Cover
Vol. 1 No. 1 (2025)

Published: June 30, 2025

Pages: 46-53

Case Study

Smart and Sustainable Cities: The Case of Amman, Jordan

Abstract

In an era shaped by rapid urbanization and digital transformation, smart cities have become a global imperative for sustainable, efficient, and citizen-centric development. This article analyzes Amman’s development into a smart city, highlighting its role as a model for emerging urban areas. Leveraging recent technologies such as AI, IoT, blockchain, and big data, Amman is actively transitioning from a traditional city to a smart one enhancing mobility, energy efficiency, education, healthcare, and citizen engagement. This study examines Amman’s smart city vision and roadmap, technological infrastructure, key application domains, implemented innovation projects, and global rankings. It also explores the challenges the city faces, future research opportunities across various domains, the role of software in urban development, and the critical factors contributing to Amman’s success as a smart city. This article serves as a vital reference for researchers, policymakers, urban planners, and practitioners aiming to shape next-generation smart cities. The case of Amman underscores how strategic governance, public-private collaboration, and the effective use of emerging technologies can accelerate sustainable urban transformation.

References

  1. P. Bellini, P. Nesi, and G. Pantaleo, “IoT-enabled smart cities: A review of concepts, frameworks and key technologies,” Applied Sciences, vol. 12, no. 3, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12031607
  2. R. Sanchez-Corcuera, A. Nunez-Marcos, J. Sesma-Solance, A. Bilbao-Jayo, R. Mulero, U. Zulaika, G. Azkune, and A. Almeida, “Smart cities survey: Technologies, application domains and challenges for the cities of the future,” Int. J. Distributed Sens. Networks, vol. 15, no. 6, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1177/1550147719853984
  3. B. Hamid, N. Jhanjhi, M. Humayun, A. Khan, and A. Alsayat, “Cyber security issues and challenges for smart cities: A survey,” in 2019 13th International Conference on Mathematics, Actuarial Science, Computer Science and Statistics, 2019, pp. 1–7. doi:10.1109/MACS48846.2019.9024768
  4. A. AlDairi and L. Tawalbeh, “Cyber security attacks on smart cities and associated mobile technologies,” Procedia Computer Science, vol. 109, pp. 1086–1091, 2017 8th International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies, ANT-2017 and the 7th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Information Technology, SEIT 2017, 16-19 May 2017, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.05.391
  5. J. Tan, X. Sha, T. Lu, and B. Dai, “A short survey on future research of AI and IoT technologies,” in 2022 International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (IWCMC), 2022, pp. 190–195, doi:10.1109/IWCMC55113.2022.9825425
  6. T. Hoon Kim, C. Ramos, and S. Mohammed, “Smart city and IoT,” Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 76, pp. 159–162, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2017.03.034
  7. R. Chataut, A. Phoummalayvane, and R. Akl, “Unleashing the power of IOT: A comprehensive review of IOT applications and future prospects in healthcare, agriculture, smart homes, smart cities, and industry 4.0,” Sensors, vol. 23, no. 16, 2023, https://doi.org/10.3390/s23167194
  8. U. B. Vito Albino and R. M. Dangelico, “Smart cities: Definitions, dimensions, performance, and initiatives,” Journal of Urban Technology, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 3–21, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2014.942092
  9. G. C. Lazaroiu and M. Roscia, “Definition methodology for the smart cities model,” Energy, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 326–332, 2012, asia-Pacifi c Forum on Renewable Energy 2011, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2012.09.028
  10. M. Al-Hader, A. Rodzi, A. R. Sharif, and N. Ahmad, “Smart city components architecture,” in 2009 International Conference on Computational Intelligence, Modelling and Simulation, 2009, pp. 93–97, doi: 10.1109/CSSim.2009.34
  11. S. Yamamoto, S. Matsumoto, and M. Nakamura, “Using cloud technologies for large-scale house data in smart city,” in 4th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science Proceedings, CloudCom 2012, Taipei, Taiwan, December 3-6, 2012. IEEE Computer Society, 2012, pp. 141–148, https://doi.org/10.1109/CloudCom.2012.6427546
  12. A. Monzon, "Smart cities concept and challenges: Bases for the assessment of smart city projects," 2015 International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems (SMARTGREENS), Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 1-11, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27753-0_2
  13. F. Longo, A. Puliafi to, and O. Rana, “Guest editors’ introduction to the special issue on fog, edge, and cloud integration for smart environments,” ACM Trans. Internet Technol., vol. 19, no. 2, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1145/3319404
  14. A. Almeida, R. Mulero, P. Rametta, V. Urosevic, M. Andric, and L. Patrono, “A critical analysis of an IoT—aware aal system for elderly monitoring,” Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 97, pp. 598–619, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2019.03.019
  15. C. Yin, Z. Xiong, H. Chen, J. Wang, D. Cooper, and B. David, “A literature survey on smart cities,” Sci. China Inf. Sci., vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 1–18, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-015-5397-4
  16. IMD. (2025) IMD - smart city index 2025, https://www.imd.org/smart-city observatory/home/
  17. GAM. (July 2022) Voluntary local review - the city of Amman, Jordan, https://www.ammancity.gov.jo/
  18. D. Balsamo, G. V. Merrett, B. Zaghari, Y. Wei, S. Ramchurn, S. Stein, A. S. Weddell, and S. Beeby, “Wearable and autonomous computing for future smart cities: Open challenges,” in 2017 25th International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM), 2017, pp. 1–5, doi: 10.23919/SOFTCOM.2017.8115596
