Inter-agency cooperation to prevent the spread of COVID-19,
Mitigating Information Silos That Hinder Smart City Development
Technical improvements are needed due to privacy concerns, etc.


On the 13th, Korea IDC presented the current status of the domestic smart city industry and the market development direction and challenges in response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the 'Domestic Smart City Market Trend Report'.

The report recently described three characteristics of domestic smart cities.

First, the focus of the business has changed from development led by ICT infrastructure suppliers to development of citizen-oriented services. Rather than a top-down approach led by the city government, a bottom-up approach is becoming more common, strengthening the experience of smart citizens and developing cities through consensus across the city.

Second, as the digital transformation movement spreads, the impact of smart cities is growing in that various digital technologies can be integrated and applied to cities that serve as a collection of industries.

Third is the expansion of smart city services into various fields. Starting with U-City, domestic smart cities first developed the most basic infrastructure for urban life, starting with land development, and in the past, they focused on building ICT resources, administration, transportation, and security services.

Recently, along with the advancement of existing services, smart city services are expanding into various areas such as education, culture, administration, citizen participation, smart water, and public health.

Recently, as each country's response to COVID-19 has become a hot topic, not only establishing a quarantine system, but also establishing a post-COVID-19 plan that responds to changes in the living environment and lifestyle of the entire society is emerging as a new challenge for the smart city industry.

In response to the COVID-19 situation, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in Korea created a COVID-19 epidemiological investigation support system in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Welfare based on the smart city data hub. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cooperated in this project, and a cooperative system was established among various stakeholders in the public and private sectors, including the National Police Agency, telecommunications companies, credit finance associations, and credit card companies.

It can be said that this is a good example of building a flexible cooperation system that suits the situation while alleviating the information and inter-organizational silos that have been one of the factors hindering the development of smart cities.

The central government-led information collection and sharing guarantees the protection of personal information, such as the invasion of citizens' privacy, so efforts to secure technological improvements and socio-cultural agreements for information protection by the government, local governments, and related organizations should continue.

Movements responding to changes in urban lifestyles due to COVID-19 are also becoming visible. The contactless trend across society is expected to bring about changes in smart city administration, operation, and overall citizen services.

In addition to the current COVID-19 response efforts in progress in Korea, such as drive-through treatment, robot AI treatment, and AI counselors at public health centers, changes are also becoming visible in general city administration and operations and in the lives of citizens.

The city of Seoul is reviewing external business contest projects through non-face-to-face video business briefings, implementing online education for elementary, middle, and high schools, and increasing the use of micromobility instead of public transportation.

Kim Kyung-min, a senior researcher at IDC Korea, said, “COVID-19 is becoming an opportunity to evaluate the maturity of domestic smart cities,” and added, “While sharing data between organizations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is creating more advanced smart city services while alleviating silos, it is also highlighting the social issue of privacy invasion.”

He advised, “In addition to preparing for the non-contact trend in the post-corona era, the frequency of infectious diseases caused by unexpected viruses is expected to increase due to climate change and environmental pollution,” and “We should consider building future urban infrastructure and services based on urban resilience.”