Abstract:

Purpose - This study sought to settle the question, “How can smart city strategies contribute to improving the urban quality of life?” Methodology/Approach/Design - Sakarya Metropolitan Municipality (SMM) was found worthy of this single case study since it has become the very first to prepare a smart city strategy and action plan among local governments in Turkey. In addition to face-to-face interviews with 23 personnel holding various positions within SMM, the municipality’s strategic plan (SASEP) and official news bulletin (Gündüz-Gece) were subjected to content analysis. During this field research, the observation notes were utilized to interpret the findings of the content analysis. Findings - The findings revealed that SMM adopts a data-driven smart city strategy. It was also discovered that, thanks to this strategy, SMM provided an improvement primarily in the objective quality of life indicators of the city, particularly visible in smart city indicators such as infrastructure, transportation, environment, and governance. Originality/Value - Based on the extensive literature review and empirical findings, the concept “smart city” was brought a definition as “a city management strategy that addresses the internal dynamics of the city and makes use of technological developments, various data sources, and the knowledge obtained by deploying an appropriate process to improve the quality of life of its stakeholders in line with the priorities.”

Keywords: