The Internet of Things (IOT) and the role of metropolitan municipalities in the process of transformation into smart cities: The case of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

We see that the majority of people in the world live in the city, and at the same time, we see that the migration from rural to urban is increasing gradually, which naturally affected the formation of the city, increased the needs and necessitated the development of technology-based urban projects within the scope of transformations in cities in parallel with technology. In recent years, the concepts of smart city and smart urbanization have started to occupy an important place in the agenda of the public administration organization. However, it is possible to say that the Internet of Things, a concept first used by Kevin Ashton in his presentation for a company in 1999, contributes to the formation and development of smart cities in parallel with the developing technology. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of the "internet of things" in the process of smart urbanization and transformation into smart cities in general, to define its role in the municipal organization, and to make applied research on the subject in Turkey within the scope of Istanbul metropolitan municipality. To include the conceptual framework of smart urbanization, the processes of transformation into smart cities, smart city applications in the world and in Turkey, as well as to create the conceptual framework of the "internet of things" and for what purposes this concept is used as an effective and innovative tool by metropolitan municipalities in the process of transformation into smart cities. The scope of this study is to make an applied analysis within the scope of Istanbul metropolitan municipality by investigating the role of the metropolitan municipalities in the process of transformation into smart urbanization together with the internet of things. In this context, the interview method, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the applied part of the research.