The smart city experience in Turkey and an analysis of smart city units in metropolitan municipalities

Rapid urbanization, population growth, rapid consumption of limited resources, economic competition and changing environmental conditions have brought many problems. Technological developments considered at the point of solving these problems have helped the emergence of the concept of smart cities. Smart cities have started to emerge as a result of the applications developed by the public and private sectors in cooperation. Smart cities aim to improve the quality of life of people living in the city, to provide a greener environment and to ensure the sustainability of the city. Smart City Units have been established to provide more efficient and effective solutions for the projects and activities developed for smart city targets. Smart City Units in Turkey are organized as Branch Offices and Directorates. In this study, smart cities and their characteristics are evaluated and the position of smart cities in Turkey and Smart City Units, which have an important place in the development and implementation of smart city projects are examined. The qualitative research method was used in the research. The metropolitan municipalities with Smart City Units in Turkey were examined and the staff of the Department of Information Technologies, Smart City Unit staff and managers of the metropolitan municipalities were contacted for information that could not be accessed during the data collection process. Reports and activities of metropolitan municipalities were also taken into consideration during the data collection process. It is seen that Smart City Units have a very important position in the creation of smart city activities and projects and as the number of units increases, the levels of smart transformation of cities will increase. It will be inevitable to increase the number and activities of smart units in order to ensure smart city transformation.