The “Turkey Smart Cities Assessment Report”—intended to serve as a reference for all institutions and organizations working on smart cities, both domestically and abroad—was unveiled to the public at a press conference held at the Hilton Hotel on Tuesday, March 1. The study, which presents a snapshot of Turkey’s current smart city landscape, detailed not only striking findings in the sectors of transportation, energy, and water but also the steps to be taken and projects to be implemented in the near future. At the press conference—attended by Faruk Eczacıbaşı (President of the Turkish Informatics Foundation), Yasemin Bedir (General Manager of MasterCard), Engin Aksoy (Executive Vice President of Vodafone Turkey), Burak Aydın (General Manager of Intel Turkey), Berrin Benli (Co-founder of Novusens Smart Cities Institute), and Prof. Dr. Sema F. Oktuğ (Dean of the ITU Faculty of Computer and Informatics Engineering)—each stakeholder shared insights into their respective initiatives and proposed solutions.
Collaboration is essential
In his opening remarks, TBV President Faruk Eczacıbaşı outlined the evolution of technology to its current state, citing striking examples from both the global stage and Turkey. MasterCard General Manager Yasemin Bedir shared the following insights: “To us, a ‘smart city’ is one that utilizes technology systematically to make life better, smoother, and more efficient for its residents. Today, for cities to be livable, they must be ‘smart.’ Therefore, conducting a situational analysis is crucial to understanding our current standing and defining the necessary steps forward. Yes, there is much to be done—and much that *can* be done. However, none of this can be achieved in isolation. It is vital for governments, technology companies, business owners, and, of course, city residents to join forces and collaborate.”
Focus on the Internet of Things
Driven by robust internet infrastructures, cloud computing, and the new wave of technology known as the Internet of Things (IoT), data-generating sensors and interconnected devices are shaping the cities we live in. Burak Aydın, General Manager of Intel Turkey, noted that they have made "Smart Cities" a key focus and are developing joint projects with numerous public institutions and municipalities. Aydın continued: "We offer end-to-end IoT solutions. We are conducting extensive work in Turkey, particularly in areas such as smart transportation, smart retail, smart factories, smart homes, and smart cities. Together with our business partners, we are implementing bus route optimization, passenger safety, and information systems across many municipalities. The 'Smart Cities Report,' launched in collaboration with our project partners, demonstrates the importance we place on this issue, given that four of the world's ten fastest-growing cities are located in Turkey. We face both a significant opportunity and a necessity; we must not lag behind the IoT transformation but rather lead this movement, making our cities more livable and productive." Engin Aksoy, Executive Vice President at Vodafone Turkey, commented: "Considering the future awaiting us—where an increasing number of people will live in densely populated urban areas and the need for smart technologies will grow—it becomes clear that current progress is insufficient and that much more ground needs to be covered in digitalization. At this juncture, it is crucial for all public institutions and organizations—especially municipalities—to bring digital innovations to the public and implement them at full capacity."
Key highlights from the report
In her speech, Prof. Dr. Sema F. Oktuğ, Dean of the ITU Faculty of Computer and Informatics Engineering, emphasized the importance of universities in training experts and establishing research collaborations on the path toward smart city implementations. Subsequently, Berrin Benli, Co-founder of the Novusens Smart Cities Institute, shared details of the study conducted between June 3, 2015, and January 18, 2016—covering metropolitan municipalities, affiliated administrations, district municipalities, water utilities, and energy distribution companies across Turkey—as well as the findings of the "Turkey Smart Cities Readiness Assessment Report."
It was observed that a fund could be established with the support of central resources to alleviate the financial difficulties municipalities face when implementing smart city projects; such a fund could further foster collaboration among NGOs, universities, and other municipalities for projects meeting specific criteria and standards in designated areas. Consequently, initiatives to enhance inter-institutional cooperation and synergy were identified as critical success factors for project viability. It was also noted that current smart city applications do not leverage cloud computing and big data analytics to the expected extent. Given the data-driven nature of smart city applications, it is essential to ensure that relevant institutions make appropriate datasets available for use while strictly adhering to privacy principles. Furthermore, the lack of knowledge and experience regarding smart cities highlights the vital importance of having a skilled workforce for these implementations; addressing the shortage of human resources in smart city projects is imperative. Finally, an innovative approach requires institutions to internalize smart city developments and rapidly adapt them to the specific needs of the city.
Creating environments that are citizen-centric and aimed at social innovation, where users and producers collaboratively design and develop products and services. Involving citizens in city-related decision-making processes through smart city platforms. It will be possible to enhance the effectiveness of investment decisions, reduce redundant investments, and achieve resource savings by establishing a national mechanism to provide recommendations to local governments and relevant institutions on issues such as national smart city strategies, urban transformation, standards, collaboration, system interoperability, and inter-institutional data exchange, alongside setting up a coordination mechanism to align ICT-related strategies, investments, and implementations at the provincial level. Establishing a fund—supported by central resources—to address the financing challenges municipalities face in implementing smart city projects, and ensuring that this fund provides partial support for projects meeting specific criteria and standards in designated areas, while also incentivizing proof-of-concept projects.Supporting multi-partner PPP projects (involving entities such as multiple municipalities, universities, NGOs, and companies) that foster the much-needed cooperation and synergy among institutions; ensuring that—given the data-driven nature of smart city applications—relevant institutions make their existing, available data accessible in machine-readable formats, and release suitable datasets (deemed capable of generating social benefit) through structures and events like "living labs" and hackathons, while strictly adhering to privacy principles; conducting training sessions (both in-person and online) and organizing events nationwide—particularly in developing regions—to address the lack of knowledge and experience regarding smart cities, enhance ICT expertise and capacity, and thereby help alleviate the shortage of human resources for smart city projects; examining successful smart city models from various regions of the world to develop implementation models for our cities undergoing transformation or being newly established, and preparing distinct roadmaps tailored to cities of different scales; initiating collaborative efforts to enable the replication of successful smart city applications by other provinces, districts, and institutions; and evaluating concepts and implementation models through small-scale pilots, then scaling up and expanding them if they prove successful.