The smart-city concept is a response to global demographic trends, ongoing urbanization processes and the pursuit of sustainable development. As a result of demographic trends, global warming, and turmoil in the global economy, cities provide a space for creative social experimentation and problem solving in the contemporary world. It is necessary to start with the formulation of challenges and the identification of priorities for their optimal solution in order to build smart cities. This term has many definitions in the literature, but most researchers identify the term with a city with a development strategy that focuses on creativity, openness to innovation and flexibility, and understood as the ability to quickly adapt to external and internal conditions. In order to find a single definition of the smart-city concept, six key areas have been adopted to which cities aspiring to be smart should refer. These are:

• Economy – Smart Economy;
• Communications and Transportation – Smart Mobility;
• Environment – Smart Environment, with key strategies as decarbonization;
• Population and Residents – Smart People;
• Quality of Life – Smart Living;
• Governance – Smart Governance.

To ensure the correct formulation and understanding of the smart-city concept, it is associated with the concept of innovation, not only with technology. However, in the processes of governance of a smart city, new technologies play an important role and can help city authorities cope with the challenges of today arising from the growing urban population and the increasing digitization.

The smart-city concept is a new approach to city management. This is the creation of a new system for functioning of cities in which the local government, while defining public tasks and choosing the form of their implementation, also: sets the quality standards and the intended out- comes for the services provided; is interested not only in the continuity of the services, but also in their economic efficiency; takes into account the development of new technologies, including the implementation of environmentally friendly and energy-efficient solutions, which allow for ensuring energy security as well as sustainable development .