Smart city-the imperative of urban society and the dualism of problems

The development of a city is a process of quantitative, qualitative and structural transformations, the transition from one state to another, the form and tendency of the existence of space in dynamically changing external conditions. The complexity of the ongoing metamorphoses generates contradictions that arise between the “old” and «new» elements - functions, structures, individual economic entities, management and society. The article examines the features of the development of urbanization processes in the space-time context and the inevitability of the introduction of the «smart city» system, examines the distinctive features of the elements of urban space, advantages, disadvantages and their impact on the socio-ecological and economic development of the city and the quality of life of a citizen. The city is considered as a specific, artificial human habitat. The complexity of the urban ecosystem and its multilevel nature determine the need to consider ways to improve the elements of the system, taking into account the need for an innovative vector of transformations as the main imperative of urban development. The paper analyzes the social problems that arise with the complication of territorial development. To overcome the problems in the process of integrating the «smart city» model into the spatial ecosystem, the paper proposes a model of digital development of urban space, consisting of 6 stages, the use of which involves determining quantitative and qualitative targets correlated with the effective use of the necessary financial, information, territorial, etc.resources and monitoring their achievement to improve the level and quality of life of citizens in the context of integrated, long-term sustainable development of the urban territory.