Environment and Big Data: Role in Smart Cities of India

The intention of India’s Smart City Mission program is to achieve better living conditions in a sustainable environment with smart solutions. This program identifies the key challenges of urbanization and the environment. The mitigation of these challenges depends on the monitoring and assessment of multiple factors, including demography, education, health, and the environment; however, the inclusion of environmental factors are limited. The monitoring and assessment of environmental factors will continuously generate big data and hence would require scientific and technological innovation for a sustainable management plan. This study identifies six environmental factors, which should be integrated in the development of smart cities. These environmental factors include indicators of landscape and geography, climate, atmospheric pollution, water resources, energy resources, and urban green space as a major component of the environment. This paper also discusses the importance of these environmental components and the maintenance of big data in the management of smart cities.