Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Sustainable Futures
Publication Date
12-1-2025
Abstract
Internet of Things (IoT) technologies can transform various sectors by converging with global sustainability goals. This paper systematically reviews how IoT supports fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study initially identified publications that are most relevant to IoT and sustainability. Each publication was carefully examined and mapped to its corresponding SDG, methodology, context, and country. This work presents an opportunity to learn about country contributions, collaborations, and IoT and SDG research trends over the past decade. India, China, and the US were among the top contributors to the IoT and SDG literature, with India accounting for 68 of the 153 publications reviewed (around 45 %). Most of these publications were reviews, followed by questionnaire surveys and data analyses, accounting for around 40 %. Results of a trend analysis show an upward trend in the use of IoT systems within sustainability domains. In 2023 alone, 27 % of publications covered various sustainability topics using one IoT system or another. This paper also analyzes the contributions of countries relative to their population sizes to identify those countries that pulled much above their weight, such as Denmark, UAE, Switzerland, and Australia. This paper also allows readers to learn about the various domains or contexts explored in the literature, including smart cities, agriculture, supply chain, and energy savings, and those SDGs that received the most and least research attention. SDG11, SDG9, and SDG7 were examined in >50 % of the retrieved publications, while SDG10, SDG15, and SDG16 received the least attention. These findings were complemented by developing a Microsoft Power BI dashboard that allows readers to drill down and explore each visualization by context, methodology, publication year, country, and SDG.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Volume
10
Disciplines
Computer Sciences
Keywords
Bibliometric, IoT, Mapping, SDG, Sustainability
Scopus ID
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Alhashmi, Saadat M.; Al-Qudah, Islam; Hashem, Ibrahim Abaker; Alsinglawi, Belal; Borreo, Raiza; S․ Migdadi, Hassan; and Chen, Weisi, "Connecting the Dots: IoT, sustainability, and SDGs" (2025). All Works. 7500.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/7500
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
yes
Open Access Type
Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series