Smart City Management and Innovation Center is Being Established

Bornova Municipality has begun implementing the Smart City Management and Innovation Center, through which it is creating the first fully functional digital twin of a district in Turkey. The center aims to manage infrastructure, environment, energy, and security processes from a single hub, using scientific data within the framework of digital transformation, urban transformation, and green transformation. Bornova Mayor Ömer Eşki said:
“We have examined global examples in this field. With this system, we will be able to foresee the impact and outcomes of every step we take and every investment we make through an AI-powered decision support system. We are establishing the municipal vision of the future today.”

Digital transformation: Bornova on a single screen

Speaking at the newly opened center, Mayor Ömer Eşki emphasized that Bornova is the first municipality in Turkey to create a full digital twin of an entire district.
“We created the city’s 3D digital twin based on a digital terrain and digital surface model,” he said. The new Smart City Management and Innovation Center will gather and manage all district data — from park lighting to social assistance, from smart irrigation networks to building energy consumption, from carbon emissions to environmental risks — in real time, from a single hub. Additional cameras and sensors are being installed throughout Bornova to provide data to the system, which is also integrated with security cameras. The center will serve as a decision support hub providing forecasts for the city in normal times and as a crisis management unit in emergencies.

Urban transformation: red-yellow-green map

“Without urban transformation, there is no city,” said Mayor Eşki, noting that the data generated at the center also maps the earthquake risk of buildings in Bornova. Risky structures are marked in red, medium-risk buildings in yellow, and resilient buildings in green.
“This data-driven thematic map will form the foundation for creating a safe building stock,” he explained. Urban transformation projects will be designed using the digital twin model, simulating pre- and post-transformation scenarios to identify the best solutions. The costs of reinforcing or rebuilding structures will be compared using AI-supported technologies to find the most efficient options.

Green transformation: 75% of energy from solar

Highlighting their emphasis on green transformation within the smart city mission, Mayor Eşki said:
“Our goal is to meet 75% of the municipality’s electricity needs through solar power within one year. We also plan to implement Turkey’s first ‘wind tree’ and ‘wind forest’ projects in Bornova, and to build a biogas plant using our own resources. This way, we will unite the smart city vision under one roof, combining both digital and green transformations.”

Data-driven management and open innovation

With this project, components such as Smart Environment, Smart Energy, Smart Transportation, and Smart Infrastructure will be integrated into a single platform. Real-time decision support systems will be established using Big Data, IoT sensors, and Context Broker infrastructure. An innovation ecosystem will be created for universities, the private sector, and entrepreneurs to test and scale up smart city solutions.

The decision support system, which is largely complete with data input and integration ongoing, is expected to go live at the beginning of the year.