. In this chapter, the authors discuss how ICT is helping the community during COVID-19 and how it is catering to the young population's education needs. The demographics of COVID-19, along with an aging population, are explored. The authors then focus on the education sector and the challenges for education from school to universities. Furthermore, they look into how ICT facilitates education in the COVID-19 pandemic and the issues and challenges ICT faces in implementing online education. In the end, they discuss the role of ICT in developing communities and the future directions of online education for the development of smart communities.