IoT and Smart Cities - the Foundation for an Intelligent Life Style

Population migration towards urban agglomerations, whether inside or around them, is a socio-economic process that happens in most if not all countries in the world. (situation seriously accentuated as an effect of the pandemic of the last two years). This increasing trend leads to a series of difficulties for the urban environments, yielding from increase in occupied space and number of inhabitants, demand for transportation, telecommunication, public services and infrastructure, increase of criminality and pollution. In time, these difficulties can lead to decrease in cities' ability to manage the inhabiting population and services for them. Increase of population and need for security and privacy, ever pressing need to protect the environment and diversification of demands regarding quality of life are only a few of the reasons that justify the need to adopt a more intelligent life style. The technological and conceptual is supported by the smart city paradigm merged with the internet of things. In this paper we aim to explore the main features of smart cities, to present their advantages and disadvantages in the global economic context and to present the extent to which the ecosystem represented by IoT and smart cities is a stimulator for a smart life style.