Five Cities Certified as “Excellent Smart City” by Government

Five cities in Korea, including Bucheon, have been certified as "excellent" smart cities by the government for the first time in Korea.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Minister Roh, Hyung-wook) certified five cities, including Daegu, Daejeon, Bucheon, Seoul and Anyang, and three self-government districts such as Gangnam-gu, Guro-gu, and Seongdong-gu, as excellent cities in 2021.

A total of 30 cities participated in this year's certification contest and received smart city certification through strict verification such as written evaluation and on-site inspection for two months.

The suitability of certification of cities that were certified by the government for the first time will be reviewed every two years, and additional smart city certification will be granted through an annual certification contest.

Meanwhile, the certified smart cities introduced their representative performance at the 5th World Smart City Expo (9.8-10) and received certificates and copper plates from the government, with an opportunity to promote themselves as Korea's leading smart cities at home and abroad.

The "Smart City Certification System" is a system that evaluates the level of smart cities in Korea by comprehensive measurement including 63 indicators in terms of innovation, governance & institutional environment, and service & technology.

Cities certified this time are well equipped with smart technologies and infrastructure, such as intelligent facilities, information & communication networks, and integrated city operation centers. The cities also have built smart city promotion systems and achieved excellent smart capabilities such as public and private data utilization.

The representative achievements of each city that have been officially certified as 'Excellent Smart City' are as follows.

■ Bucheon City

Bucheon was highly praised for the establishment of a public-private joint corporation (SPC) that operates smart city services, integrating smart services such as transportation, environment, and safety, and building a shared parking system that integrates private and public parking lots and processes reservations and payments in one-stop.

■ Daegu Metropolitan City

Daegu was highly praised for establishing a global smart city partnership by laying the foundation for advanced services such as urban data hubs such as transportation, safety, and urban facilities, artificial intelligence-based video analysis, and big data-based traffic congestion prediction systems, and winning multiple overseas smart city awards.

■ Daejeon Metropolitan City

Daejeon was evaluated as excellent in smart challenge projects such as supporting small and medium-sized companies' use of smart city technology in Daedeok Special Zone to solve urban problems, establishing an electric fire accident prevention system using Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, and operating an integrated metropolitan city operation center.

■ Anyang City

Anyang was evaluated that it is excellent in establishing a wide-area urban safety net through the linkage between 16 urban operation centers in Gyeonggi-do, integrated management of urban data by establishing an IoT data linkage platform using the national disaster safety communication network and using it for policies such as bus route selection and commercial district analysis.

■ Seoul Metropolitan City

Seoul was evaluated as excellent in establishing high-level smart city technologies and infrastructure such as integrating streetlights, traffic lights, and CCTVs, installing advanced smart poles with information and communication technologies such as Wi-Fi and IoT sensors, integrating various transportation systems, and analyzing traffic information.

[Local self-government district]

▷Gangnam-gu

The services provided by the district were integrated into one app called "The Gangnam App," and the establishment of a one-stop service system for COVID-19 inspection through QR codes was highly praised.

▷Guro-gu

Guro-gu operates an old facility management system using IoT detection sensors and is evaluated as excellent in promoting the "E-Guro Living Lab" project to commercialize residents' ideas.

▷Seongdong-gu

Vehicles violating the stop line, smart crosswalks with jaywalking pedestrian warning functions, and smart bus shelters with pleasant environments, and urban safety service functions were evaluated for their excellence.

The Korea Institute for Land, Infrastructure and Transport (President Kang, Hyun-soo), who organized the certification evaluation, evaluated that the certified cities were not only excellent in smart infrastructure and technology, but also excellent in cooperation between governments and businesses, continued interest in civic participation, and establishment of integrated platforms.

However, the grades of the cities certified this time are all in the third grade, so a lot of effort is needed to be in the first grade in the future.

According to the evaluation of each sector, local governments are well equipped with smart city organizations, planning and ordinances in the △ governance and institutional sectors, and △ service technology and infrastructure sectors are also showing excellent results in building platforms that integrate and link public and private facilities.

However, in the △ innovation sector, which utilizes the capabilities of the private sector and citizens, many local governments lack, indicating that improvement efforts are needed.

The Korea Research Institute for Land, Infrastructure and Transport analyzed that local governments that actively participated in the government's integrated smart city platform supply project and smart challenge project received excellent reviews.

Choi Im-rak, an urban policy officer at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "The smart city certification system has started for the first time, which will further raise the level of smart cities in Korea.". Choi also added, "As for the certified cities this time, we will actively support them to be recognized as world-class smart cities by promoting them not only in Korea but also abroad."

Reported by Smart City Today