Today's cities, and particularly African cities, are experiencing rapid exponential growth in their populations.  They must respond dynamically to major challenges such as digitalization, the connected and smart city, sustainability, resilience, inclusion and economic development. To do this, the actors of modern and innovative urban planning must enable urban forms that respond to these challenges. Thanks to the integration of new information and communication technologies (Smartphone, GIS, Drone, IoT, Sensors, ...), the uses (activities) of such urban forms favor the emergence of urban big data (UBD).  The rapid growth of the collection and storage capacities of these UBDs combined with the evolution of machine computing memories allow emerging machine learning algorithms to efficiently process these UBDs for intelligent applications. These intelligent applications are the drivers of today's urban planning decision support systems.    

This special issue deals with urban models and their applications in the context of African cities. We plan to gather in this special issue, both contributions based on classical models (linear models, Bayesian models, autoregressive models, ...) and those using emerging modeling techniques (machine learning, deep learning, ...) exploiting urban data as well as the large volumes of data (Big Urban Data) currently collected on the continent. Also expected are contributions dealing with massive data analysis and intelligent systems in the field of urban sciences, as well as problems and challenges associated with the planning and development of cities in Africa where the rate of urbanization is currently the highest in the world.

  • Keywords
    - Models
    - Urbanism
    - Urban planning
    - Spatial analysis
    - Urban data
    - Big urban data
    - Sustainability
    - Urban forms
    - Urban systems
    - Urban mobility
    - Urban densities and modeling
    - Urban Infrastructure Design and Modeling
    - Urban Mobility Modeling
    - Urban Energy Modeling
    - Urban Climate Modeling
    - Urban Population Modeling
    - Urban Waste Management Modeling
    - Urban Health Management Modeling
    - Linear models
    - Machine learning models
    - Deep learning models
    - ...
  • Suggested Topics :
    Modeling waste management in African urban areas
    Modeling of climate indicators such as: heat island (UHI), surface temperature (LST), heating energy (Heating), cooling energy (cooling)
    Modeling of pollution indicators
    Modeling of safety indicators
    Modeling of the indicators of use (Land use) and coverage (Land Cover) of the urban territory
    Modeling of the occupation of the urban territory
    Modeling of urban forms
    Modeling energy use in urban areas
    Models applied to urban mobility
    Modeling centered on urban data
    Decision support systems for urban planning and management
    Urban population density modeling
    Models centered on urban big data
    Urban environment modeling
    Modeling the integration of NICTs
    Modeling of social behaviors and trends
    Case studies and innovative applications

We are looking for papers that make conceptual and theoretical contributions and papers that document interesting and important effects with a plausible theory to explain these effects in African city contexts.

 

Keydates :
Call for papers:                July, 01 2021

Acceptance notice:         02 months after submission

Deadline for articles:      June 30 2022

Publication:                    Upon acceptance

 

Guest Editors

  • Dr Stéphane C. K. Tékouabou (Mohammed VI Polytechnic University UM6P of Benguérir, Morocco)
  • Dr Jérôme Chenal (École Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne)
  • Dr. Rida Azmi (Mohammed VI Polytechnic University UM6P of Benguérir, Morocco)
  • Dr. Bachir Diop (Mohammed VI Polytechnic University UM6P of Benguérir, Morocco)

 

Guest Technical Cometee :

Contact for questions: [email protected] or  [email protected] 

Submission: http://africancitiesjournal.org/index.php/africancitiesjournal/about/submissions