Shanghai subdistrict moves to improve urban management

The Guangfulin subdistrict in Shanghai's Songjiang district signed a collaboration agreement with Tencent Cloud and another Shanghai enterprise specializing in information infrastructure on Monday.

The collaboration will allow the subdistrict to better leverage artificial intelligence and big data-powered technologies to promote the digital transformation of the government's urban management, which would in turn elevate the quality of life of residents.

The use of these technologies is expected to improve the management of several scenarios, such as the monitoring of kitchen hygiene in restaurants, ensuring campus safety, preventing riverway pollution and discovering incidents that pose a threat to public order, according to the two companies.

For example, an AI-powered system could be deployed to spot illegal vendors on the street. As soon as the system detects such a violation, it would immediately send an alert to an integrated governance platform and notify relevant government workers to handle the matter, Tencent Cloud said.

The technologies will first be used on a trial basis, and could be extended to cover the entire district if they prove successful.

Wu Liang, technical director of the solution platform department of Tencent Cloud East China, said that giving different government departments access to the smart management platform would help them learn from one another.

Wu added that Shanghai is a pioneer in the development of smart urban management in the country.

"Government officials in Shanghai focus on how technologies can help solve problems and improve the response time to incidents with the ultimate goal of refining urban management," he said.

"Also, they have an open mind when it comes to using new technologies such as AI and sensing equipment."