Citizens’ perception of smart initiatives and implications on their quality of life in Iasi Municipality, Eastern Europe

Smart city concepts and quality of life have become important, with implications for urban development. They are slowly but surely becoming indispensable for urban areas such as Iași, a city in Romania. This study examines whether citizens utilise these initiatives and perceive them as enhancing the quality of their daily lives. Over the past decade, various initiatives have emerged to transform this city into one of Romania's leading smart cities. Our analysis focuses on initiatives to improve public transport accessibility, municipal tax payments, and green transport. We analyse data from a semi-structured survey to examine participants' awareness of existing smart initiatives, their digital lives, and their level of facility use. We also attempted to evaluate people's perception of their quality of life in relation to these initiatives. We employed statistical tests, the Chi-squared (χ²) test, the Kruskal–Wallis test, and the Spearman correlation to ensure good representation, as they provided valuable insights that helped us achieve our main objective. Our analyses have shown that perceptions differ according to age. Active adults tend to be more satisfied, while young and older people tend to be less satisfied. Many people are unaware of the various initiatives and lack trust in the local administration.