SMART CITIES and SMART REGIONS:

An EVALUATION from SMART CITIES to SMART REGIONS

ZHULEN ERDINCH YASHAR

Abstract

This paper is basically intended to answer two main questions: “What are the means and
motivations of a smart city and its evaluation to smart region, came up with ‘smart’ and
‘intelligent’ solutions and future of technology, and impacts of the concept of ‘smartness’ in
regional development?”. To answer these questions, the paper follows the literature review on
smart cities, regions and closely related concepts and their parameters; implementation
processes and possible outcomes on regional development from a regional perspective.

Keywords: Smart, Smartness, Smart City, Intelligent City, Smart Regions, Smart Territories,
Regional Development, City-Region, Interconnected City-Regions

1. Introduction_____________________________________________________________

Increase in population, agglomeration in urban areas, scarcity of resources and sustainable use
of the resources are creating some emerging issues in the main scene of our global world, and
its current agenda. However, for the first time in world’s history, cities are home to over half of
the global population. To illustrate, as an approximate calculation, data of World Health
Organization shows that, nearly one hundred years ago, 10 percent of the population lived in
urban areas; by 1990, it had risen to 40 percent and after ten years later, in 2010 it exceeded 50
percent and overall number of city dwellers is expected to almost double between 2009 and
2050 (WHO Report, 2016). Following that, by the year of 2050, the global population is
expected to grow to over nine billion, and nearly 75-80 percent of that population will reside in
cities, which means, over seven hundred million people will be added to urban populations over
the period of next ten years. The United Nations (UN) projects that the world’s cities will need
to accommodate an additional three billion residents by the middle of the century. The recent
report of UN, suggests that forty thousand new cities will be needed worldwide (Smart Cities
Council, n.d., p. 5). Meanwhile, cities comprise just two percent of the Earth’s land mass and
are responsible for the consumption of 80 percent of the Earth’s resources (ISC, USND &
Nutter Consulting, n.d., pp. 5-6). While urbanization continues, that incremental growth of
cities and their disproportional consumption of physical and social resources are getting
dramatically unsustainable. In the light of that background, although earlier concerns about
local urban pollution, urban sprawl, and congestion continued to be priorities, other related
concerns became increasingly important with the advent of new research and advocacy,
especially originating from international organizations. Increased interest in global
sustainability pushed planners and others to expand the boundaries of their analyses and include
global environmental issues such as climate change, ozone depletion, acid rain, and trans-
boundary water quality. During the years, attention has expanded from planning cities with a
goal of inducing ecosystem, economic, and social health to planning for city resilience to
ecological and natural resource concerns. Moreover, technology has played an important role
in the planning as the advantage of internet communication technologies (ICTs) has also
contributed to the rise of a new discipline of largescale data analysis to aid in planning efforts.
The recent work of scholars indicates a new addition to the eco or sustainable city concept on
“smartness’’, “smart infrastructures” to constantly monitor activity and reduce variations and
market failures. Moreover, many large information technology (IT) companies are planning for
the opening of the “smart infrastructure” market (Zhou & Williams, 2013, pp. 14-22). In that
point of view, it is getting more crucial to understand shift towards “smart cities and regions”
intended to provide best advantage to sustainability goals and increase citizen engagement by
using information and communication technologies, and their potential transformative means
for achieving a citizen-centric, low carbon future, development of regions.

Figure 1: Global footprint: The 30 most populated urban agglomerations (as of 2014)
(https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/publications/files/wup2014-highlights.Pdf)

Figure 2: The number of people living in cities in each country of the world in 2010
(WWF Living Planet Report, 2012: http://www.businessinsider.com/small-cities-population-growth-by-2050-2012-5)

2. Smart City_______________________________________________________________

2.1. Smart-ness as a Concept

The term of “smartness” or similarly “intelligence” represent mental ability of a person with
some essentials such as perception, communication, learning, memory and planning. Moreover,
artificial intelligence is the study of intelligent components that perceive their environment,
enable to react or respond to differing requirements, varying situations or respond to conditions
in a more sophisticated way, and make right decisions. On the other hand, collective intelligence
is the intellectual cooperation of community in order to create, innovate, exchange knowledge,
learn and invent. Combination of human, artificial and collective intelligence, smartness as an
amalgam of different components that are working together, taking quick actions and making
efficient decisions, creates smart environments (Karadağ, 2013, pp. 3-4). The term is used in
different kinds of fields such as military, hardware, road infrastructures, materials,
telecommunication, information networks so on so forth, during the history. Each component
of smartness has its own capability of monitoring certain situations, generate, gather and
evaluate data, work autonomous or collaboratively.

