The National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation (NASG, formerly known as SBSM) yesterday announced a Smart City pilot program with nine cities throughout China.
The nine cities mentioned are Taiyuan, Guangzhou, Xuzhou, Wuxi, Linyi, Zibo, Zhengzhou, Henan, Chongqing, and Huhan. Li Weisen, deputy director of NASG believes that “the first nine cities are expected to finish Smart City construction within about three years”. Every pilot city will reportedly invest more than CNY 36 mln yuan in the program each year.
The Smart City program aims to solve current urban challenges such as traffic congestion and pollution through the use of technology in the design and operation of infrastructure and buildings.
Although the source article (China Daily) does not mention specific details, the fact that the NASG is behind this pilot program leads one to believe that the geospatial information infrastructure will play an important role in the aforementioned cities. This is confirmed in this Chinese language news article on NASG’s website.
Earlier this year NASG signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Dutch Kadaster in which both parties agreed to explore collaboration on geo-information (see earlier post here).