From smart cities to smart environment: reframing urban resilience and ecological transition

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to explore the role of the Smart Environment as a fundamental pillar of urban resilience and ecological transition, emphasizing its relevance for sustainable development in contemporary cities facing climate change, rapid urbanization, and environmental degradation. While the concept of Smart Cities has been widely studied in the past two decades, recent scholarship highlights the need to move beyond technology-driven urban development and to integrate ecological dimensions into the digital agenda. Prior research on digitalization, green infrastructures, and participatory governance has provided valuable insights, yet there is a growing gap in connecting these elements into a coherent paradigm of Smart Environment. Building on recent contributions in the field of smart urban development and sustainability studies, this paper positions the Smart Environment as an integrative framework that links technological innovation with ecological resilience. The research approach combines comparative analysis of European and Romanian urban case studies with an interdisciplinary review of emerging technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence, and environmental sensors. The results indicate that implementing smart environmental solutions – including air quality monitoring, efficient resource management, renewable energy integration, and green infrastructures – significantly enhances the capacity of cities to adapt to risks and crises. The implications of these findings are relevant for academics, policymakers, and practitioners, as they underline the necessity of embedding Smart Environment strategies into broader urban governance frameworks. The added value of the paper lies in its articulation of Smart Environment not merely as an extension of Smart Cities, but as a paradigm shift redefining the relationship between cities, citizens, and nature, and offering a strategic pathway for sustainable urban resilience and ecological transition.