Secrets to Solving Neighborhood Inconveniences in Seocho-gu?... Living Lab

Seocho-gu Recruiting Project Teams for ‘2023 Seocho Smart City Living Lab’ until May 10... Solving Neighborhood Issues with Smart Technology

‘Visiting Expert Mentoring Service’ Provided to 6 Selected Projects, Outstanding Projects to be Demonstrated and Piloted Next Year

District Currently Demonstrating Last Year’s Outstanding Projects... ‘Fire Response System’ and ‘Poobox Installation Project’

Seocho-gu (Mayor Jeon Seong-su) is recruiting project teams for the ‘2023 Seocho Smart City Living Lab’ from May 1 to 10, aiming to solve urban problems felt directly by residents through smart technology.

The Living Lab means a ‘laboratory in daily life,’ where residents actively participate in discovering problems arising in daily life, defining issues, and deriving improvement measures in a resident-led participatory project.

Accordingly, the district has been conducting this project since last year to provide life-centered smart city services through residents’ voluntary participation in the policy-making process.

The recruitment target is teams of 5 to 10 members consisting of residents interested in the district’s smart city policies, local workers, and students.

The call for projects is divided into ‘designated tasks’ and ‘free tasks.’ The designated tasks include issues frequently encountered by residents in daily life, such as improving the environment of alleys in front of homes, creating safe parks, and solving noise problems using digital technology.

For free tasks, teams can freely propose neighborhood issues they want to solve by applying smart technology or projects that can improve residents’ lives.

Smart City Living Lab Performance Sharing Meeting Held in October Last Year

The district will first conduct a document review to select 12 teams, then select the final 6 teams through a second presentation evaluation. The 6 final teams will derive smart city service models that solve local issues felt by residents starting in June.

The district operates a Living Lab specialized secretariat to provide overall services for the Living Lab projects, including consulting on proposed ideas. Selected project teams will receive operating expenses and ‘visiting expert mentoring services by field’ to help derive problem-solving measures.

In the second half of the year, a performance sharing meeting will be held to select and award outstanding project teams, and the selected outstanding projects will be enabled for demonstration and pilot operation next year.

Applicants can download the application form from the Seocho-gu Office website notice board and submit it via email to the Living Lab operation secretariat. For other inquiries, contact the operation secretariat or Seocho-gu Smart City Division.

Meanwhile, the district is reflecting the budget and demonstrating projects selected as outstanding Living Lab projects last year. These include the ‘Fire Response System Construction Project,’ which implements fire extinguisher locations on the Smart City app for easy finding, and the ‘Poobox and Snack Factory Installation Project,’ which installs Pooboxes in parks frequently used for dog walking.

Jeon Seong-su, Mayor of Seocho-gu, said, “The Living Lab project is a form of grassroots democracy where residents actively solve local problems experienced in daily life using smart technology,” adding, “We will continue to actively support so that brilliant policies created directly by residents are reflected throughout district administration.”

4th Nowon Youth Policy Network Inauguration Ceremony Held

Nowon-gu (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) held the ‘4th Nowon Youth Policy Network Inauguration Ceremony’ at 4 p.m. on the 29th in the large auditorium on the 2nd floor of Nowon-gu Office.

The Nowon Youth Policy Network is a youth participation organization representing Nowon-gu, which started in 2020 and is now in its 4th year. Youth committee members identify youth issues through regular meetings by division and propose policies to Seoul City and Nowon-gu.

This year, the 4th term will have a total of 68 youth committee members participating, operating 4 divisions according to their interests.

Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, said, “We have reflected projects proposed by the 3rd term youth committee such as ‘Our Neighborhood Housing Defense Corps’ and ‘Youth Earth Life Guide Project’ in district administration, and we will strive to actively reflect the proposals of this 4th term as well,” adding, “We will work through public-private cooperation to make Nowon a place where youth want to stay.”

Jung-gu, Seoul to Begin Pedestrian Environment Improvement Construction in Crowded Areas such as Myeongdong, Namsan Park, and Seoul Station in May

Special Grant of 2.67 Billion KRW, Safety Management Plan Establishment and Safety Facility Supplementation to be Promoted

Efficiency Increased by Integrated Ordering of Similar Projects Including Crowd Density Simulation and Intelligent CCTV Installation

Jung-gu, Seoul (Mayor Kim Gil-seong) will improve the pedestrian environment in areas with heavy crowds within this year to prevent safety accidents.

After the Itaewon tragedy last year, Seoul City and the district conducted a full survey of densely crowded areas and selected 50 tourist special zones and commercial districts with high accident risk. A joint investigation then identified areas requiring pedestrian environment improvement around Myeongdong tourist special zone, Namsan Park, and Seoul Station.

Subsequently, the district received a special adjustment grant of 2.67 billion KRW from the city and integrated ordering of projects related to safety accident prevention, including crowd density simulation, installation of intelligent CCTV and auxiliary facilities in Myeongdong area, pedestrian environment improvement, and safety facility supplementation, reducing administrative waste.

Kim Gil-seong, Mayor of Jung-gu

Among them, road pedestrian environment improvement construction is scheduled to begin in May in the Myeongdong area. After road maintenance and anti-slip pavement work are completed, people will be able to walk safely even when crowds gather. Additionally, using crowd density simulation is expected to enable proactive accident prevention.

Kim Gil-seong, Mayor of Jung-gu, said, “Myeongdong and Namsan are bustling again with returning tourists,” adding, “Jung-gu will thoroughly remove road hazards and supplement safety facilities so that more people can stay without anxiety about safety accidents.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.