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A new book by Nicos Komninos, forthcoming from Routledge in the Advances in Regional Science, Economics, and Policy series.
Evolving Intelligent Environments: Smart Ecosystems and Transformative Innovations in the 21st Century provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the convergence among smart ecosystems, connected intelligence, and transformative innovations, considered the foundations of intelligent environments.
* Smart ecosystems are communities of organisations within and across cities, empowered by smart technologies, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence. They form collaborative environments organising production, service hubs, supply chains, city districts, utility networks, and innovation spaces advancing efficiency and sustainability.
* Connected intelligence is the cornerstone of intelligent environments and a driving force of collaborative problem-solving. Under specific conditions, it emerges within smart ecosystems through the integration of human, collective, and machine intelligence, generating transformative innovations and ecosystem transitions.
* Transformative innovations involve deep, often disruptive, changes to routines and operational performance that go beyond optimisation. Connected intelligence emerging within smart ecosystems, along with enabling technologies, data spaces, modelling, and experimental sandboxes, drives the discovery of transformative innovations.
The book explores the current leap forward in intelligent environments, which are redefining models of 21st-century urban and industrial ecosystems. It examines the expansion of platform economies; the transition of industrial sectors into smart-green ecosystems; the evolution of service ecosystems augmented by generative AI; the rise of carbon-neutral smart districts; the creation of cleaner and safer neighbourhoods; the emergence of car-free cities enabled by intermodal and robotic mobility; and the formation of globally connected innovation ecosystems.
Table of Contents
1. Foundations for Intelligent Environments: Smart Ecosystems, Connected Intelligence, Transformative Innovations
1.1. The legacy of Bletchley Park: Problem-solving with connected intelligence
1.2. Smart cities and ecosystems evolving into intelligent environments
1.3. Interdependencies within intelligent environments
1.4. Setting intelligent environments: Challenges and problems
1.5. Theoretical framework: Connected intelligence in smart ecosystems
1.6. The book
Part 1. The Rise of Smart Ecosystems
2. Smart Ecosystems: Systems-of-Systems Reshape Cities and Innovation
2.1. System-of-systems in the smart city paradigm
2.2. Ecosystems in the making of smart cities
2.3. System-of-systems in innovation
2.4. Smart ecosystems, digital and green transitions
2.5. Twenty major smart ecosystems
3. Smart Ecosystems in the Near Future: Foresight and Evolution
3.1. Smart ecosystems: Evolution and futures in the literature
3.2. Navigating foresight exercises
3 3. Envisioning 2050: Perspectives from experts
3.4. The near future of smart ecosystems
Part 2. Transformative Innovations and Transition Models
4. Industry Sectors: Transitioning into Smart Green Ecosystems
4.1. Industrial transformation: The challenge
4.2. Pathways for industrial transformation
4.3. Transforming industry sectors: A generic pathway of transition and growth
4.4. Evidence from case studies in Mediterranean regions
4.5. Connected intelligence and industry smart-green transition
5. Service Ecosystems: Platforms in the Age of Generative AI
5.1. Service ecosystems in transition
5.2. Services over supply chains: The traditional model
5.3. Platform-based service ecosystems: A model of systemic transformation
5.4. Widening of the platform model: The city as a platform
5.5. Evolving service ecosystems: Platforms enhanced by generative AI
6. Residential Areas: Towards Self-Sufficient Net-Zero Energy Districts
6.1. Pathways to carbon neutrality: Between vision and hype
6.2. Carbon neutrality through net-zero energy districts
6.3. Beyond NZEDs: Are self-sufficient NZEDs feasible?
6.4. A model of transition to S-NZEDs: Combining eight systems
6.5. Transition to S-NZEDs: Simulation and thresholds
6.6. Connected intelligence and carbon neutrality
7. Mobility Ecosystems: Transformative Innovations for Car-free Cities
7.1. Urban mobility: Transitioning to car-free cities
7.2. The Mobility as a Service ecosystem
7.3. Augmenting MaaS with connected intelligence
7.4. A model to assess time efficiency in multimodal mobility
7.5. Beating the clock: Simulating x-minute trip durations
7.6. Towards car-free cities: MaaS, connected intelligence, re-design, and NBSs
8. Interconnected Innovation Ecosystems: Combining Capabilities across DIP spaces
8.1. Innovation: A recap of key concepts
8.2. Innovation ecosystems: Baseline typologies
8.3. Interconnected innovation ecosystems: Multi-scalar dynamics
8.4. IIEs: Evidence of transition
8.5. IIEs, connected intelligence, and innovations supply chains: An integrative model
Part 3. Actualising Connected Intelligence
9. Connected Intelligence: A Universal Architecture across Smart Ecosystems
9.1. Smart ecosystems evolving into intelligent environments
9.2. The conditional emergence of connected intelligence
9.3. Connected intelligence in smart ecosystems: Three case studies
9.4. Ecosystems developing connected intelligence: A universal architecture
10. Actualising Connected Intelligence in the Discovery of Innovation
10.1. DIP platforms: Design for engagement, awareness, and externalities
10.2. Datasets alignment
10.3. Agent-based modelling
10.4. Experimentation sandboxes
10.5. Binary coupling interfaces in the discovery of innovation
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