How to build a new smart city in step with the times?

In recent years, governments across the country have accelerated the pace of smart city construction. According to forecasts by the China Smart City Working Committee, China's smart city market size will reach 25 trillion yuan this year. The construction of new-type smart cities is closely linked to the development of the times . Faced with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital applications such as health codes and cloud live streaming effectively supported the resumption of work and production and the supply of daily necessities. How to improve cities' ability to respond to crises and how to build more intelligent cities have become key considerations in the construction of new-type smart cities.

First, the digital information infrastructure is the cornerstone of new smart city construction. Currently, China's digital information infrastructure construction, represented by 5G, fiber broadband, and data centers, is accelerating rapidly. A global-scale 5G network and fiber network have been built, providing crucial support for smart city development. With its characteristics of high reliability, low latency, and large bandwidth, 5G injects strong momentum into the development of remote healthcare, online education, HD live streaming, etc., effectively connects various urban services, integrates and improves resource utilization efficiency, drives urban governance toward gradual intelligence, and enhances residents' quality of life.

Secondly, the City Brain is the intelligent hub for coordinated planning and management of new smart cities. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during his inspection of the Hangzhou City Brain Operation Command Center that the City Brain is a key measure in building "Digital Hangzhou." By leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and artificial intelligence to innovate urban management methods, models, and concepts, progressing from digitization to intelligence and then to wisdom, making cities smarter and more intelligent is the only path to modernize urban governance systems and capabilities, with broad prospects. Currently, governments across various regions are actively advancing City Brain construction, with the number of related projects continuously rising. First-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, as well as small and medium-sized cities, are all actively laying out their plans.

Finally, application scenarios are a key pathway for new smart cities to unleash their potential. Entering the '14th Five-Year Plan' period, urban development places greater emphasis on livelihood needs such as residents' daily travel, education, healthcare, and public safety, as well as industry needs like enterprise efficiency improvement, quality enhancement, transformation, and upgrading. New smart city application scenarios continue to expand, leading to more refined urban governance. For example, with the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, public travel has increased; however, at subway stations, airports, bus terminals, etc., people still need to remove masks for facial recognition, increasing the risk of cross-infection. Wearing masks during facial recognition is gradually becoming a practical necessity. In response, some subway stations, hospitals, and communities currently support facial verification while wearing masks, reducing infection probability and shortening passage time.

High-quality development of new smart cities requires a balanced focus on strengthening foundations and pioneering innovation.

Accelerate the deployment of digital information infrastructure such as 5G, gigabit optical networks, and data centers, and promote the construction of a city-wide perception system.

First, focus on the balanced layout of infrastructure. Promote the scientific and rational allocation of digital information infrastructure between urban and rural areas, central and western regions versus eastern regions, emerging industries versus traditional manufacturing, and resource-based industries, to support digital economy development in more regions and quality improvement and efficiency enhancement in more sectors.

Secondly, focus on linking with new urbanization construction. Relevant data shows that China's smart community market will reach a total scale of 643.3 billion yuan in 2023, making smart communities an important component of new smart cities. Accelerate the empowerment of municipal public facilities through intelligent transformation using new technologies such as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), improve gigabit optical network coverage across cities and enhance home user experience. Starting from "elderly-friendly" and "livable" principles, promote the development of smart communities.

最后，注重践行绿色低碳发展战略。当前，数字经济加速发展，数据量呈爆发式增长，数据中心的需求及规模激增，随着国家“东数西算”工程的推进，绿色新基建加速，工业互联网、大数据等数字化技术创新将带来节能减排效益。

Smart cities mainly involve digital technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital twins. However, China has not yet achieved autonomous control in some key technology fields. Taking the IoT as an example, China's technical strength is weak at the perception and recognition layer, which is the bottom layer of the industry / supply chain. Core basic theoretical research and key technological breakthroughs still need to be strengthened. Key equipment such as sensors still relies on Western developed countries, increasing the risk of information leakage.

