IoT in urban development: insight into smart city applications, case studies, challenges, and future prospects

With the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, smart cities possess the capability to advance their public transportation modalities, address prevalent traffic congestion challenges, refine infrastructure, and optimize communication frameworks, thereby augmenting their progression towards heightened urbanization. Through the integration of sensors, cell phones, artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and cloud computing, smart cities worldwide are evolving to be more efficient, productive, and responsive to their residents’ needs. While the promise of smart cities has been marked over the past decade, notable challenges, especially in the realm of security, threaten their optimal realization. This research provides a comprehensive survey on IoT in smart cities. It focuses on the IoT-based smart city components. Moreover, it provides explanation for integrating different technologies with IoT for smart cities such as AI, sensing technologies, and networking technologies. Additionally, this study provides several case studies for smart cities. In addition, this study investigates the challenges of adopting IoT in smart cities and provides prevention methods for each challenge. Moreover, this study provides future directions for the upcoming researchers. It serves as a foundational guide for stakeholders and emphasizes the pressing need for a balanced integration of innovation and safety in the smart city landscape.