The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Minister Byun Chang-heum) announced that through the evaluation of the’Smart Challenge Main Project’ in 2021, 6 cities with excellent performance among 11 local governments that had carried out preliminary projects for one year were finally selected as target sites for the main project.
In the City Challenge to solve problems at the urban level, there are three places: Gangneung, Gimhae, Gwangju, Busan, Suwon, Jeju, and Changwon that participated in the preliminary projects, △Busan △Jeju △Gangneung. Among Seosan, Wonju, and Changwon, three places were selected: △Gwangyang △Seosan △Wonju.
City Challenge is a project that implements a comprehensive solution for smartization across the city based on the ideas of private companies, and supports project costs of 21.5 billion won per city. If it is selected as the main project after carrying out a preliminary project for establishing a plan for one year and demonstrating a solution (1.5 billion won/location), the expansion project will be promoted by receiving 20 billion won (50% local cost) support for two years.
Town Challenge is worth 4 billion won by city (50% local cost) when selected as the main project after a one-year plan establishment period (government cost of 300 million won/location) in which citizens participate in living labs to derive local community problems and seek solutions. Matching) to carry out the construction project for one year.
City Challenge, barrier-free transportation environment, renewable energy, mobility innovation
The main project of the 2021 City Challenge is Busan, which creates an inclusive city by building a barrier-free transportation environment for the traffic-poor, and Jeju, which seeks to innovate urban infrastructure by linking renewable energy and shared mobility, and tourism and small business owners by enhancing the convenience of public transportation. Gangneung City, which presented a successful model of a regional small and medium-sized city saving the world, was selected.
During the preliminary project period, Busan experimented with convenient and accessible means of transportation, centering on Dong-gu, where the proportion of the traffic weakened was 36.5%. By providing’indoor navigation for subway stations’, the route finding time was shortened by 25%, and the’barrier’, a space where you can wait for rides using a ride-sharing platform or special vehicles using a ride-sharing platform in mountainous areas with steep slopes and lack of public transportation connections. ‘Free Station’ was installed and used by about 1,200 citizens.
In particular, in connection with the’demand-response bus’ and the’ride sharing platform’, which allows passengers to ride a taxi, the waiting time was reduced by an average of an hour, and the travel time was reduced by 38%, and the transportation cost was reduced by 45%.
In the future, the main project plans to expand barrier-free navigation centering on subway stations, and build barrier-free stations and ride-sharing platforms throughout Busan. In addition, it plans to be reborn as a smart city where people can experience a safe and convenient traffic environment by promoting a safety zone that prevents collisions between pedestrians and vehicles in the traffic-poor protection zone, and a data lab that creates big data that can be used by the private sector.
Jeju Island has planned a smart hub model that links renewable energy and shared mobility, taking into account the regional conditions where the production of new and renewable energy and the proportion of electric vehicles are high. Jeju Island uses technology that stores, transfers, and charges the generated energy in batteries, based on the experience of frequently stopping power generation because it is difficult to store even if it produces eco-friendly energy. It plans to recharge green mobility (electric vehicles, electric kickboards, electric bicycles, etc.).
In addition, gas stations with an increasing proportion of electric vehicles and gradually decreasing in use will be converted to’smart hubs’ to utilize shared mobility as a base space for rental, return, and charging.
During the preliminary project period, Jeju Island operates 8 smart hubs and 72 shared mobility, reduces carbon emissions by 30 tons, eco-friendly shared transportation means 1.44% toll share, and renewable energy sharing expands by 4,490 kwh per month. As a result, the sales revenue of the local community also increased by KRW 13.83 million per month, showing an effect.
In this project, the smart hub model will be further expanded and a platform for electric power transactions between neighbors in the region will be established through a smart city regulatory sandbox. The Jeju-do smart hub model was evaluated as expected to contribute to the realization of the 2050 carbon neutrality declared by the government last year through the use of new and renewable energy and enhanced use of eco-friendly mobility.
Gangneung was evaluated as suggesting a smart city model for small and medium-sized cities that revitalize local commercial areas for small businesses with convenient public transportation and digital platforms. Established an integrated mobility platform (MaaS: Mobility as a Service) called the’Fine Pass App’ that allows you to use personal mobility such as electric kickboards, city traffic, and KTX tickets, and make reservations by linking real-time information of 78 small business stores to these apps. Functions were also provided. Based on the opinions from the Citizen Participation Living Lab, a dedicated road for personal mobility (PM) was also installed.
During the preliminary project period, 7,800 tourists and Gangneung citizens installed the’Fine Pass App’ to use personal mobility and electric vehicle services, and the travel time to the business site was reduced by about 40% compared to using a taxi or car, and illegal in the business area. Parking also decreased by 38.4%. As the use of private cars decreased, the number of visitors to stores in alleys increased by an average of 25% per day, and the number of store reservations using apps reached about 300, which also had an economic effect of revitalizing local commercial areas.
In this project, mobility stations will be expanded throughout Gangneung City, and in addition to KTX, Yangyang Airport and Gangneung Port ferries will also be connected. The goal was to provide a metropolitan level of public transportation convenience even in small and medium-sized cities by linking with the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) project, which provides a one-day transfer discount service for city buses and mobility, and modernizes the public transportation trunk network system. It is planning to continue to revitalize local commercial areas by expanding the range of stores linked to small business owners and diversifying the marketing services provided.
Town Challenge, Resource Circulation, Urban Safety, and Transportation Convenience Improvement
The 2021 Town Challenge main project was selected by Gwangyang City, which creates a smart eco-town with the concept of resource circulation, Seosan City, which builds a smart safety model for industrial complexes and nearby villages, and Wonju City, which provides transportation and crime prevention services that connect universities and local communities. done.
Gwangyang City plans to build a citizen-participating eco-point platform for recycling recycled resources and implement a’smart eco-town’. Establish resource recycling services such as smart trash cans and waste paper collection systems, and establish a citizen-participating model that allows individuals to accumulate eco points through the platform and use them when using waste collection and shared mobility.
Seosan City received high praise for presenting a customized solution to solve the safety problem of vehicles transporting dangerous substances with high traffic in the Daesan Industrial Complex. It is a method to prevent large-scale accidents by monitoring vehicles transporting dangerous substances in real time and dispatching drones when an accident occurs. In addition, it plans to install responsive traffic management services and smart crosswalks to improve transportation convenience and safety for industrial workers and local residents.
Wonju City will create a’Heung-Up Smart Town that connects villages and universities’ centering on Heungeop-myeon, where three universities are located. Through demand-response buses and shared electric bicycles, the accessibility between Wonju Station-town-university is improved, and voice recognition video security control service that detects and responds to emergency situations through voice or video, and safe return service, etc. It is planning to create a safe residential environment for children.
This presentation can be checked through the national smart city integrated portal (www.smartcity.go.kr), and it plans to actively support the spread of related cases to other local governments and overseas by holding a performance sharing meeting of excellent local governments.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is pushing forward not only the main project selected this time, but also selecting a new smart challenge project in 2021. By the end of March for the Town and Campus Challenge project and the end of April for the City Challenge project, a total of 16 projects will be selected, and various smart city models will be continuously discovered.
Im-Rak Choi, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, “We will spread the results of the smart challenge preliminary project, such as caring for the traffic weak, preventing environmental disasters, and living convenience, throughout the city so that many citizens can experience the effect of smart city.” We will actively support the development of representative smart cities that meet the Korean version of the New Deal policy such as innovation.”