Smart City Construction Needs Vigilance on “Four Winds”

The city is the confluence and symbol of modern civilization. The development of the city is inseparable from the support and promotion of science and technology. Smart cities are the advanced stages of urban development, and they are the new forms of intelligent urban operations in the information age. They are the full application of the new generation of information technologies and carriers such as the Internet, Internet of Things, cloud computing, and spatial geographic information in urban operations. Informatization will cover all aspects of urban planning, construction, management, and services. It is a relatively complex system project. Its essence is to use advanced information technology to achieve smart city-style management and operation, so as to create a better life for people in the city and promote the harmony and sustainable growth of the city.

The concept, origin and development of smart cities are well-known as smart cities. They are mainly the concept of “Smart Earth” proposed by IBM in order to revitalize the economy in the context of the 2008 international financial crisis. In 2009, they proposed the construction of “Smart Cities”. To achieve urban prosperity, economic growth and sustainable development.

But this is not the real starting point for a “smart city.” Prior to this, the American scholar Bollier proposed a city of wisdom in his 1998 book “How to Stop Urban Disorder through Intellectual Growth” (1998). Planning ideas, advocating a reexamination of urban development from an overall perspective, from planning to construction and long-term governance, have adopted new concepts including the use of new technologies to manage and guide the development of urban systems, and have been practiced in Portland, USA. Support and attention of the federal government.

From this perspective, in the concept of smart city construction, its core already contains the idea of ​​using advanced science and technology to integrate urban road networks, resources, and public services such as construction and medical care, highlighting the construction of smart cities as a complex and large The enormous social value of the system has received the attention and admiration of the governments of various countries because it has the ability to solve the governance problems such as disorderly urban development and resource constraints at the time.

Before the concept of a smart city was proposed, information technology and governance of the city began to take off. From the earliest “three-gold project” to the construction of e-government platforms and digital cities, the government’s attention to the city’s informatization was reflected. . The urban areas may be transformed by the old city, or by means of new city planning, such information infrastructure construction as optical fiber laying, expansion of bandwidth, and improvement of network coverage rate, etc., to improve the city's information connection efficiency and information processing capabilities.

On August 29, 2014, with the approval of the State Council, the eight ministries and commissions of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Housing, and the Ministry of Transport issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Smart Cities", aiming at domestic wisdom. The lack of top-level design and overall planning, lagging in innovation in institutional mechanisms, and hidden dangers in network security and risks that emerged during the process of urban construction have raised the issue of how smart cities can develop more “healthy”. The first of the four basic principles of this opinion is “People-oriented, Pragmatic Advancement”. It is believed that the construction of smart cities should focus on serving the people, the people, and the people, promote innovative urban management and public service, and provide urban residents with a wide range of coverage. A level, differentiated, and high-quality public service avoids heavy construction and light efficiency, so that the public can share the achievements of smart city construction.

The construction of smart cities in China is basically to serve the new urbanization process centered on the urbanization of people and serve to promote the solution to the comprehensive carrying problem of “three hundred million people”, that is, to solve about 100 million by 2020. Residents of agricultural transfer who lived in cities settled in cities and towns, shanty towns and urban villages with a population of about 100 million were transformed, and about 100 million people were urbanized in the central and western regions. The construction of smart cities with Chinese characteristics should be centered on the intelligentization of human services, and provide a wide range of coverage and levels for our urban residents through next-generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, mobile Internet, and space geographic information integration. Differentiated and high quality public services.

The essence of a smart city is to achieve data integration, information sharing, business integration, and intelligent services among relevant departments, industries, groups, and systems within a city's scope in accordance with the actual needs of urban development. It is an informatization of China's national economy and social development. The historical development of the district is an inevitable process.

In the construction of a new round of smart cities, we must solve the emerging problem early and avoid duplicating the construction of a new “wisdom of chimneys” and “intellectual islands” and push forward more rationally, pragmatically, and sustainably. .

Smart City: The Main Form of “Internet + City” The construction of smart city is a new generation of information technology such as Internet of things, cloud computing, big data, mobile Internet, etc. It promotes the wisdom of urban planning, construction, management, and services. It is a new generation of information. The product of deep integration of technological innovation applications and urban transformation development. As far as its specific meanings are concerned, smart cities are based on the integration of physical infrastructure and information infrastructure, and the construction of smart infrastructure; the next generation of information technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, and mobile Internet are all in the urban economy and society. Develop the full use of all fields and deep integration as the main line; focus on maximizing the development, integration, sharing, and utilization of various types of urban information resources; and provide timely, interactive, efficient, and intelligent information services for residents, businesses, and the society as a means It aims to promote the informatization of urban planning management, the intelligentization of infrastructure, the convenience of public services, the modernization of industrial development and the refinement of social governance.

The construction of smart cities and the establishment of a unified urban geographic space framework and space-time information platform are conducive to optimizing the urban spatial structure and management structure and making overall plans for the digitization and precision of urban planning, land use, urban pipe network, landscaping, and environmental protection. In the areas of energy, transportation, environment, communications, disaster prevention, water supply and drainage, and public safety, the intelligent and refined level of urban operations management can be effectively improved; on this basis, the urban economy, infrastructure, public services, and resources and environment can be enhanced. With regard to the carrying capacity of the population, the urban production space is intensive and efficient, the living space is livable and comfortable, the ecological space is beautiful and the city’s sustainable development capacity is enhanced.