Figure 3: History of “smart” (Steenson, 2015, p. 18)

2.2. Interrelated Concepts with smartness : Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT) & Cloud Service

The International Data Corporation (IDC) reports that in 2010, the amount of data in the world
in other words, “Digital Universe” grew by about 62 percent from a year earlier. It is roughly
equivalent to a stack of filled DVDs long enough to reach the moon, twice. The amount of data
continues to grow rapidly; IDC estimates that by 2020 the digital universe will be 44 times
larger than it was in 2009. This data is called Big Data that comes from everywhere: sensors
used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos,
purchase transaction records, and cell phone GPS signals to name a few (ISC, USND & Nutter
Consulting, n.d., p. 9). At the same time, with the rise of ICT, a new aspect of smartness emerges
bringing new forms of interfaces as Cloud Services that include delivering connected group of
devices, networks, software, services and storage over internet.
 Figure 4: Big Data
(https://www.vormetric.com/data-security-solutions/use-cases/big-data-security)

This explosion of Big Data is vertically fed by the growth of IoT, the infusion of data-collecting
sensors and actuators in common, everyday objects, a world where physical objects are
seamlessly integrated into the information network (Weber, 2010, p. 1).

Figure 5: IoT & Cloud Service

(http://www.sketchbubble.com/en/powerpoint-internet-of-things.html)

Figure 6: Mobile cell phone subscriptions between 1980-2013

(World Bank, Science and Technology / https://ourworldindata.org/internet/)
 Figure 7: IoT
(http://www.i-scoop.eu/internet-of-things/)

Besides these interrelated, interwoven concepts, data generation, distribution of data,

aggregation, analysis, and applications came to the fore within smartness.

Figure 8: IBM Model of the IoT

(IBM X-Force Research and Development,
https://securityintelligence.com/iot-will-ubiquitous-connectivity-mean-less-security/)

2.3. “Smart City”

“The 19th century was a century of empires, 20th century was a century of nation states and the
21st century will be a century of cities.”
(Webb, W. E., 2009)
The concept of a city nowadays may contain different examples than the traditional way that
defines a city quite easily in terms of some basic determined parameters. In addition to that,
today, large scale cities may be considered at the levels of districts, towns even villages or
campuses that also builds variabilities in definition. Moreover, today, smart technologies have
reached their maturity compare to the previous experiences so that cities of any scale may make
use of and financially benefit from smart applications easily. Thanks to new cloud computing
solutions enable even a city at the smallest scale to possess a very high processing power and
storage capacity.
However, the Smart City concept is highly an extensive and complicated thus there is no such
common definition agreed upon. According to the British Standards Institution (BSI, 2014)
definition, a city is the main center of economic and social growth. A Smart City consists of
quantitative and human systems efficiently integrated to provide people with a sustainable
future at high welfare and participatory levels. In addition to BSI definition, according to Smart
City Council (2015) definition, a Smart City is where information and communication
technologies are used to maintain livability, workability and sustainability, basically, there are
three parts of the Smart City, collecting, communicating and crunching. First, it collects
information about itself through sensors, other devices and existing systems. Next, it
communicates that data using wired or wireless networks. Third, it crunches (analyzes) that
data to understand what’s happening now and what’s likely to happen next.

Figure 9: Top 10 Technologies Driving Urban Transformation: Technology has been one of the main drivers of
transformation and is likewise driving the emergence of the new urban services paradigm.
(World Economic Forum, 2015, http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Urban-Services.pdf)

