Smart Parking Solutions: A Review of Emerging Technologies and Challenges for Sustainable Smart Cities

The rapid urbanization of cities has led to significant challenges in transportation management, particularly in smart parking and traffic congestion. Traditional methods of parking space management and traffic monitoring are inefficient, leading to increased fuel consumption, pollution, and driver frustration. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning (DL) have emerged as powerful solutions to enhance efficiency, optimize resource allocation, and improve real-time monitoring. These intelligent systems utilize Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), reinforcement learning, and computer vision techniques to automate parking detection, traffic flow prediction, and congestion management. AI-powered smart parking systems provide real-time insights into parking availability, reducing search times and optimizing space utilization. Similarly, deep learning-based traffic management techniques enable predictive analytics for congestion control, anomaly detection, and automated traffic signal adjustments. Various AI-based models have demonstrated high accuracy in vehicle detection, parking space prediction, and real-time traffic analysis. However, challenges such as high computational costs, data privacy concerns, scalability issues, and real-time implementation constraints still hinder widespread adoption. This paper reviews recent advancements in AI-driven smart parking systems, deep learning-based vehicle detection, and intelligent transportation systems. A detailed analysis of existing literature is provided, highlighting key technologies, methodologies, and their effectiveness in real-world applications. Furthermore, the paper discusses the limitations of current approaches and identifies areas requiring further research. Finally, future research directions are discussed to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and scalability of AI-based intelligent transportation systems, ensuring sustainable and smarter urban mobility solutions.