Technology and Transformation In Urban Life: Smart Cities

To solve the problems generated from fast-changing world order; information and communication technologies are combined with daily life to improve citizens’ quality of life and their satisfaction from public services. Besides, by using technology as a tool to solve problems that appear in cities, caused by rapid population growth, such as transportation, energy, water, health, environment, secure and security, smart combinations are being tried for practical solutions to problems caused by overpopulation in cities. As a result, cities become more digital and citizens gain the new digital identity. In life spaces which turn into a complex network, it is almost obligatory to regulate population, resources, environment and communication and information technologies in themselves to improve citizens’ life quality and keep it in a sustainable level. Within this period, improving and diversifying service expectations push governments, public and local administrations to analyze cities better, predict the upcoming problems and use limited resources productively with the help of high technology. This situation has triggered to exist and expand smart city projects. In this context, the main aim of this research is determined to consider good examples of smart city projects and to discuss comparatively their reflections on cities in Turkey. The qualitative approach is used. Firstly, smart city concept and components and characteristics of smart cities will be examined and than good examples of the smart city implementations around the World and Turkey will be compared and evaluated. Thus, it will be possible to determine the level of Turkey in this regard and compare it with the developments around the World