At present, China's urban industrial development model is transforming from processing and manufacturing as the main body to modern service industries, emerging industries, and intelligent industries. The construction of smart cities will accelerate the in-depth application of next-generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things and mobile Internet in various areas of urban economic development, and will greatly promote the network sharing, intensive integration, collaborative development, and efficient use of urban information resources. This will undoubtedly help to optimize the social production organization collaboration model and regional productivity distribution, promote the intensive and innovative urban production organization, create new industrial growth points, enhance the urban economic vitality and competitiveness, and promote the urban economy to improve quality and efficiency and optimize and upgrade. At present, smart cities have become the main carrier for the development of big data and have become the main form of “Internet cities”.

Difficulties Breakthrough: Breaking the Old Pattern of Interests to Realize Information Sharing In fact, from the perspective of information development, the construction of smart cities belongs to new bottled old wines. The core issue in the current smart city construction is to solve the informatization problem that has not yet been resolved. What are these hardships and hard bones? It mainly includes: In order to solve the economic and social problems, various types of information that are urgently needed to be exchanged, integrated, and shared are isolated and isolated in the society according to categories, industries, departments, and regions; naturally all kinds of information belong to the same space-time object. The relevance and coupling are separated and forgotten; the openness of government data and the degree of information sharing are limited; the development and utilization of information resources is not high; the convenience, efficiency, industrialization, and intelligence of information services are not high. The essence of a smart city is to achieve data fusion, information sharing, business integration, and intelligent services among relevant departments, industries, groups, and systems within the city scope in accordance with the actual needs of urban development. The core of smart cities is to solve informatization and urbanization. The integration of the hard-bones problem in development and the problems that traditional informationization can solve are not the key to the construction of a smart city.

The construction of smart cities in China is not a new starting point. We must make full use of and integrate the various types of urban information resources at all levels to promote interconnection. The success or failure of smart city construction depends not only on whether or not a large number of new information infrastructures and application systems have started to be built, but on how to effectively promote the integration of data within cities, and truly achieve information and wisdom decision-making through data fusion. The integration will fundamentally promote the coordination and sharing of government departments, the interaction and coordination of the industry, the fine management of the city and the harmony between man and nature.

Behind the upsurge: Be vigilant that “four winds” should be implemented more rationally. There is a kind of voice that, at the national level, guidance has been issued for the construction of smart cities. Does this mean that China’s smart city construction will enter a new development climax? actually not. The IDC forecast shows that about 15% of the world's cities will have the opportunity to enter the smart city's mature period in 2014. According to incomplete statistics, currently more than 50% of cities in China are engaged in smart cities, smart cities that have been promoted by various departments and As many as 529 pilot cities such as broadband China, information consumption, and information benefit people already have, the overheating characteristics are very obvious. At present, the construction of smart cities in China is still in its infancy and exploratory period. Generally speaking, it does not have the comprehensive conditions for large-scale integrated development of smart cities, and can only be piloted in cities with basic conditions. Conversely, for places where there are no conditions or conditions are not sufficient, smart cities should be prudent and slow.

At present, behind the domestic smart city construction boom, there are also some unhealthy signs, which are embodied in four aspects.

The first is to follow suit, and many places attach importance to concept slogans and despise action packages. What kind of concept is a smart city in the end? Maybe leaders in many places include the industry or blind people, but they only see different aspects from different perspectives. Some cities do not start from the actual needs of their own cities, but see that other places are doing it. Therefore, they also want to do it, blindly follow the trend, lack the judgment of real needs, and lack the grasp of realizing the path.

The second is the virtual wind. Many places pay more attention to construction investment, but they are less effective. Some local smart city construction program planning is often technology-driven, project-oriented, rather than problem-driven, demand-oriented. Everyone is particularly good at traditional thinking, “how many platforms, how many systems, access to information, reach the coverage rate”, but what specific benefits and changes can be brought to the people, “how much less queuing time, the process Shorter days", these considerations are still relatively lacking.

The third is hurricane, more emphasis on equipment technology, but more contempt for the construction of the mechanism. A smart city is a comprehensive embodiment of a city’s soft power. If it is just greed for the ocean and engages in a lot of very advanced software and hardware equipment, it does not attach importance to standards, policies, legal environment, institutional planning, and sustainable development mechanisms. With regard to the protection of these soft powers, it may not be possible for the hardware investment in the early stage to fully play its role.

The fourth is the overcast wind, which emphasizes the development of construction and neglects safety protection. Some localities have over-relyed on the planning, design, and solutions provided by foreign manufacturers in the process of project planning and implementation. They even plan to rely directly on foreign companies to build information systems in key areas of cities to build a core platform for smart cities. They lack autonomous control and are safe and reliable. The planning and designing and management systems in this area will lead to the control of important information and systems such as transportation, energy, finance, and social management, causing serious hidden dangers in information security and even endangering the country’s information sovereignty.

Smart cities are triggered by a new generation of information technology. However, in the process of construction, it is necessary to avoid pan-technical and technological theories, follow principles that are both advanced and applicable, and promote rational and pragmatic progress. The rapid development of informatization in the past 20 years has brought us a lot of lessons. In the construction of a new round of smart cities, we must solve the emerging problem early, avoid wearing new shoes, take the old road, and avoid repeating the construction of a new pile of new ones. The "smart chimneys" and "silo islands" are more intelligent in planning, designing, building, and operating smart cities with Chinese characteristics.