In the context of climate change, the global economic downturn and on-going urbanisation processes, contemporary cities are facing numerous challenges. In this regard, there is a general consensus amongst policy-makers, practitioners and academics that a smart city concept can become a key driver for enabling social, economic and environmental sustainability of urban areas. The goal of this paper is to investigate the subject of implementation of the smart concept into strategic city operations. The article focuses on Warsaw as a case study of a city currently revising its long-term strategy towards 2030 with a component of smart policies. This study is of a qualitative character. It is divided into three interconnected phases including secondary and primary research including semi-structured interviews conducted with representatives of public and private sectors working on policies and applying smart city solutions. The overarching research questions to be answered are: How smart city concept and urban data management is approached in Warsaw? Does Warsaw apply smart solutions and open data systems in its strategic operations? So far, considerable research has been devoted to the technical aspect of smart city, but less attention has been paid to the analysis of strategic city operations based on smart solutions. There is also a noticeable difference between the abundance of information about smart solutions applied in Western Europe (Barcelona) and a substantial lack of literature existing in this field in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Therefore, the case study selected for this investigation is Warsaw, which is one of the largest cities in the region and is currently reworking on its long-term strategy towards the year 2030. This research aims to contribute to the current academic debate on ICT solutions and smart city principles applied in urban areas with a specific focus on Warsaw, and also to provide valuable insights for policy makers and practitioners about the current state of affairs regarding smart solutions in CEE.
