The “green smart city” offers a transformative model that integrates sustainability and advanced technologies to address global challenges, including food security, clean environment, and urban development. Protected cultivation techniques involved in development of green cities (GC) such as hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics, vertical and roof top farming enable food production in limited spaces, reducing dependency on conventional techniques. Low carbon emission, supply of clean energy, waste management, and sustainable transportation systems are some other advantages of GC. The present review delves into the creation of GC and their various applications in sustainable urban planning. It further explores the emerging trends and innovations in urban horticulture, develop long‐term strategies for green smart cities, and integrate AI, machine learning (ML), robotics, and internet of things (IoT) into urban planning. Numerous challenges in developing such green smart cities are discussed. It is widely believed that integrating GC with smart technologies including Robotics, AI, ML, and IoT may help leveraging the natural resources and their sustainable production. Future research needs to be focused on rational and empirical approaches by employing various strategies in interdisciplinary fields in order to develop a realistic model for future cities with sustainability and zero hunger, waste, and carbon footprints.
Gupta et al. (2026) studied this question.