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Aslı Ulubaş Hamurcu

1. Introduction: Information and Communication Technologies

(ICT), Sustainability and Cities

Today, with the widespread use of ICT globally, the concepts of Industry 4.0,
Society 5.0 and Smart City 3.0 have become unignorable components of the
urban agenda. As of 2023, the total global population has exceeded 8 billion
(Worldometer, 2023). In 2021, the urban population in the world was calculated
as approximately 4.5 billion people (World Bank, 2023). This figure is equivalent
to 56.48% of the total global population. On the other side, while the number of
Internet users worldwide was around 1 billion people in 2005, this figure reached
5.3 billion users in 2022, accounting for 66% of the total global population
(Petrosyan, 2023a, 2023b). The total number of global Internet users was 4.9
billion in 2021 including 22.8% of them in the 18-24 age range, 33.8% in the 25-
34 age range, 18.6% in the 35-44 age range, 11.9% in the 45-54 age range, 7.3%
in the 55-64 age range and 5.5% of them aged 65 and above (Petrosyan, 2023c).
With 71.4 million internet users, Türkiye ranks 14th among the countries having
the largest digital population in the world (Petrosyan, 2023d). It is known that
most internet users are also social media users. The total number of social media
users in 2022 was calculated as 3.96 billion (Dixon, 2023a). The total number of
social media users in Türkiye is approximately 67 million (Dixon, 2023b). This
figure is expected to increase to 76.58 million in 2027, which demonstrates that
ICTs are becoming– even have become – an indispensable part of daily life
and most economic, cultural, social, technical and political systems. Therefore,
the adaptation and regeneration of cities in order to benefit from ICTs at the
highest level is becoming increasingly necessary.
As an approach that uses the maximum benefit from ICTs as a tool in urban
life, the smart urbanism aims to facilitate and solve existing problems through
technology. There are many different definitions of smart urbanism and smart
cities. According to Smart Cities Council (2023), one of the longest-running
working groups in this field, smart cities should be based on 3 core values (and
priorities). These are livability, workability and sustainability. In the light of these
values, it is targeted to generate solutions to establish cities that can create
healthy living spaces and an ecosystem for high-quality jobs which will support
global competitiveness, with a digital infrastructure that makes urban services
available anytime, anywhere, instantly and easily. On the way to achieving these
goals, the sensitivity towards protection of the rights of future generations is
prioritized. Similarly, Partigöç (2023: 176) builds the smart city approach on the
context of “receiving advanced technology support in the sustainable and
efficient use of limited natural resources for unlimited human needs”. In this
context, the fact that smart city practices are innovative in problem solving
highlights the need for making use of the information and communication

76 The Journal of Environment, Urban and Climate