The European Union (EU) also defines a Smart City as a place where conventional services and
networks are used in a more productive manner so that residents and businesses may get more
benefit, using digital and telecommunication technologies. The definition also variables in
academic writings, for instance, Smart City is mostly matched with or defined as city of
knowledge, intelligent city, talented city, wired city, digital and cyber city or new-green city
according to the economic, ecologic, social aspects of planning profession and it relies on ICT
based advancements in planning, development, operation and sustainability of urban services
and facilities (Shichiyakh et al., 2016, p. 157). In other words, all different definition commonly
states a Smart City is as a city that is able to use the data from the smart devices connected to
each other for measurement purposes for its real time or future decision processes, as a common
ground, all definitions come together that infrastructures are the central piece of Smart Cities
and technology, the combination, connection and integration of all systems. Smart City concept
implies a comprehensive approach to city management and development; a balance of the
technological, economic and social factors involved in an urban ecosystem; a holistic approach
to the urban problems taking advantage of the new technologies so that the urban model and
the relationships among the stakeholders (Monzon, 2015, p.2). Smart cities will be measured
on the level of intelligence and integration of infrastructure that connects the healthcare, energy,
building, transportation, and governance sectors.
The phrase Smart Cities is actually not a new issue. It may have its origins in the Smart Growth
Movement. Then, the phrase has been adopted by a number of technology companies for the
application of complex information systems to integrate the operation of urban infrastructure
and services such as buildings, transportation, electrical and water and sewage infrastructures,
security, health, and public safety (Harrison, & Donnelly, 2011, pp. 2-3).

2.4.What Does a Smart City Look Like?

Key Parameters of Smart Cities

Likewise, to the variety on definition of the concept, there are also a wide range of different
driver lists, tables, that entitled characteristics of smart cities as problems, challenges or factors,
related to the technology based, citizen-urban based or organization, business based
approaches. To define a general pot, definitions of Smart City Council may be taken in that,
the drivers of smart cities are described under some basic headings like growing urbanization,
growing stress, inadequate infrastructure, growing expectation, growing economic competition,
rapidly improving technology capabilities and rapidly declining technology costs (n.d., pp. 5-
8).

The term

Figure 10: What drives Smart Cities, global challenges that lead to smart cities
(Frost & Sullivan, 2013, http://www.slideshare.net/FrostandSullivan/smart-cities-from-concept-to-reality)
Being a complex and multifaceted concept, there are wide range of urban layers, systems,
services have been defined under the umbrella of Smart City. Thus, it becomes necessary to
select the main characteristics, parameters of Smart Cities that have to include multidimensional
and integrated actions of the city and to interact with human and social capital. Technological
solutions also have to be understood as a tool to achieve the Smart City goals and to tackle the
challenges cities faced. Moreover, components related to Smart City are defined regarding to
the related perspectives that can be associated with different objectives with different patterns
of actor roles and relations, policy instruments and implementation methods. Each of these
parameters are also mapped with regards to different locations, city sizes, funding arrangements
and framework conditions and outcomes. In an integrated approach, Smart Cities are built on
three main factors as technology, institutional and human factors, and six core domains included
as smart economy, smart people, smart governance, smart mobility, smart environment, and
smart living and their sub-domains (European Parliament, 2014, pp. 29-30).

Figure 11: Basic Factors for Smart City Components

(*European Parliament, Mapping Smart Cities in the EU, 2014 & Turkey Smart City Assessment Report, 2016)

Figure 12: Smart City Wheel: The framework can be used to benchmark
how comprehensive or people-centric smart city approaches are / by Body Cohen, Re-designed by Manuchis
(Smart Cities Council Smart City Readiness Guide, 2015 & Turkey Smart City Assessment Report, 2016)
On the other hand, according to Frost & Sullivan, there are eight components, a smart diamond
model to define a smart city in a comprehensive way.

Figure 13: 1st- Frost & Sullivan’s Smart Diamond Model with 8 parameters: 2nd- IBM’s Model that shows cities systems and
their interrelationships within the larger framework of the city’s strategy and governance.
(Frost & Sullivan Reports, Turkey Smart City Assessment Report, 2016: IBM Global Business Services Executive Report, 2009)

As it is stated above, there are a variety of approaches on what a Smart City have to include.
So, in terms of defining a widest point of view, it may be contributory to have a look at EU
Smart City Maps as EU made a comprehensive mapping of European Smart Cities based on a
database of all 468 cities with a population of at least 100 thousand within the 28 member states
of the EU. Cause at present, more than two-thirds of sampled Smart City projects are still in the
planning or pilot testing phases. In that database, each city’s country location and population
totals were indicated, and classified 240 of the cities as Smart Cities. In the project, cities
clustered into five characteristic types: neighborhood units, infrastructures, intelligent traffic
systems, resource management systems and participation platforms and their sub-
characteristics correspondingly to the main six parameters of the Smart Cities. Also, project
success is defined in relation to meeting project-specific and/or city-specific objectives and
contributing to the Europe 2020 goals; successful projects in this sense have clear objectives,
goals, targets and baseline measurement systems in place from the outset.

