Local authorities enhance urban management with technology

The Jiangsu Road sub-district of Shanghai's Changning district has been leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data in daily urban management to improve the efficiency.

Problematic situations in city operation, including garbage piling up in the streets, illegal bicycle parking, and possible risk of falling glass walls on tall office buildings, are being shown on a big screen at the subdistrict office as a result of upgraded refined urban management and innovative social governance.

The more than 600 video cameras covering public areas in the subdistrict have also been empowered with AI technology to spot problems and alert relevant authority of the problems no matter the time of day.

Shen Xin, director of the subdistrict office, said that technologies are used to not only monitor and discover problems but also help managers determine how they are solved later.

"For example, if the system finds a pile of garbage at a certain spot on a street, we'll inform the local authority to deal with it. Another picture of the spot will be uploaded into the system after 30 minutes to show if the garbage has been removed," she said.

Smart water meters that can send data to the system have also been recently installed in some of the homes of 1,200 elderly residents who live alone in the sub-district. The system can detect anomalies in water usage, which could indicate that an incident has taken place at home, according to the subdistrict office.

Shanghai's Party Secretary Li Qiang said that modern urban management must rely on modernized scientific and technological approaches to promote the participation of more computers, intelligent machines and data analysis so that problems can be actively weeded out.

"Such a system of urban management integrates data, information and resources in the areas of traffic, social order, public opinion, and daily urban operation and addresses the livelihood needs of the community, families and individuals to help improve people's sense of happiness, security and gaining," Shen said.