Smart city data architecture for energy prosumption in municipalities: concepts,requirements, and future directions

ABSTRACT

Big data is gaining visibility and importance, and its use is attaining higher levels of influence within municipalities. Due to this proliferation smart cities are posed to deploy architectures toward managing energy for Electric Vehicles (EV) and orchestrate the production, consumption, and distributing of energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind etc. in communities also known as prosumption. In smart city domain, Enterprise Architecture (EA) can be employed to facilitate alignment between municipality goals and the direction of the city in relation to Information Technology (IT) that supports stakeholders within the city. Hence, the alignment between IT and goals of the city is a critical process to support the continued growth and improvement of city services and energy sustainability. However, despite several research effort focused on data architecture in smart city, there have been few studies aimed at exploring how EA can be applied in smart cities to support residential buildings and EV for energy prosumption in municipalities. Therefore, this study conducts an extensive review and develops an architecture that can be employed in smart city domain based on big data management for energy prosumption in residential buildings and EV. Furthermore, secondary data was employed to present a case study to show the applications of the developed architecture in promoting energy prosumption. Findings suggest that the architecture provides interoperable open real-time, online, and historical data in facilitating energy prosumption. Respectively, this study offers exchange of data for sharing energy resources and provides insights to improve energy prosumption services.     

Refuting the paradigm of water services privatisation

The aim of this article is to question the fundamental assumptions behind privatisation and public–private partnerships. The article shows that instead of radically increasing private sector involvement, public sector reforms should be seriously considered. Public–private partnerships should be implemented so that the strengths of all the stakeholders may be fully utilised.     

海河流域水环境危机和适度恢复对策的探讨

20世纪50年代以来,海河流域水资源短缺和水环境恶化问题越来越突出。河道断流,湿地萎缩,地下水大量超采,水污染和水土流失加剧,流域水环境已经恶化到十分危险的境地。回顾、总结流域水资源开发利用的历史可以清楚地看出,经济社会发展大大超过了水资源的承载能力,是海河流域水生态环境恶化的根本原因。本文认为,改善和恢复水环境,必须以供定需,以水定发展,根据流域水资源条件确定产业结构、经济规模和发展方向,努力实现人与自然的和谐相处,以水资源的可持续利用保障经济社会的可持续发展。     

青岛市可持发展环境优势与战略对策

作为北京奥运的唯一伙伴城市,面对历史性的机遇和挑战,青岛市在加快建设和发展步伐的同时,坚持人与自然和谐、山海城协调、历史与现代交融、经济社会全面进步的可持续发展原则,不断推进青岛的生态城市建设,可以预见,青岛市完全符合举办一流奥运会的要求将成为现实。     

中俄界河——黑龙江的生态保护与可持续开发探讨

国际性河流由于其地缘关系而与国家间的的政治、经济、外交等密切联系,并引起多起国际水事争端。本文以中俄界河——黑龙江为例,从水资源开发利用、水环境现状及两国经济发展的实际出发,探讨了黑龙江流域的生态环境保护与可持续开发利用问题。     

实施经济可持续发展战略方法初探

通过对人类社会生态环境系统物质循环全过程的研究得出:实现资源高效可持续利用是实施可持续发展战略的关键;实施可持续经济发展战备必须从人类社会经济系统发展的全过程考虑;生产环节要推行清洁生产和标准化管理;消费领域要倡导绿色消费方式;发展循环经济,减少人类活动对自然环境的压力。     

营造可持续发展的生态安全建筑

围绕建筑与全球生态环境问题的关系 ,阐述了建筑对生态环境产生的巨大负面影响 ,已经威胁到全球的生态安全 ;指明生态建筑是建筑走可持续发展之路 ,是实现全球生态安全的必然选择 ,并对生态建筑的实施策略进行了探讨。     

Using public procurement to achieve social outcomes

The use of public procurement to achieve social outcomes is widespread, but detailed information about how it operates is often sketchy and difficult to find. This article is essentially a mapping exercise, describing the history and current use of government contracting as a tool of social regulation, what the author calls the issue of ‘linkage’. The article considers the popularity of linkage in the 19^th century in Europe and North America, particularly in dealing with issues of labour standards and unemployment. The use of linkage expanded during the 20^th century, initially to include the provision of employment opportunities to disabled workers. During and after World War II, the use of linkage became particularly important in the United States in addressing racial equality, in the requirements for non‐discrimination in contracts, and in affirmative action and set‐asides for minority businesses. Subsequently, the role of procurement spread both in its geographical coverage and in the subject areas of social policy that it was used to promote. The article considers examples of the use of procurement to promote equality on the basis of ethnicity and gender drawn from Malaysia, South Africa, Canada, and the European Community. More recently, procurement has been used as an instrument to promote human rights transnationally, also by international organizations such as the International Labour Organisation. The article includes some reflections on the relationship between ‘green’ procurement, ‘social’ procurement, and sustainable development, and recent attempts to develop the concept of ‘sustainable procurement.’     

Carbon sequestration,biological diversity,and sustainable development: Integrated forest management

Tropical deforestation provides a significant contribution to anthropogenic increases in atmospheric CO₂ concentration that may lead to global warming. Forestation and other forest management options to sequester CO₂ in the tropical latitudes may fail unless they address local economic, social, environmental, and political needs of people in the developing world. Forest management is discussed in terms of three objectives: carbon sequestration, sustainable development, and biodiversity conservation. An integrated forest management strategy of land-use planning is proposed to achieve these objectives and is centered around: preservation of primary forest, intensified use of nontimber resources, agroforestry, and selective use of plantation forestry. The information in this document has been wholly funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency. It has been subjected to the agency's peer and administrative review and approved for publication of an EPA document. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.     

The common property resource problem and the fisheries of Barbados and Jamaica

Common property resources (CPR) tend to be particularly susceptible to depletion and degredation. This creates problems for sustainable development and for resource stewardship in general since many of the key global resources are common property. The article explores the different definitions of CPR and the traps associated with the harvesting of CPR without understanding the social, economic, and environmental costs related to their exploitation. The commons problem may be approached in terms of a private property solution, the allocation of individual quotas to fishermen, or a communal property solution in which communities of fishermen basically manage their own fisheries. The offshore fishery of Barbados lends itself to the private property solution, and the inshore fishery of Jamaica, to the communal property solution.Drawing from case studies of Jamaica and Barbados fisheries, four principles of CPR use are proposed: (a) the solution of the CPR problem starts with the control of access to the resource, (b) increasing production from a CPR depends on the conservation of the resource base, (c) the sustainable utilization of a CPR is closely connected to the use of technology appropriate for the harvest, and (d) local-level management improves prospects for the sustainable use of a CPR. The case studies illustrate that there may be local, national, and international levels of interest over the resource. Hence, the successful management of such resources as Barbados and Jamaica fisheries requires that conflicting demands for the resources be taken into account, perhaps using a cooperative management approach.