  19. A. S. Syed, D. Sierra-Sosa, A. Kumar, and A. Elmaghraby, “IoT in smart cities: A survey of technologies, practices and challenges,” Smart Cities, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 429–475, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4020024
  20. R. Jos´e and H. Rodrigues, “A review on key innovation challenges for smart city initiatives,” Smart Cities, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 141–162, 2024, https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities7010006
  21. A. Szorenyi, “The use of artificial intelligence in cities - what opportunities and challenges does AI pose in cities and how can international organizations support AI’s ethical use,” The Global Cities Hub - Geneva, pp. 1–12, 2024, https://globalcitieshub.org/en/the-ethical-use-of-artifi cial-intelligence-in-cities/
  22. A. Moghayedi, I. Richter, F. M. Owoade, K. K. Kapanji-Kakoma, E. Kaliyadasa, S. Francis, and C. Ekpo, “Eff ects of urban smart farming on local economy and food production in urban areas in African cities,” Sustainability, vol. 14, no. 17, 2022, https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710836
  23. H. Yadav, U. Soni, and G. Kumar, “Analyzing challenges to smart waste management for a sustainable circular economy in developing countries: A fuzzy DEMATEL study,” Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 361–384, February 2023, https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-06-2021-0097
  24. A. A. Musa, S. I. Malami, F. Alanazi, W. Ounaies, M. Alshammari, and S. I. Haruna, “Sustainable traffic management for smart cities using internet-of-things-oriented intelligent transportation systems (ITS): Challenges and recommendations,” Sustainability, vol. 15, no. 13, 2023, https://doi.org/10.3390/su15139859
  25. S. Renukappa, P. Mudiyi, S. Suresh, W. Abdalla, and C. Subbarao, “Evaluation of challenges for adoption of smart healthcare strategies,” Smart Health, vol. 26, p. 100330, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smhl.2022.100330
  26. J. V. den Bergh and S. Viaene, “Key challenges for the smart city: Turning ambition into reality,” in 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2015, Kauai, Hawaii, USA, January 5-8, 2015, T. X. Bui and R. H. S. Jr., Eds. IEEE Computer Society, 2015, pp. 2385–2394, https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2015.642
  27. S. A. Ali, S. A. Elsaid, A. A. Ateya, M. ElAff endi, and A. A. A. El-Latif, “Enabling technologies for next-generation smart cities: A comprehensive review and research directions,” Future Internet, vol. 15, no. 12, pp. 1–43, 2023, https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15120398
  28. T. Singh, A. Solanki, S. K. Sharma, A. Nayyar, and A. Paul, “A decade review on smart cities: Paradigms, challenges and opportunities,” IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 68 319–68 364, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3184710
  29. L. Zou, “Chapter 5 - meta-learning for computer vision,” in Meta-Learning, L. Zou, Ed. Academic Press, 2023, pp. 91–208, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-89931-4.00012-2
  30. Z. Mohammadzadeh, H. R. Saeidnia, A. Lotfata, M. Hassanzadeh, and N. Ghiasi, “Smart city healthcare delivery innovations: a systematic review of essential technologies and indicators for developing nations,” BMC Health Services Research, no. 1180, pp. 1–14, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-10200-8
  31. S. Dubey and A. K. Tiwary, “Smart education based on blockchain technology,” in 2023 International Conference on Sustainable Computing and Smart Systems (ICSCSS), 2023, pp. 1485–1490, doi:10.1109/ICSCSS57650.2023.10169579
  32. J. Kang and W. Yang, “Research on teaching strategies to promote classroom interaction in smart classroom environment,” in 2023 International Symposium on Educational Technology (ISET), 2023, pp. 121–123, doi: 10.1109/ISET58841.2023.00032
  33. H. Herath and M. Mittal, “Adoption of artificial intelligence in smart cities: A comprehensive review,” International Journal of Information Management Data Insights, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 100076, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjimei.2022.100076
  34. R. Al-Msie'deen, “ScaMaha: A tool for parsing, analyzing, and visualizing object-oriented software systems,” International Journal of Computing and Digital Systems, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1–20, 2025, http://dx.doi.org/10.12785/ijcds/1571046420
  35. R. Al-Msie'deen, “Requirements Traceability: Recovering and Visualizing Traceability Links Between Requirements and Source Code of Object-oriented Software Systems,” International Journal of Computing and Digital Systems, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 279–295, 2023, http://dx.doi.org/10.12785/ijcds/140123
  36. R. Al-Msie'deen and A. H. Blasi, “Software evolution understanding: automatic extraction of software identifiers map for object-oriented software systems,” Journal of communications software and systems, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 20–28, 2021, http://dx.doi.org/10.24138/jcomss.v17i1.1093
  37. R. Al-Msie'deen, “Amman City, Jordan: Toward a Sustainable City from the Ground Up,” Preprint, arXiv, 2024, https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.01454
  38. R. Saborido and E. Alba, "Software systems from smart city vendors", Cities, vol. 101, p. 102690, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102690
  39. D. E. Okonta and V. Vukovic, "Smart cities software applications for sustainability and resilience," Heliyon, vol. 10, no. 12, p. e32654, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e32654
  40. D. Chen, L. Wang, and S. Zhou, "Software systems for data-centric smart city applications," Software: Practice and Experience journal, vol. 47, no. 8, pp.10431044,2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.2508