Shenzhen: A Success Story of Urban Governance with AI

Futian District, a central business district (CBD) in Shenzhen, China, has recently become a rising star in digital governance. It has made its claim to fame through integrating AI and civic engagement, all with the support of Huawei.

The district is Shenzhen's center of administration, finance, culture, trade, and international exchange. It has the highest population density and business value in Shenzhen.

At the 2022 Smart City Expo World Congress, Futian was awarded the "Economy Award" as part of the World Smart City Awards (China Region). The golden ticket to success was AI and digital twins, both of which are helping the region develop its digital economy, government, livelihoods and ecosystem.

In April 2022, for instance, Futian officially launched the "Smart City Governance for Quick Public Opinion Handling" platform, which is helping the district government receive and handle public demands.

On the platform, citizens can submit questions, complaints, opinions, and suggestions or ask for help via multiple channels. The platform then enables the government to quickly respond to the general public, handle requests efficiently and provide timely feedback. The platform app rolled out by the Futian government allows them to more efficiently handle citizens' questions and feedback. This new public opinion platform is key to optimizing Futian's governance, says Luo Gengbiao, Director of the Futian Government Service Data Administration Bureau.

The platform uses AI to offer several key features, including the de-duplication of events across all channels and the distribution of E2E services. It also serves as the "brain" for intelligent urban governance and operations.

Exploring Transformation with AI

The AI hub is at the core of Futian's transformation, helping it build a digital twin of the city. It involves intelligent sensors and smart applications, and comes together to form a prime example of what Digital China should look like.

The AI platform provides intelligent computing, analysis, and digital services for various departments. It supports multi-scenario applications such as intelligent video discovery, grid patrol, and quick public opinion handling. With the platform, Futian has managed to improve their incident distribution efficiency from 4 minutes per enquiry to 50 seconds per enquiry, and the accuracy of intelligent distribution has reached 90 percent.

Additionally, Futian is building a digital twin that allows the city to integrate 2D and 3D spatial data as well as government data through high-precision 3D city modelling. This helps it overcome a common concern faced by many cities: the lack of convergence and optimization between various types of data.

With the "Digital Twin Futian" platform, the organization is able to provide unified service support for computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) applications, which is when the manufacturing process is controlled by computers or automated. The platform enables city service digitalization and the visualization of urban operations in real time, driving collaborative and intelligent management and decision making.

The Future of Urban Digitalization

In addition to smart city governance, Futian's AI hub also promotes the evolution of other smart applications:

"One Screen City 360": Data can be aggregated and displayed on one screen via this platform. Futian sorts urban indicators into five fields across 10 major topics, which connects 10 portals across streets and functional departments for an overview of operations across the entire district, explains Gao Zeng, Deputy Director of the Futian Government Service Data Administration Bureau. This platform also makes it easier for multiple departments to collaborate over daily management and during emergencies.

"One-Workspace" for public officials: Futian capitalizes on the services provided by the provincial platform to integrate services, data, and operations. It interconnects services with provincial and municipal platforms, exchanges and shares data, and enables user authentication. These processes optimize and integrate government service platforms, making the work of public officials more efficient.

"One-Stop Service" for residents and businesses: Futian has set up a mechanism to securely share government credit information, evaluate commitments, and provide instant mobile approvals when possible. Residents and businesses can save time when accessing these public services.