Revisit The Values of Songdo Smart City
South Korea’s recognition as a leader in smart cities is largely thanks to Songdo Smart City, officially named as Songdo International City, not Seoul. Located on the southwest coastline of Incheon, Songdo Smart City houses approximately 210,000 residents and is directly accessible from Incheon International Airport via the 21km long Incheon Bridge. However, Songdo Smart City has been often criticized in the media for lacking distinct smart city features. It is my assessment that this misunderstanding stems from a lack of comprehensive understanding of Songdo Smart City’s historical significance from the perspective of smart city development. So, in this newsletter, I aim to emphasize the values of Songdo Smart City as a prime exemplar of smart cities.
1. A City Built From Scratch
As many are aware, Songdo Smart City is a newly constructed urban area situated on a vast expanse of land reclaimed through landfill. Originally, this area was tidal flats that sustained the livelihoods of local residents. Spanning 53.4 square kilometers, the project can be likened to creating a city nearly the size of Manhattan from scratch. Incheon, the city where Songdo Smart City is situated, boasts a coastal location with a port. Its western coast, facing the sea, features shallow waters and substantial tidal variations, rendering it ideal for reclamation projects. With the initiation of reclamation projects in 1994, the plan for Songdo New City began to take shape. Construction started in 2003, and Songdo Smart City, still under development with a target completion date of 2025, currently has a population of about 210,000. While projects like Neom, being built in the desert today, share similarities, the significance of Songdo New City lies in the fact that it was planned 30 years ago when Korea’s per capita GDP was less than $2,000.
2. Local Government-led Development Initiative
Today, new city development projects, including Neom, are generally led by the central government. However, Songdo Smart City stands out as an exception. The concept of Songdo new city development project originated from a proposal by a local consulting firm during the urban development strategy formulation process led by the city of Incheon in the late 1970s. Subsequently, the Incheon Administration devoted significant efforts to realize the so-called New Songdo development project. The securing of budgets necessary for reclamation and landfill construction projects, as well as efforts to attract global investments like Gale International, were predominantly spearheaded by the Incheon Administration. In the process of realizing the New Songdo City project, numerous challenges emerged, including the pressure of central government policies aimed at controlling overpopulation in the Greater Seoul region and national financial crises such as the IMF Crisis in 1997. Despite these obstacles, the Incheon Administration persevered, actively persuading central government agencies and attracting investments, ultimately achieving success with the project.
3. World Largest Private Real Estate Development
The Incheon City Administration sold approximately 12 square kilometers of the 52 square kilometer area designated for the International Business District of Songdo Smart City to Gale International and POSCO E&C. Thanks to Gale International’s involvement, the city of Incheon was able to alleviate the financial burden of Songdo Smart City development. Additionally, with the participation of global architectural firms such as OMA and KPF, Songdo Smart City could adopt a Western-style brand new city model, including features like Central Park and pedestrian streets, which were previously unimaginable in South Korea. In this process, Songdo Smart City was equipped with three SPC companies. The first was New Songdo International City Development LLC (NSIC), established through equity investment by Gale International and POSCO E&C, responsible for business development, architecture, fundraising, and real estate sales. The second is u.Life Solutions LLC, responsible for the construction and operation of ICT infrastructure within Songdo IBD. The third is Incheon Smart City Corporation, a government-funded agency responsible for operating, innovating, and enhancing public urban infrastructure within Songdo Smart City, including Songdo IBD. Ultimately, the unprecedented nature of private-led Songdo Smart City development prompted active consideration for the roles and governance mechanisms of both the private and public sectors in urban development and the establishment and operation of smart services. This experience can certainly serve as a governance model worth referencing for new city development projects.
4. The Origin of Smart City Model Concept
Songdo Smart City marked the pioneering journey toward proactively envisioning a city integrated with advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs). In the early 2000s, the then-mayor of Incheon, Ki-sun Choi, a visionary leader who played a pivotal role in shaping Incheon into its current form and whom I deeply respect, designated the Songdo landfill site for what he termed “a tele-port city” — a futuristic urban center propelled by ICTs. This decision posed a challenge to local research institutions and government officials in the Incheon municipality, prompting them to deliberate on how to materialize a futuristic city with ICTs. Through this process, terms like “ubiquitous-city (or u-city)” emerged, considered as the precursor to the Korean smart city model, catalyzing the development of associated research, industry, and regulatory frameworks.
5. The initiative that ignites the IT sectors’ interest in urban development field
As the vision for Songdo Smart City took shape, it naturally attracted IT companies eager to contribute to the concept of a futuristic smart city. From the earliest stages of urban planning for Songdo Smart City development, companies such as Samsung SDS and LGCNS (recognized for their roles akin to IBM in the Korean IT market), along with South Korea’s major telecommunications company KT, played active roles. Even global IT giants like Cisco joined this collaborative effort by investing u.life solutions LLC. Through their involvement in the Songdo Smart City project, IT firms recognized the potential of the urban development sector as a promising new business frontier. This prompted them to establish dedicated departments or units for business development and sales in the smart city field. In this regard, I believe that Songdo Smart City has been instrumental in encouraging the active participation of IT companies in the smart city industry today.
6. A Pioneer in the global adoption of smart city platforms
Songdo Smart City has been a pioneer in the global adoption of smart city platforms — integrated systems capable of monitoring, analyzing, and responding to urban events in real-time. Similar to the IBM-built Integrated Operations Center (IOC) platform in Rio de Janeiro, Songdo’s Smart City platform began operations in 2012. The effectiveness of these platforms, evidenced by reduced crime detection times and swift responses to incidents like wildfires, was demonstrated in Songdo and other pilot cities. In response, the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport allocated budgets and implemented programs to promote the adoption of smart city platforms in Korean cities. Today, integrated control centers resembling Songdo’s are operational in 108 Korean local governments, with overseas exports also underway.
[This article was taken from the Sparkcity newsletter post on LinkedIn]
