Design principles permeate countless fields, yet their importance in urban planning is sometimes overlooked. While South Korea is renowned for its infrastructure achievements, the country has also earned global recognition for its pioneering efforts in developing smart cities.
As our regular contributor Don Southerton noted in a recent piece, in the smart city of Songdo, in Incheon near Seoul, traffic sensor data is utilized to regulate signal timing on the technical front, while household waste is directly transported from homes to waste processing centers through underground tubes.
That may sound like a silly question, but not everyone agrees. As the Korean government’s “Smart City Korea” notes on its official website, the definition of a smart city varies greatly from country to country.
Smart City Korea defines it as a is a platform for improving the quality of life for citizens, enhancing the sustainability of cities, and fostering new industries by utilizing the innovative technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The Republic of Korea has long been a pioneer in smart city development. Their journey began in the early 2000s with the “Ubiquitous Eco-City Planning in Korea” and “u-City” projects.
These initiatives aimed to leverage information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance urban service efficiency and improve citizens’ quality of life. However, they faced challenges due to a lack of institutional and technical infrastructure.
As a 2022 World Bank report noted, the initial u-Cities approach focused more on upgrading cities as products rather than transforming them into interconnected platforms. This led to widespread disillusionment in the late 2000s.
Smart City Korea defines a “smart city” as a is a platform for improving the quality of life for citizens, enhancing the sustainability of cities, and fostering new industries by utilizing the innovative technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
In response, the government shifted its strategy to focus on institutionalizing smart city development through legal frameworks, public policies, and support for innovation. These efforts laid the groundwork for cities to become more systematic, innovative, and sustainable.
Today, smart cities are no longer limited to public-led new town development projects. They have become a crucial strategy for managing and improving both new and existing urban areas. This approach has become a common aspiration for all cities, regardless of their size.
The government’s role has also evolved. Rather than solely leading these initiatives, the public sector now supports various policies that encourage private sector involvement.
This facilitates the continuous development and integration of new technologies into urban environments, allowing innovations to take root and flourish within cities.
This evolution reflects a more holistic and inclusive approach to urban development, where public-private partnerships and technological advancements work together to create more efficient, livable, and sustainable urban spaces.
Smart City Korea provided the following list of the county’s leading smart cities.
Seoul
Under the vision of “Seoul, Leading the Future of Digital Transformation as a Global Smart City,” Seoul established the Smart City and Digitization Master Plan.
Scheduled for implementation from 2021 to 2025, the master plan includes the city’s measures to expand smart infrastructure, increase non-face-to-face public service delivery, and promote the digital economy.
Recently, Seoul decided to integrate a metaverse platform into its smart city model and unveiled a master plan to develop a metaverse platform for the city government. Called Metaverse Seoul, the platform will provide access to various public services and strengthen citizens’ rights in the virtual space.
Incheon
The Incheon Free Economic Zone pioneered the smart city concept in Korea. It’s currently undertaking a comprehensive smart city project centered around the Songdo, Yeongjong, and Cheongna districts.
With the vision of a “Smart City with Sustainable Competitiveness as an Urban Platform,” Incheon strategically aims to establish a sustainable foundation by discovering a win-win balanced development model and data-driven citizen experience services in the new urban center, as outlined in the 2020-2024 Smart City Plan.
To promote regional balance, Incheon is implementing smart city-style urban regeneration in the original city center (Bupyeong, Chemulpo) to provide upgraded infrastructure and services related to transportation and safety.
Additionally, it’s designating the aging Namdong Industrial Complex (Namdong-gu) as a Smart Green Industrial Complex to foster manufacturing innovation and job creation. Furthermore, Incheon operates a smart city startup venture park (Yeonsu-gu) to nurture future growth engines.
Busan
South Korea’s leading port city, has established an action plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 as part of its pursuit to become a green smart city.
The city is developing new services based on public data analysis to facilitate digital transformation and enhance public safety. It’s also introducing digital technologies to various industrial sectors to make its economy more intelligent.
In 2018, Busan was designated as a national pilot smart city (Eco Delta City) and won grants for the Smart City Challenge projects. The city gained attention for its pioneering introduction of smart solutions such as ‘Barrier-free Service’ and ‘Pure 365 App Service.’
Daejeon
Daejeon, a hub of Korean science and technology, is home to renowned universities and research institutes like KAIST. It also serves as an administrative center, sharing responsibilities with Sejong City.
Daejeon has developed an innovative city plan for 2020-2024 and announced the 2022 Smart City Daejeon Creation Action Plan to improve citizens’ quality of life and enhance the city’s competitiveness.
Under the D.N.A.-based Smart City Daejeon vision, the city has built a cloud data hub to provide various smart services, including policy decision support, parking sharing, and electric fire prevention.
Additionally, a smart safety net allows CCTV video to support emergency services like 112 and 119, enabling faster response times during accidents.
As of 2021, the system has provided 98,522 emergency CCTV video clips and guided emergency vehicles to optimal routes. The smart network and services have demonstrated operational achievements.
As Jay Saggar wrote last year on the London Office of Technology and Innovation blog in a post titled “What can London learn from South Korea’s smart cities?” South Korea has had a national smart city strategy since 2009, which is now in its third iteration.
Reflecting on his visit to South Korea, Saggar, noted that while the country’s relative maturity in the design and deployment of technology and data in city management might appear to come from this tech-first strategy.
“The key lesson I took from the presentations shared and conversations had was that other factors are at play that have helped to move forward a more integrated use of data for city management,” writes Saggar.
Strategic ambition:
The South Korean government has a clear goal to digitalize infrastructure and integrate data into government operations. This initiative is supported by resources for both central and local implementation, including building expertise in local government and providing funding through various means.
Providing data capability to local government:
The central government has developed a data integration platform for local governments, which, so far, writes Saggar, has been taken up by 113 local governments. This has significantly improved data maturity across the country.
The South Korean government has a clear goal to digitalize infrastructure and integrate data into government operations.
Developing strong capabilities to manage private sector partners:
South Korea has a history of state-directed private-sector development, Saggar notes. Currently, both central and local governments are establishing new forms of public-private partnerships. They’re doing this by building strong internal expertise to manage these relationships and contracts effectively.
South Korea built its economy on the export of products that the world hungered for. From the conglomerates down to small businesses that export their wares worldwide.
Over the years the country has increasingly exported its expertise, and export that has extended to its knowledge of Smart cities.
Just recently The Ministry of Construction and South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport held an inauguration ceremony for the Vietnam-South Korea Cooperation Center for Smart Cities and Construction Technology.
With a total investment capital of KRW7.5 billion ($5.53 million), VKC has been established to promote research and training in smart cities and advanced construction technologies, thus contributing to the development of smart urban areas in Vietnam.
This initiative aligns with Vietnam’s strategic goals and policies for sustainable smart city development by 2030
You can download more information about South Korea’s aggressive smart city strategies as part of a report from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, here.
