Systems-of-Systems for Environmental Sustainability: A Systematic Mapping Study

Environmental sustainability in Systems-of-Systems (SoS) is an emerging field that seeks to integrate software-intensive systems to promote the efficient management of natural resources. While systematic reviews address sustainability in the context of Smart Cities (a category of SoS), a systematic study synthesizing the existing knowledge on environmental sustainability applied to SoS in general did not exist. Although literature includes other types of sustainability, such as financial and social, this study focuses on environmental sustainability, analyzing how SoS contribute to sustainable practices such as carbon emission reduction, energy efficiency, and biodiversity conservation. We conducted a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) to identify the application domains of SoS in sustainability, the challenges faced, and research opportunities. We planned and executed a research protocol including an automated search over four scientific databases. From a set of 926 studies retrieved, we selected, analyzed, and reported the results of 39 relevant studies. Our findings reveal that most studies focus on Smart Cities and Smart Grids, while applications such as sustainable agriculture and wildfire prevention are less explored. We identified challenges such as system interoperability, scalability, and data governance. Finally, we propose future research directions for SoS and environmental sustainability.