"Smartly Solving Island Issues"… Presenting the 'Smart Island Development Strategy'

Concept Establishment and ICT Technology Utilization... Contributing to Improving Quality of Life for Island Residents

Directions Including Smart Transformation, Sustainability, and Community-Based Projects

Odongho, Director of Korea Island

A so-called ‘Smart Island Development Strategy’ has been proposed to smartly solve the problems of island regions.

According to the Korea Island Development Institute (KIDI, Director Oh Dong-ho) on the 14th, the ‘Smart Island Development Plan Study’ is a 2023 policy research project prepared to contribute to improving the quality of life of island residents.

‘Smart Island’ refers to a smartization strategy using ICT technology as a means of new policies and new technologies.

The space called ‘island’ is a region surrounded by the sea and geographically separated from the mainland, making it difficult to receive adequate public services.

Therefore, to overcome the negative elements of islands, new response measures such as ‘Smart Island’ are necessary.

The ‘Smart Island Development Plan Study’ is significant in that it applied ICT-based smart technology as a means to assign new functions and values to the space of islands, expanding the discussion of ‘Smart City’ to islands.

In particular, it has attracted attention by taking an in-depth look at overseas smart island cases and presenting alternatives for the domestic concept and application of ‘Smart Island’ through this.

First, through this study, the similar concepts of smartization strategies and discussions on smart island strategies were analyzed in depth to establish the concept of ‘Smart Island.’

KIDI defined ‘Smart Island’ as a new development strategy for island regions based on spatial planning that contributes to improving the quality of life of island residents and regional promotion by smartly solving problems considering the region’s characteristics, resources, infrastructure, environment, etc., according to the unique features of islands.

The values to be considered were presented as flexibility, participation and cooperation, social and technological innovation, and inclusiveness. Also noteworthy is that, considering the characteristics of island regions, the study suggested the direction of development strategies for the successful promotion of ‘Smart Island.’

KIDI proposed the direction of development strategies as smart transition, sustainability, community-based project promotion, and place-based spatial planning approaches.

To realize this, three elements are expected to be necessary: technological innovation through the use of new ICT technologies, customized regulatory innovation suitable for island characteristics, and social innovation responding to rapid changes in social communities.

Next, the ‘Smart Island Development Strategy’ was also presented. It suggested introducing the concept of a foundational ‘standard framework’ that classifies island types and proposes necessary technologies that can be selectively utilized.

The legal system review has also been completed. As a result of reviewing technology and legal systems for promoting smart islands, the environment was found to be established. This is because not only has the scope of projects expanded due to the revision of the Smart City Act, but also the regulatory sandbox system is being operated.

Oh Dong-ho, Director of KIDI, said, “For the smart island strategy to establish itself as a new development strategy, the roles of various entities such as the central government, local governments, and the private sector are important,” adding, “I hope that through Smart Islands, spaces that were previously marginalized will shine in all aspects including social, technological, economic, environmental, and policy.”

Meanwhile, the ‘Smart Island Development Plan Study’ is KIDI’s best research project of 2023. The principal researcher of the study was Associate Researcher Kim Jae-ho of the Information and Statistics Team, and researchers Jang Su-min and Kim Sung-eun participated in the research.

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