Developing an E-Planning System Compatible With Smart City Design Principles: Case of Bayrakli

Introduction

Today, smart city technologies are rapidly adopted by local and central governments seeking solutions for the sustainability of urban services and continue to transform cities in every physical and social dimension. Since the effects of smart cities on cities and urban residents constitute the main subject of the city planning discipline, the research of smart cities by city planning and even other disciplines gains importance in terms of not being thrown into an unknown future. Despite the fact that smart city applications have started to be offered to the city rapidly by city administrations and technology companies, it has been determined that the concept of smart city has started to be researched in the literature and the scientific world, and it has progressed more slowly. For this reason, it is important that smart city policies and practices, which have the power to affect cities in every field from infrastructure to energy, from housing to employment, are subjected to certain analysis processes and scientifically researched before they are implemented, in order to determine the possible effects and results that they may create in the city.

Smart governance basically aims at a city where all the stakeholders of the city interact, public services operate effectively and efficiently, there is a transparent and answerable administration, the citizens have political awareness, and the citizens participate in public decisions at a high rate. In the smart living component of smart cities concept, vulnerable and low-income urban residents should also have equal access to all urban services. For this, all smart systems should be operated as inclusive of everyone, regardless of price.

Recognizing that smart people and smart life components are the cornerstones of smart cities, smart city models such as the Flexible Smart City and the Commons-Based Smart City should be adopted which provide transparency and open data at every stage of urban planning. Also, these models ensure the sustainability of all resources in the city, participation, innovation, joint solutions and inter-institutional urban cooperation. These models should be researched, developed and implemented in the city. In order to benefit from information in the rapidly digitizing information society we live in, access to technology should be seen as a human right. Today, since technological requirements such as using technology, information acquisition and sharing, and data transfer are completely based on purchasing power, it becomes important to implement more inclusive systems in the relationship of the citizens with technology.

When the development of the e-planning system is examined, it is seen that the topics such as increasing the transparent access of the citizens to information, creating a national information system and virtual city models, and conducting the plan production with public participation are important. In the technological dimension of e-planning, it is seen that although it is not very coordinated between institutions, it is carried out with fragmented approaches, but public participation still remains at very low levels in the social and technological dimension.

In the coming years, while using new generation e-planning technologies such as digital twin, blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, internet of things, mobile in the city administration, these applications are expected to provide numerous benefits if they aim to increase sustainability and the efficiency, welfare and happiness of the people in the city.

In order for e-planning to be implemented successfully and not to be perceived as a purely engineering field; city ​​planning tools and technologies should be kept up-to-date, new generation technologies such as artificial intelligence or IoT should be included in undergraduate education in city planning, being aware of the fact that technologies will always develop, by analyzing the direction that cities will take by benefiting and / or taking precautions with these technologies, the number of e-planning researches should should be increased.