The demographic change the world faces today makes “smart growth” inevitable for the cities. According to the United Nation’s studies, today more than half of the world’s population live in urban areas. Projections show that this is expected to increase to 70% by 2050. The urban areas where half of the world’s population live is expected double in just 15 years from now.

The World Bank’s data reveals that around 72% of Turkey’s population, reaching 80 million, live in urban areas and predictions show that this rate will rise to 80% in 2030 with a population surging to approximately 88 million. This staggering uptick in urban populations facing the world and Turkey makes it imperative to use limited resources efficiently. In this sense, “a smart city” trend is increasing in the world starting from developed countries.

Given this background, Çanakkale on My Mind Project, initiated with the collaboration of Kale Group, Turkey Informatics Foundation and Novusens Smart City Institute in 2017, aims to help Çanakkale, a city situated between İstanbul and İzmir, lying at the heart of the region so called golden ring, in its journey to transform into a smart city.

Born in Çanakkale’s Çan district, Turkey’s one of the largest industrial conglomerates, Kale Group has collaborated with Turkey Informatics Foundation who aims to transform Turkey into an information society and Novusens Smart City Institute to launch Çanakkale on My Mind Project on February 1st, 2017.

By a smart city, we mean a city that invests in information and communication technologies to use its limited resources more effectively and efficiently, generate savings as a result of those investments, improve its services and the quality of life thanks to those savings, reduce its carbon footprint, respect the environment and natural resources and do all these in an innovative and sustainable manner.