Figure 14: Parameters that were used to distribute Smart Cities in EU mapping
(European Parliament, 2014)
 Figure 15: Smart Cities based on EU Mapping
*Blue ones were included in the mapping assessment and red ones were not
(European Parliament, 2014)

Figure 16: Structures used for Smart City ranking

(European Parliament, 2014)

3. Shift Towards Smart Regions_______________________________________________

3.1. Smart Region

As mentioned above, by the 1990s, cities and regions looked at ways to enhance quality of life
through technology and often eagerly adapted the “smart” label to describe activities aimed at
enhancing effective city management, sustainable and economic development, and prestige.
These are basically the parts of what make cities “smart”. But how do we define a Smart Region
originated from smartness?
In reference to the literature review on Smart Regions and researches on related keywords such
as smarter regions, smart territories, it shows that there is not an accurate, common or certainly
well-defined definition, nomenclature on the smart region even on the limitations, scaling, and
perception of spatial relations. For instance, in some articles and publications, it is stated as a
town, landscape or industry, on the other hand, in some international reports and meeting
publications, it is used to define the regional innovation ecosystem such as business,
government, universities, and civil society.
On the other hand, according to Frost & Sullivan, there are three main trends in urbanization as
development of mega cities, mega regions and mega corridors. It is predicted that cities
connected, integrated with each other (Turkey Smart City Assessment Report, 2016, pp. 11-
12).

Figure 17: Three Mega Trends in Urbanization

(Frost & Sullivan, 2013 & Turkey Smart City Assessment Report, 2016)

Moreover, from another perspective, to address and determine how smart a region can be, and
how to leverage its potential, EU defined the smart regions related to the quality and
effectiveness of the regional innovation ecosystem. In that point of view, it may be said that,
regional players in the regional innovation ecosystem are starting to play a key role. A
collaborative, co-creative approach involving all societal actors is required for realizing a
regional policy that focuses on creating new opportunities for enhancing growth, competition,
and quality of life in the region. However, regions across the EU have actively embraced the
concept of regional research and innovation strategies based on smart specialization, the so-
called research and innovation strategies for smart specialization (RIS3). RIS3 provides a
regional policy framework and basis for innovation-driven growth. It may be seen as a process
of entrepreneurial discovery: an interactive and innovative process in which market forces and
the private sector together with universities discover and produce information about new
activities, and the government assesses the outcomes and empowers those players most capable
of realizing the potential (Markkula & Kune, 2015, pp. 8-13). As an illustration, Helsinki Smart
Region defines itself as the capital region of Finland with 26 municipalities and 1,6 million
inhabitants and also states that a smart region covers more than just the city, it means a
flourishing and bold region, includes a smart city and a smart countryside in terms of sustainable
mobility services, a healthy corporate environment, excellent living conditions. Above all, a
smart region means a well-functioning every day for its inhabitants in regions, along the city
and its countryside. Moreover, they define themselves as be established on the base of Public–
Private–People Partnership (PPP) to better realize the changing public aspirations and demands
for infrastructure planning and policy formulation. Their main public partners are the 26 cities
and towns in the region, different universities, research institutes, private companies,
active,large and small ones, start-ups, and the people lived there (Helsinki Smart Region
Official Website, n.d.).
 Figure 18: Helsinki Smart Region Diagram
(https://www.helsinkismart.fi/about/public-private-people-partnership/)