Breakthroughs in key technology fields require efforts from the following two aspects to ensure the smooth operation of new smart cities. First, integrate resources to accelerate the breakthrough of core technologies. Enterprises upstream and downstream of the industry / supply chain, as well as government, academia, research, and application stakeholders, must form a joint force to improve IoT infrastructure, combine system innovation with key breakthroughs, optimize the supply of smart city-related products and services, and jointly promote the substitution of domestic hardware and software products. Second, enhance standardization levels. Improve the standards system in fields such as smart cities, IoT, and big data; strengthen research on standard interoperability; promote integrated development of the industry; actively participate in formulating international standards; and improve consistency between domestic and international standards.

The report "Insights into the Current Status and Trends of China's Digital Economy" shows that China has become one of the countries with the largest data volume and the most diverse data types. Data holds immense value and potential, having become a key asset for smart cities.

Regarding data integration and sharing, unified regulations must be established for data collection, storage, openness, classification dimensions, download formats, and platform interface standards across sectors such as urban transportation, healthcare, education, and industry. This will promote further integration of data platforms to achieve seamless vertical connectivity and horizontal interconnection. For example, jointly issuing epidemic prevention requirements and traffic control information from various regions can help resolve "logistics bottlenecks".

In terms of unlocking data value, strengthen government-enterprise cooperation and enterprise linkage, continuously improve the functional details of the data sharing platform, encourage enterprises and institutions to deeply mine public data, actively develop more convenient services and enterprise applications around urban governance bottlenecks, and accelerate the release of data value.

In terms of data security assurance, we adhere to a dual-drive approach of technology and management. From a technical perspective, we strengthen research on key data security technologies and pilot applications. From a management perspective, we establish a comprehensive security mechanism covering the entire process of data collection, transmission, storage, usage, and sharing, while dynamically adjusting security policies and technical measures based on actual needs to enhance risk perception and monitoring warning capabilities.

Adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, focus on addressing urban governance challenges, and leverage current and future demand-driven needs to utilize information technology for fostering comprehensive innovative applications across departments, administrative levels, and regions.

加大基层需求支撑力度。疫情防控期间，一些小区、乡镇、商业楼宇等基层微单元仍采用传统的人防手段，如手工登记、测温等“表格防疫”方式。要强化5G、云计算、大数据、人工智能等技防策略，将智慧城市各项应用下沉到微单元治理环节，由基层结合实际需求制订方案并“自下而上”反馈应用效果，从而助力智慧应用“自上而下”完善设计。

Enhance response capabilities for sudden scenarios. This pandemic has exposed the relative weakness of many cities in handling emergencies; future efforts should strengthen rapid response to sudden demands, focusing on "peacetime-wartime integration" in areas such as smart healthcare and personnel/material allocation. Taking emergency material allocation as an example, the smart city platform can quickly coordinate residents' material needs, rapidly unblock bottlenecks in key links including supply sources, transportation, transfer, supervision, and distribution, effectively achieving inter-departmental collaboration.

A well-functioning operational mechanism is a key factor in the long-term operation of smart cities and also the focal point for sustainable development of smart cities in the current and near future.

探索多元投资模式。智慧城市涵盖城市运转、产业发展、社会民生等诸多领域，每个领域都是一项庞大复杂的系统工程。可通过创新共建共享共治模式，明确各投资主体的职责和收益，调动政府、大中小企业、科研院所和非营利机构等参与建设，建立价值合作生态。

Improve the operation and evaluation system. Before the smart city enters operation, clarify the overall plan including schedule arrangements and acceptance criteria, and design specific assessment indicators that combine subjective and objective factors, such as the number of infrastructure facilities and user satisfaction. Third-party evaluation agencies may be introduced to use their evaluation results as the basis for project payment and acceptance, promoting construction and improvement through evaluation to enhance the level of smart city construction and operation in the new era.

Source: People's Post and Telecommunications Daily