Box Story: Busan Eco Delta City – A Smart Village and Living Lab

The Eco Delta City (EDC) is situated at the convergence of three rivers in Busan, the largest port city in South Korea. Pushing boundaries as the new frontier for a smart and eco-friendly waterfront city, the EDC includes a 2.8-km² area that has been identified as a pilot site under South Korea’s National Pilot Smart City Project. The objective of the pilot site is to test-bed innovative technologies to support the building of future smart cities, and it includes a Smart Village, an Urban Tech House and a Smart Park. The Smart Village is the first residential complex under the National Pilot Smart City Project, which is also doubling up as an experiential living lab. Unveiled in December 2021, the Smart Village accommodates 56 households consisting of 200 residents in housing ranging from single-person units to three-bedroom homes. In addition to housing, there is a community centre with a wellness centre, gym, café, convenience store, and platform where all the sensor data and other information collected in the Smart Village is monitored in real time.

Drone view of the Busan Eco Delta Smart Village (K-water)

Involving Citizens in Test-Bedding Solutions

There are over 40 innovative technologies and services introduced into the Smart Village, including net-zero houses, smart home appliances with personalised real-time health care services, and an AI-operated gym and café. The essence of the project is that it will be shaped by the residents’ interaction with the state-of-the-art technologies and services provided, as the data collected will be used to assess and validate if they can be applied throughout the Busan EDC. Hence, much of the future plans for the Busan EDC will depend on this citizen participation.

The residents are selected on a voluntary basis and get to live rent-free for three years, with an option to extend their stay for two more years, in exchange for their feedback and the collection of data ranging from their energy consumption patterns to health, home appliances usage and other behavioural information. Regular monthly meetings are held, gathering all stakeholders from the public and the private sector, including K-water as the government administrative body, private companies such as Samsung Electronics, experts from universities, as well as the residents, to discuss progress, satisfaction levels and potential improvements. As the project has progressed, residents have also taken initiative to propose and implement their own smart solutions within the village. This bottom-up approach empowers the residents to contribute their skills, expertise and creativity to enhance the smart village concept further.

Conclusion

The Busan EDC and Smart Village pioneer an innovative approach that harnesses citizen participation to cultivate a Smart City that authentically caters to residents’ needs and lifestyle preferences. This initiative represents an experimental and iterative process, gauging resident feedback on technologies and services while guiding government and private sectors towards more efficient infrastructure and service delivery. The ultimate aim is a future Smart City that is both liveable and sustainable.