Shandong
© Amt für Big Data der Stadt Weifang
Weifang is a prefectural city in central Shandong. The Smart City Project of Weifang is an example of Smart City Technology Innovation. Weifang is home to the first urban cloud computing centre, built and operated via a PPP model in China.
Overview of Technical Framework of the Smart City:
First, we created new mechanisms, systems and top-level designs for building the smart city. The Big Data Bureau was established as one of the administrative departments under the municipal government and in charge of the overall development of the smart city and big data in Weifang. We were one of the first prefectural cities in China to formulate the Weifang Digital Economy Development Plan (2018-2022) and Opinions on Promoting the Development of Digital Economy, to promulgate standards in smart projects, and promote the integrated development of the smart city.
Second, we have been constantly exploring new ways of developing smart projects and creating new models to build and manage the smart city. We are the first in China to apply the PPP model in building the Weifang Cloud Computing Center.
Third, we have satisfied the requirements of the provincial government, determining the pilot program of information resource sharing and exchange, the pilot city of government information system integration, sharing and application, and the pilot platform for integrated government services. In the inspection and evaluation of the government information system integration and sharing across the province in 2018, Weifang ranked first for overall performance in Shandong.
Fourth, we developed new ideas for building the smart city in response to the current trends. New applications for smart city projects were developed. We are leaders in applying mobile internet methods to develop and build a smart city cloud service platform (mobile APP), making smart city services accessible. Also, we were the first to implement the standards of the new generation of NB-IoT (Internet of Things) technology and build the first „IoT Weifang“ public service platform based on new NB-IoT standards in China.
Fifth, we introduced in Weifang a number of high-end IT enterprises and high-quality companies such as Huawei, Inspur, Fusion Group and Sunsea AIoT etc., increased the vitality of the city in innovation and entrepreneurship, and put in place an ecology plan for the innovative development of the smart city industry. The top-level design and overall planning for smart city development have been completed. Please refer to the appendix for more details.
Introduction of the Case:
- Weifang is home to the first urban cloud computing centre, built and operated via a PPP model in China. The state-owned capital of Weifang and Inspur Group jointly set up a professional operation company to build the city’s e-government cloud.
- We were the first to apply mobile internet methods to develop and build a local mobile government service client that provides services for the people. The application integrates more than 50 public services such as education, medical care, transportation, tourism, elderly care, e-commerce and administrative approval, making smart city services accessible to citizens.
- We were the first to apply the standards of the new generation of NB-IoT technologies and build the first „IoT Weifang“ public service platform based on the NB-IoT standards in China. The platform integrates IoT applications of different industries and collects IoT big data. It was selected as a global model case by the World Economic Forum in 2017, and was included in the National Development and Reform Commission’s White Paper on Cases of New Type of Smart Cities in China in 2017.
- We integrated the municipal government service hotline 12345 (a total of 61 municipal hotlines), the legal affairs service hotline 12348, the municipal public utilities service hotline 12319 and other independent operation hotlines, and the online Weifang-related public opinion data to build the public opinion big data platform by using big data and artificial intelligence technologies. The dynamic evolution model of urban governance, based on public opinion data, was established to promote the reengineering of the government’s decision-making processes and governance with public opinion data. Through this process, we gathered people’s opinions, pooled wisdom and improved living standards. This case was included in the Model Cases of Big Data Application by the Provincial Big Data Bureau.
- The pilot project of smart city spatial-temporal big data and cloud platform adopts distinctive features in a spatial-temporal information model, information sorting according to time and space and platform reconstruction technology based on micro-service architecture. Its complete sets of technologies and methods, recognized as a Weifang Model, can be copied and extended across the country in similar platforms. It is the first prefecture-level pilot project to pass the acceptance test in China.
- We put in place a smart municipal public utilities system and were the first to strengthen the supervision of municipal public utilities through IoT technology, and implement the online monitoring of water supply, gas supply, heat supply and sewage treatment.
Application and Effect of Technological Innovation
In recent years, Weifang has been continuously improving the building and application of the smart city based on the innovative application of big data. The experience in building Smart Weifang has been extended to the whole country. From the government’s macro perspective and with a vision to improve citizens‘ personal experience, Weifang has actively explored new ideas and models of sustainable development that can be copied and promoted, and strives to build a new smart city model, featuring efficient management, convenient services, industrial intelligence and green ecology. Weifang has been ranked among China’s top 50 cities for IT applications for 6 consecutive years. „Smart Weifang 3.0“ was selected as one of the four global model cases by the World Economic Forum in 2017. „Smart Weifang 3.0“ stood out from more than 600 participating cities around the world as the only city in China to win the „Smart City Award Nomination“, together with Atlanta (the US), Lyon (France), Stockholm (Sweden) and Jaipur (India) in 2017. It ranks 37th in the Internet Plus Total Index Ranking in China, the highest among all prefectural cities in Shandong. It ranks second in Shandong in terms of digital governance level, with the highest growth rate in China. It ranks 10th in the “China Open Data Index” (the authoritative evaluation index in open government data in China). The governmental portal of „Weifang·China“ ranks 4th in the national performance evaluation among prefectural cities and 1st in Shandong.