Citizen participation plays a critical role in the transformation towards citizen-centered smart cities, ensuring resilience, inclusivity, and responsiveness to community needs. Smart cities, while often associated with technological infrastructures and digital tools, also adopt a human-cepntered perspective that emphasizes the social and participatory dimensions of smart urban development. Engaging residents in these initiatives not only facilitates the acquisition of valuable insights but also strengthens the foundation for equitable urban development. However, the participatory process often encounters significant barriers that hinder its effectiveness, posing challenges to the creation of truly inclusive and citizen-centered smart cities. This paper analyzes the participatory processes and outcomes of two case studies, URBANAGE and drOp, both of which follow a Human-Centered Design approach and have implemented targeted actions to address participation challenges. This article explains the methodologies and processes followed in these projects and identifies key lessons learnt from their experiences and examining the impact of participatory processes on project outcomes. Lastly, it proposes practical guidelines to enhance the effectiveness of citizen involvement in future smart city initiatives. Despite their focus on different citizen groups and objectives, both case studies faced similar obstacles in fostering meaningful participation and awareness.

Local economic development (LED) strategies at the district level—such as sub-city or neighbourhood initiatives—play a crucial role in fostering sustainable and inclusive urban growth. This study explores the critical factors influencing LED and urban regeneration at the district scale, emphasising the integration of sustainability, digital technologies, inclusivity, energy efficiency, community engagement, and innovation into strategic planning. To prioritise these CFs, a tailored survey was distributed among a group of 13 city experts from European cities, involved in research projects focused on district-level quality-of-life enhancements through building retrofits, urban space interventions, energy community promotion, and technological deployment. By focusing on the district level, this research highlights the importance of tailoring strategies to local contexts and leveraging the unique characteristics of each neighbourhood. The findings reveal the need for local governments to enhance the capacity of administrative staff to engage citizens and direct external support for development projects. The normative recommendations derived from this study are specifically grounded in district-level research and practice, ensuring their applicability to sub-city areas. This paper concludes that a context-specific and collaborative approach is essential for achieving equitable and sustainable economic development at the district level.

The increase of the urban population has raised the need of cities to transform into resilient environments. Such a transformation, however, requires both engaged and active communities. Engaged communities can foster change more effectively and therefore enhance adaptability and flexibility boosting the resiliency of their environments. Nevertheless, the accomplishment of engaged communities still remains a challenge in many cities and studies have often overlooked the importance of this engagement. Even so, various studies approaching engagement from the Human-Centered Design (HCD) perspective have identified factors that influence citizen engagement. However, a comprehensive model that integrates all these factors is still lacking. Identifying and prioritizing the factors that affect the engagement of citizens in participation processes can help engage communities in transformative urban processes, thereby achieving, overall, more resilient environments. According to the methodological approach, a systematic literature review was conducted. This review has provided insight into HCD practices applied in this context and the lack of engagement of citizens. The results show a list of factors, divided by categories depending on their nature. Consequently, research gaps and future directions point out that the success of an enhanced engagement relies on the consideration and integration of various factors which impact citizens’ engagement.

Urban greening has transitioned from a supplementary component of urban development to a central element in contemporary planning policies, driven by its recognized environmental, social, and health benefits. This paper explores urban greening processes through the lens of Human-Centered Design (HCD), an approach that emphasizes iterative, participatory, and user-oriented approaches. While public participation in urban planning is traditionally framed through statutory procedures and deliberative models, HCD offers a distinct perspective by treating engagement as a design process aimed at deeply understanding and integrating citizen needs into the process. This study compares two internationally acclaimed cities, Melbourne, Australia, and Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, focusing on their urban greening strategies and citizen engagement mechanisms. Using HCD as an analytical framework, the research investigates how socio-political and cultural contexts shape participatory practices, the barriers planners face, and how these impact the effectiveness and sustainability of greening initiatives. The findings underscore the value of HCD in fostering long-term citizen relationships, adapting greening solutions to local contexts, and addressing the methodological gaps in participatory urban design. Ultimately, the paper advocates for a more structured, context-sensitive, and human-centered approach to citizen engagement.