Seoul's drainage tunnel safety tech wins Sustainable Award in Kuala Lumpur

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Tue, December 6, 2022 | 19:22

Foreign Affairs

Seoul's drainage tunnel safety tech wins Sustainable Award in Kuala Lumpur

Posted : 2022-09-28 09:59

Updated : 2022-09-28 18:18

An applied technology by Seoul Digital Foundation and Information System Division under the Seoul Metropolitan Government enables automatic detection of problems in an underground drainage system. Courtesy of Seoul Digital Foundation

By Ko Dong-hwan

A technology that can detect problems in a drainage tunnel system beneath Seoul has won an international award in Kuala Lumpur that honors the most sustainable development growth ideas in Asia-Pacific cities.

The AI technology, currently in use, won the top prize at the 2022 SDG Awards, which were part of the 9th CityNet Congress held in the Malaysian capital from Sept. 20 to 23. CityNet is an association of urban stakeholders committed to sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region. Established in 1987 by the United Nations, the international association has grown to include over 173 municipalities, NGOs, private companies and research centers. It purports to promote the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted unanimously by the U.N. member states in 2015 to promote global peace and prosperity.

The technology, realized by Seoul Digital Foundation, is an application of an existing algorithm that is based on convolution neural network (CNN), a class of artificial neural network most commonly applied to analyze visual imagery, according to Ko Seol-tae, a researcher at the foundation.

The AI technology allows an unmanned robotic vehicle equipped with a camera to move around inside a drainage tunnel, detect irregularities and send video to the robot's controller. Courtesy of Seoul Digital Foundation

The applied technology was developed jointly by the foundation and Information System Division under the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Smart City Policy Bureau last December. Through video cameras installed in unmanned robotic vehicles deployed inside tunnels, the technology can automatically detect 20 types of defects and relays its findings to the robot's controller. The technology can discern whether underground soil has been contaminated by hazardous waste, whether earth is unstable and could cause surface instability, and detect certain underground conditions that might create a sinkhole. The city government said such discoveries can lower the risks of safety accidents.

"The technology attracted lots of attention from Asia-Pacific city governments and their bureaus related to drainage systems during the award ceremony, as most cities in the region suffer from weak drainable infrastructure (compared to other regions in the world)," said the foundation's President Kang Yo-shik who visited Kuala Lumpur to attend the event.

Earlier this month, Kang flew to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to deliver a keynote speech about the technology during the Global AI Summit from Sept. 13 to 15, promoting it as a success case for AI application for public purposes. In June, the technology also won an Intelligence Award, jointly hosted by the Korea Intelligent Information System Society and Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Seoul Digital Foundation President Kang Yo-shik, front left, receives a prize from CityNet special adviser Mary Jane Ortega, during the 9th CityNet Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, held Sept. 20 to 23. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

"We are proud to introduce Seoul's superior capability of applied technology at CityNet, the world's largest network connecting cities in Asia-Pacific," said Kang, who leads the foundation launched in 2016 by the Seoul city government to research digital technologies for improving quality of living in the city. "We will keep promoting our latest applied technologies to Asia-Pacific cities and furthermore help our local companies extend their business platforms to overseas."

Seoul currently chairs CityNet, which hosts a quadrennial general assembly.

CityNet said that prior to the award, its member groups submitted 400 case studies for its Urban SDG Knowledge Platform's Case Study Database, a figure CityNet representatives dubbed an "extraordinary achievement for the network." Among them, 50 nominations were selected by the CityNet Secretariat for the award. Twelve were chosen as semifinalists, and three of those were selected as final winners in a vote by CityNet members during the congress. Alongside Seoul's AI drainage technology, a sustainable development center in Kuala Lumpur and a village in Kota Aur in the Malaysian state of Penang won the final prizes as well.

Apart from the award-winning case study, Seoul Digital Foundation also introduced during the congress a metaverse version of Seoul now under work. The city government said it is the world's first city-scale metaverse built to represent an entire metropolis. The foundation also shared with the congress a list of metaverse platforms it is currently working on.

aoshima11@koreatimes.co.kr Article List