3.2. Future Development of Regions

According the OECD definition, regional development (is a broad term but) can be seen as a
general effort to reduce regional disparities by supporting (employment and wealth-generating)
economic activities in regions. In the past, regional development policy tended to try to achieve
these objectives by means of large-scale infrastructure development and by attracting inward
investment. OECD’s surveys on regional development were displayed that a new approach to
regional development is emerging; one that promises more effective use of public resources
and significantly better policy outcomes. It involves a shift to increase the competitiveness of
all regions (n.d.). Regional development priorities along determined objectives, also sustain the
same parameters of the Smart City concepts as regional development enhances
competitiveness, helps to create an economic balance, develops industrial and commercial
activity and supports employment. To be a Smart Region requires integrated policies,
systematic approaches in all city systems, continuous analysis and assessments through
indicators. The general objective along the nations, is to increase regional competitiveness and
reduce differences in development between and within regions, while promoting citizens’
wellbeing and competences. Regional development takes place increasingly often as
multilateral collaboration between organizations and experts operating in the region. In
practice, the preparation encompasses regional policies of industry, employment, education and
innovation implemented in the form of long term collaboration and measures, with emphasis
on the renewal of the region. This renewal builds capacity for the improvement of capabilities
to respond and adapt to the negative impacts of structural changes but the key question is always
how to stimulate regional development and contribute to regional competitiveness in the future.
 Figure* 19: Regional development policy
*Figures based on 33 countries reporting on the importance of each priority in their regional development policy efforts on a
scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important). Responses with a value of 4 or 5 are included.
(OECD Regional Outlook, 2016, http://www.oecd.org/gov/regional-outlook-2016-policy-highlights.pdf)

Figure 20: Conference themes in Smart Regions Conference

(Smart Cities in Smart Regions, 2016)

3.3. City-Region

Cities are widely recognized as the key locations for advanced economic activity in
contemporary globalization but recent developments suggests that a new type of urban
economic formation is emerging at the start of the 21st century. Is it called as an evaluation of
smart city concept towards a comprehensive version, city-regional dimension? City-Regions
are recognized as central societal and political-economic formations, key to national and
international competitiveness and re-balancing political restructuring processes into nation
states (http://cityregions.org/, n.d.). The territorial implication for the EU Horizon2020 Agenda
is that Smart Cities will be hugely dependent on and inter‐connected with their regional
hinterlands (Calzada, 2013, pp. 11-12). Reviewing the literature on city-regionalism are
displayed that there are various derivatives, extensions, and alternatives to City-Regions, called
global city-region, world city-region, mega city-region, polycentric mega city-region, mega
region, metro region, metropolitan region, polycentric metropolis, urban region, mega urban
region, polynuclear urban region, super urban area, cross-border metropolitan region, new
megalopolis, or mega-politan region, an extensive and functionally interconnected cluster of
urban centers that is developing around the world’s major cities. In short, the macro-economic
changes that are occurring as nation states worldwide open up to direct foreign competition and
embrace the post-industrial global economy, are also impacting on a local scale around cities
that are gateways for the new wave of globalization. These unprecedented global and local
changes present major challenges for the nation state in two ways. On the one hand, increasing
integration and information load, enlightenment of the world economy is challenging the power
and authority of states over long established national jurisdictional territories; on the other hand,
the dramatic impacts of global change at a city region scale (Metropolis, Pain, n.d., p. 25).

Figure 21: The 5-System Analytical Systemic Framework of City-Region

(Calzada, 2015; www.cityregions.org)

A large interdisciplinary literature has pointed out the tensions facing nation states in the
modern globalization era. In his 1996 publication The Rise of the Network Society, Manuel
Castells has described the changes associated with developments ICTs at the end of the 20th
century as constructing a new geography in which informational economy “flows” would come
to dominate the familiar territorial patchwork of places. The increasing ability of economic
actors to communicate, conduct knowledge-based transactions and trade products over any
distance can be said to have effectively dismantled the traditional world map of national
boundaries the economic relationships between cities worldwide proves critical in
understanding the changes also occurring at a city-region scale, and their implications for
governance. The dynamic architecture of the knowledge-based economy therefore marks a
transition in spatial relations in which the network connectivity of global cities is ever more
crucial, but at the same time, the nodal scale of international exchanges is changing. Basically,
today, cities are integrated into a world city network of informational flows, knowledge and
economic exchange. The new reality of a borderless space economy has suggested to find a
new term to describe the intersection of global flows wider than the city scale as it is defined
city-region (Metropolis, Pain, n.d., pp. 27-31).
 Figure 22: South East England regional scale connectivity
(Metropolis, City-Regions and Economic Development, Part 1, n.d.)

