Recent advances and emerging trends in smart parking technologies from sensor based to next generation parking system: a review

Abstract

Rapid urbanization, growing vehicle ownership, and limited parking infrastructure have made parking allocation a major challenge in modern cities. To address this issue, numerous smart parking systems (SPSs) have been proposed to improve parking efficiency, reduce congestion, and enhance user convenience. This paper presents a comprehensive review and comparative analysis of SPSs in terms of technological approaches, sensing methods, networking technologies, computational models, user interfaces, and service capabilities. It also addresses an important research gap by evaluating the suitability of different SPS approaches under diverse environmental conditions and highlighting their key advantages and limitations. The review emphasizes the growing role of internet of things (IoT)-based, multi-approach architectures in enabling real-time monitoring, reservation, payment integration, and vehicle guidance for smart city applications. Furthermore, it discusses the potential of integrating reconfigurable systems with IoT to improve adaptability, scalability, and responsiveness through dynamic resource allocation and efficient local decision-making. Despite these benefits, challenges related to interoperability, security, energy management, design complexity, and deployment cost remain significant. Future SPSs are expected to incorporate artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, dynamic pricing, autonomous vehicle support, and digital twin technologies to achieve more adaptive, intelligent, and sustainable parking management.