Chinese technology giant Huawei has proposed a Utopian e-city solution that it says constructs a comprehensive development system for intelligent, green cities based on a unified cloud.
According to Huawei, the traditional municipal management model has multiple disadvantages such as untimely information, unclear distribution of responsibilities among administrative departments, and lack of effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
It explains that the e-city solution creates a new platform for sustainable urban development and brings a new professional, learning and social experience for citizens.
Peter Sun, Huawei's product and public sector manager, during the Huawei Open Day at the Vodacom Technopark in Midrand yesterday, said the e-city solution provides an efficient government, safe city, green industry.
“The solution provides a unified platform that houses urban data centres and three based networks. Based on a well-structured hierarchy, the platform delivers scalable capabilities and applications that lay a solid foundation for green, intelligent and future proof cities,” Sun said.
He added that the e-city solution applies modern IT to politics, economics and culture to improve urban information service functions; increase urban management and operational efficiency; boost urban productivity and competitiveness; and accelerate modernisation.
The solution's applications comprise the emergency command solution, healthcare solution, digital city management solution, government hotline solution, as well as the transportation solution.
Rapid response
According to Sun, the emergency command solution integrates the Internet, wireless clusters, GIS, satellite communications, audio/visual devices, rapid inter-network data exchange platforms, and decision support systems.
Huawei says the solution dispatches and organises existing systems and information resources from the city's different departments, sectors and levels to manage emergence response solutions.
It adds that the emergency command solution can help governments in exploring ways of establishing early warning systems and strengthen response capabilities.
“The solution utilises sensing network [M2M] terminals... and video monitoring terminals to collect and analyse data such as environment indicators like temperature, pressure, humidity and substance concentrations in risk areas and video monitoring at key traffic junctions,” Sun said.
Explaining how the solution works, Sun said the contact centre receives and handles reports on disaster or epidemic situations while the ICT and M2M technologies of the solution handle emergencies.
According to Sun, statistics in areas where it has been deployed show that implementation of the emergency command system reduced false reports by 49.7%, crimes by transients by 25.7%, violent crimes by 37.8%, and hit-and-run incidents by 35.4%.
Bridge for terminal patients
The Huawei e-city solution also boasts of a healthcare management application, which, it claims, aims to build a service platform for personal health management. “It serves as a communication bridge for terminal users and medical institutions,” noted Sun.
“Users can access the platform through a wireless or wired device and acquire medical services in real time,” he added.
He said by monitoring an individual's health and analysing records, the solution may give healthcare advice by assessing future risks. “This changes health management from treatment to prevention,” Sun remarked.
Sun also pointed out that the solution optimises medical resource utilisation and reduces that cost and inconvenience of visiting a hospital.
Describing the digital city management solution, Sun said it is based on mobile communications networks, communication terminals as well as government intranet systems.
“By sharing unifying geographical and spatial framework data, grid cell data, management component data and geo-coding data, the solution monitors, manages and gives early warnings for implementing engineering, municipal public facilities, urban environments and orders,” Sun said.
Huawei says the digital city management solution has the advantage of changing management from being passive to being active.
The e-city also has a hotline solution, which, Huawei says, is a centralised contact and service centre that is provided through video, audio, WEB, WAP, SMS, MMS, fax and e-mail. It channels service requests from the public to government departments, the company says, adding that the solution changes window services to e-services, which improves the public service experience and boosts the government's image.
Congestion blues
The company also says it developed the transportation solution after the realisation the upsurge in congestion, low road utilisation, and pollution. According to Huawei, these activities cut GDP by between 1.5% and 4% as a result of lowered work efficiency, the effects of pollution and losses caused by accidents.
“Globally, there are 20 million to 50 million traffic accidents each year, causing 1.3 million deaths and economic losses worth $2 trillion,” Sun said.
He explained that the e-city transportation solution utilises IT to collect and process urban traffic data. “This facilitates effective vehicle and traffic monitoring and management, which improves the environment, reduces traffic accidents and promotes transport quality.”
The company says the solution uses video analysis and radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies. “Video capture and analysis technology recognises licence plates, while RFID manages emission data and toll status,” it says.
The e-city solution has been rolled out in like Xi'an (China); Luanda (Angola); Nigeria; Mexico; Cuba; and Cambodia.
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