Figure 23: City-Regions research project

(www.cityregions.org; research work‐in‐progress project)

4. “Smartness” in Turkish Context___________________________________________

When it is panned over Turkish context, it is clearly seen that from national level to local level
administrators are dealing with finding solutions to the rising spatial, demographic, economic
and environmental problems suffered from the urbanization. However, “Smart City”
approaches are getting popular along the municipalities and they are trying to adopt new ICTs,
technological infrastructures against the problems. According to the Turkey Smart City
Assessment Report (2016), the objectives of the Smart City applications in Turkey, about three
fourths of the answers from the metropolitan municipalities cite improving lives of citizens and
life standards as the top choice which generally means bringing into action innovative
applications and as a second, increasing the brand value of the city takes place. The use of IT
applications for transportation (36%) and water (34%) represents 70% of the total percentage
while energy represent 21% of the total and the other category includes in particular payment
systems and geographic information systems. 80% of the metropolitan municipalities taking
part in the study stated that they have smart city applications for water, while 70% stated that
they have smart city applications for transportation.

Figure 24: Breakdown of the Objectives of the Smart City Applications for the Metropolitan Municipalities
(Turkey Smart City Assessment Report, 2016)

Also during the second International Smart Cities Conference in 2016, Ankara has been selected
as a pilot city for sustainable and livable Smart City in Turkey. The municipality has already
adopted online-municipality application for payments, taxes; information related to socio-
cultural news from the city, related news from pharmacies, hospitals, bazaars, etc.; smart
transportation applications, smart water systems, smart recycling system to collect recycled
materials; monitoring applications within the control of fire departments, and technological way
finding for visually impaired people.
In spite of, these adaptation processes head towards being a Smart City, municipalities do not
use the concept of Smartness in a holistic view. Sometimes, their understanding of the concept
is just limited with the integration of the ICTs. Thinking about smart cities evaluation to a city-
regional context, smart cities are not just where new technologies might be born, they are the
receptacles for technology, the target of its applications (Glasmeir & Christopherson, 2015, p.
4). The basic approach of the concept also consists of participatory planning, democratic society
and collaboration (Karadağ, 2013, p. 46).

Figure 25: Technology Components Used for Smart City Applications

(Turkey Smart City Assessment Report, 2016)
Moreover, in the concept of smartness, from national plans to regional and local plans and
programs should be evaluated according to strategic priorities within a multi-dimensional
approaches. Urban planning system in Turkey described under four main hierarchical levels as
starting point from National Strategies and Development Plans to Regional Plans,
Environmental Order Plans and Construction and Development Plans. So, thinking about smart
regions, city-region evaluation should be assessed within a hierarchical view. In Turkish
context, Ministry of Environment and Urbanism is the authority of spatial planning, urban
transformation, environmental management, and environmental protection. It defines and
regulates strategies, policies, procedures, and guidelines. So, it has to define the strategic guide
map for the smartness process. To illustrate one of its recent actions related to smartness
process, Integrated Urban Development Strategy and Action Plan (Kentsel Gelişme Stratejisi
ve Eylem Planı), KENTGES had been prepared for the period of 2010-2023. The studies were
carried out by ten different commissions within the Urbanization council and development plan,
axes were compared within the scope of KENTGES axes to determine the principles and values
regarding sustainable urbanization.
On the other hand, as a specific regional development strategy for an evaluation from a city
based approach to city-region, it has been situated within the ten basic principles in the
workshop of Future Development of Yalova (2012). To shape the regional evolvement, they
have determined a strategic vision, direction within Istanbul-Kocaeli and Bursa, a golden ring
within the Marmara Region, global and local framework, an energy corridor, smart grids,
networks, technology based purple spots, sectoral diversity, east-west balanced education,
tourism and industrial, determined quality of life, transportation enhancement, integration, and
smart development strategies, analysis. Within the context of smartness, these ten principles
correspond to the basis of the concept to reach a new economic models in order to sustain
development in regional scale, within the entrepreneurship.

Figure 26: Triangular Dynamics: 1.Metropolitan Triangle-2.Project Triangle-3.Urban Triangle

(East Marmara Region Development Agency, Urban Development Strategies and Road Maps for The Future of Yalova, 2012)
 Figure 27: Regional Vision Scenarios for the future of Yalova
1.Coast Scenario / 2. Bay Scenario / 3. Region Scenario
(East Marmara Region Development Agency, Urban Development Strategies and Road Maps for The Future of Yalova, 2012)

In addition, Geographical Information System (GIS), and GIS aided Urban Information System
(UIS) technologies have become a crucial tool for authorities to get, manage and present the
spatial data. In that point of view, use of GIS and UIS could play an important role in the
evolvement of the smart cities to a city-regional perspective with taking heed of the Turkish
National Geographical Information Systems Project (TUCBS) principles which are aimed to
determine national standards for spatial data.

