"Submarine" Smart City to be built, following the Smart City on the water

Ulsan City is going to develop a "submarine smart city."

Ulsan City, along with five related organizations, universities, and organizations, has decided to participate in the "Technology Development Project Contest for Creating and Utilizing Submarine Space", which will be held by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries early next year.

Ulsan City announced on December 16 that it has signed a "business agreement on technology development project contest for creating and utilizing submarine spaces" with Ulju-gun, Korea Maritime Science and Technology Institute, Korea Maritime University, Seosaeng-myeon Fishing Village Chiefs Council, and Ulju-gun Fishing Boat Council.

Six institutions, universities and organizations agreed to cooperate in the fields of development of submarine space design and construction source technology; development of submarine space operation, maintenance, and management source technology; installation and demonstration of submarine space structure test site (testbed); joint use of related research infrastructure and human exchange; practical use of submarine space creation and utilization development technology; and linkage of industry in the test site.

Ulsan City signed a business agreement with these institutions and organizations to participate in the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries' planned technology development contest for creating and utilizing submarine space early next year.

The "Technology Development Project Contest for Creating and Utilizing Submarine Space" is a project that will be developed from 2022 to 2026 with a total project cost of 46.7 billion won to technically "50m deep, 5 people staying" and empirically "30m deep, 3 people staying."

Meanwhile, Ulsan City has been preparing for the development of "Submarine City" by holding a "Future Marine Research Facility Symposium to foster Ulsan's Future Marine New Industry" at the Ulsan City Council Citizen Hall on July 2.

The symposium, co-hosted by the Korea Maritime Science and Technology Institute and the Korea Maritime University, discussed ways to cooperate with local related industries and create future marine research facilities so that Ulsan can become the center of new marine industries in the future.

Professor Lee Han-seok of Korea Maritime University, who gave a keynote speech, introduced the "Status and Prospect of Submarine City Development" and the current status of international trends and research technologies on submarine cities.

“In the future, the submarine city will be developed for multipurpose use of submarine space connected with coastal cities such as water space and seabed space integrated three-dimensional utilization, residential complex, use of carbon-neutral use of submarine space to solve climate crisis such as marine green and hydrogen energy, use of seabed space to cope with natural disasters like installation of underwater and seabed disaster prevention facilities, and Blue Economy Platform. It will be developed as a place to utilize the submarine space. "

Subsequently, the technologies for utilization and implementation of submarine cities (Korea Ocean Science and Technology Institute Han Taek-hee, Responsible Research Institute), the design technology of submarine cities (Maps Engineering CEO Woo Chan-jo), the construction technology of submarine cities (Lotte Construction Director Lee Seok-jin), the operation technology of submarine cities (Korea Aerospace Research Institute Lee Joo-hee, Responsible Research Institute), and the operation management technology of submarine cities (Korea National Safety Management Agency Deputy Director Lim Seok-bin) were announced.

“Shipbuilding & Marine are one of Ulsan’s three major industries and now we need innovative new marine technology to take a new leap,” said Song Chul-ho, mayor of the company. “We will establish the new marine industry, including the submarine city, as Ulsan’s main industry by linking it with floating offshore wind power generation.”

Reported by Smart City Today