Smart platform lets residents help improve city management

"Every day we receive thousands of phone calls, sometime as many as 10,000 a day, a growth of 6.1 times year-on-year from local residents, voicing their complaints or giving suggestions to help solve specific problems in urban management, such as solutions to traffic jams, environmental protection and garbage disposal," said Wu Qiuyun, deputy secretary-general of Haikou, which is the island province's capital city.

The city started to build its smart city management platform with the hotline number 12345 in 2017. The platform, which also is a digital center, integrates all information and data from government departments, such as real time traffic conditions and the location of potential safety hazards at construction sites or gas stations. All the data are visualized with real time videos.

It is also a call platform to receive residents and tourists' complaints and suggestions for the city's urban management and accepts emergency calls.

Linked to 83 city government departments, top local officials and staff workers in every corner of the communities, the platform can quickly respond to a report within 30 minutes. The goal is to respond to the call and send feedback to the person who reported the situation within two days.

The smart system also monitors reservoir water levels and locates buses and other vehicles carrying dangerous materials to help lower potential risks. The platform, with more than 100 staff workers, provides 24-hour service every day of the year. The system also has been introduced to help build smart communities in the city, and is now piloted in two local communities.