The Korean city of Daegu is joining Bloomberg Philanthropies' Global Mayors Challenge that has been held since 2013 to stimulate urban innovation. This year's theme is innovative policies of cities around the world to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, and 631 metropolises in 99 countries are vying for the accolade.
Daegu in southeastern Korea has proposed its "Re-Permissioning the City" policy for the challenge. The crux of the policy is to connect public spaces both indoors and outdoors using smart technologies that are left idling so that people can use them, breathing new life into urban areas.
Residents are able to obtain information on a wide range of public spaces and apply to use those that fit their purposes, while a chatbot enables applications and authorizations to be made in real time. Each public space is equipped with IoT sensors that provide data on noise levels, crowd sizes and visitor numbers.
The project has already attracted widespread attention.