5. Conclusion_______________________________________________________________

Technology has always had transformative effects on cities. To illustrate, the automobile, car-
based transportation, encouraged sprawling through suburbs or the elevator enabled high-rise
buildings, urban developments on the central zones of the cities; shipping and affordable air
travel has fostered international commerce activities; ability to handle urban agglomerations;
and advances in socio-technical infrastructure, transport networks and energy, waste, water,
sanitary management systems, or making mega cities with millions of inhabitants to continue
growing. In a similar manner, in the 21st century, cities are being transformed by the latest wave
of technological development brought about by ICTs, is collectively reshaping the operational,
economic and social dynamics of cities. ICT is affecting every city on the planet, irrespective
of whether they choose to invest in or incorporate the smart city concept into their governance
agenda (ARUP, 2014, p.14, pp. 20-21).
It is obvious that, cities are gaining more economic power, developing greater political
influence and increasingly employing more advanced technological capabilities to enhance
their operations and how does this feature differentiate from green, eco, digital, wireless and
zero-carbon cities in current urban conversations are started to be distinguish along the global
scene (Karadağ, 2013, pp. 8-10). They are the agglomeration centers for services, regulations,
economic activities, technological innovations and investments, population, culture, intellectual
capital, social capital, infrastructures etc. The effectiveness and efficiency of the systems
determine how a city works and how successful it is at delivering its goals. Also, the challenges
of climate change, population growth, demographic change, urbanization and effective use of
resources, depletion of resources mean that the world’s great cities need to adapt to survive and
thrive, growth over the coming decades. Smart City approach is thought to support sustainable
development and brings solutions for diverse problems of development and competition (IBM,
2009, pp. 1-2). Cause smarter cities have an opportunity to solve these differentiated challenges,
opportunity to use ubiquitous urban sensing, big data and analytics to better understand the real-
time functioning of our cities, as well as inform longer-term planning and policy decisions.
They provide an eco-friendly approach to climate change and create process with an efficient
resource management, create benefits from collaboration on transport, energy, water and
healthcare systems, increase the quality of life of its inhabitants, supporting people by providing
better information and interfaces to invite them in to policy-making and service development
progresses (Karadağ, 2013, p. 75).
However, becoming smart, a smart city, is a type of journey, a levelled process, on interrelated
systems. It is not an overnight transformation, or one-way determination. To deliver on the
range of ambitious goals they have, cities must take account of the interconnected challenges
they face and the interrelated systems they influence (IBM, 2009, p. 10).
In addition to all these, the political landscape has changed in consequence of the cities that
become much more active and within actors of the political environment. Politically, systems
around the world are migrating away from the nation-state model and evolving to transnational
network systems, transnational regions or city regions that is opened to discussion in this paper.
Technological advances provide new aspects of the operation and development that city
managers have previously been unable to measure and therefore unable to influence from, are
increasingly being digitized. Basically, thanks to the advantages on the level of digitization and
interconnection of a city’s core systems, new and continuous information flows occur along the
whole regional system (IBM, 2009, p. 5).
To sum up the abovementioned, over the next five years, maximum transformation will take
place in developing economies across urban domains such as urban planning, infrastructure
(buildings, waste, water, power and energy) and social services (health, safety and inclusion),
whereas in developed economies, maximum transformation is anticipated in the environmental
domain. Administrations will need to give special attention to urban domains such as culture
and leisure, e-government services and institutional set-up, as survey respondents do not
perceive a great extent of transformation. Urban domains traditionally under the public sector
will require further investment to create a fulfilling experience for urban residents.
Administrators will have to respond quickly to modify policies and gain a competitive edge in
a global world where cities are competing for investment by offering enhanced infrastructure
and providing incentives, even with a growing urban population, talent continues to remain an
issue in the developing world, and cities will need to be competitive worldwide. City
administrations alone can not address the challenges of rapid urbanization, and related problems
(World Economic Forum, 2016, pp. 10-12). So, government, public; academia, academic
institutions; industry, the private sector; NGOs provide complementary skills and resources.
And also, the evolvement of the cities that is called new city-regional, international networks
and flows require international partnerships, collaborations, cooperation, coordination, co-
productions, multidisciplinary operations, a mutual understanding. Cause the possible
challenge for the future of regions would be dealing with the smartness from urban scale to the
regional scale and integration of “smartness” within a comprehensive approach.

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