A smart city finds ways to better serve its citizens, and brings together key urban systems, including energy grids, water management, waste systems, smart mobility and transportation based on the engineering applications. The smart cities should aim to strengthen the socioeconomic backbone of the city, so the subject needs to be addressed in multi-dimensional framework. Thus, different disciplines such as engineering, architecture, sociology, economics and urban design are practiced upon in order to design smart technology plans and systems. Even though innovative smart city projects offer sustainable, mobile, digital, safe infrastructures that enable flexibility to different needs still there is no consent about what really forms a city smarter. This paper considers smart cities as integrated models, and aims at disclosing major catalysts for socioeconomic development in smart city projects. Besides, discusses about the tools for urban development enabled by knowledge-intensive digital applications, the role of open data in smart mobility systems and nature-based solutions. Several dimensions and elements of the smart cities are defined based on the projects of five chosen cities located in different continents. Findings from each project about their critical systems, salient concepts and driving elements are utilized to conclude the study with triggers that can set cities on the path to becoming smart.

Increasing electricity production costs coupled with rising energy prices drive people to become energy independent. Wind energy systems can be one of the most cost-effective home-based renewable energy systems. A small-scale wind turbine can reduce the electricity bill slightly or up to 100% depending on the quality of wind resource of the site. More people across the world are seeking a solution against increasing electricity rates and a way to harvest their local wind resources. The aim of the study is to analyse an economic viability of a small-scale wind turbine system for residential use in southern Turkey. For this objective, firstly, an actual onsite wind data is evaluated. Five different on-grid small-scale wind energy production system alternatives which required to meet the electricity demand are offered. Performance of each turbine are examined; cost and benefit analysis based on cash flow, net present value, levelised cost of energy and payback periods are calculated. Recommendations are provided to the investor to make a decision on the optimum wind turbine selection based on performance and economic viability for the given site. At last, an overview of what is feasible on the preferred site is presented.