Seoul City Holds First Creative Policy Presentation of Ninth Elected Administration... AI Searches for Han River Jumpers

Seeking "A Special City for Quality of Life" Through Public Employees' Ideas
"A Vibrant Economy Around the Clock" and "Administrative Innovation through AI"< br>Experts, Citizens and Employees Join On-Site Evaluation Panel

At the Seoul City Creative Policy Presentation, a "rapid rescue model" was proposed in which artificial intelligence (AI) detects the sound of someone falling into the water and an AI drone is dispatched to the scene to rescue people who jump into the Han River. The event is a forum where Seoul City employees propose policies and citizens evaluate them.

On the morning of November 9, Seoul City held its first Creative Policy Presentation under its ninth popularly elected administration at Seoul City Hall. The city announced eight selected proposals out of 699 submitted by employees and selected outstanding proposals through an on-site evaluation panel made up of experts, citizens and employees.

Since introducing "Creative Administration" in 2023, Seoul City has connected employees' on-the-ground experience and fresh ideas to improvements in administrative services. At this year's presentation, the city sought policy solutions to improve citizens' quality of life under the themes of "A Vibrant Economy Around the Clock" and "Administrative Innovation through AI and Big Data."

In the nighttime economy sector, the proposals included: ▲ "Turning 24-Hour Convenience Stores into Night Tourism Hubs" (using convenience stores as nighttime tourism information centers for foreign visitors, also helping them get home safely); ▲ "A Workation Village in a Hanok Village" (creating a "workation village in the city" in Eunpyeong-gu's Hanok Village, where people can work and relax); ▲ "Connecting Seoul's Night from Nodeul Island to Its Alleys" (linking Nodeul Global Art Island with the Han River Bus and extending connections to neighborhood commercial districts to boost the nighttime waterfront economy); and ▲ "Crosswalk Signal-Synchronized Lighting" (proposing signal-synchronized lighting as an alternative to existing in-ground crosswalk traffic lights, which are costly and frequently break down).

In the field of administrative innovation through AI and big data, proposals included: ▲ "Pungdung," an AI water-accident rescue service (a rapid rescue model in which AI detects the sound of someone falling into the water and an AI drone is dispatched to the scene to rescue people who jump into the Han River); ▲ "AI Finds Underground Water Leaks" (developing AI technology for precise water-main leak detection using previously collected big data on the sounds of leaks); ▲ "Using Data to Understand Why People Cannot Pay Their Taxes" (identifying households at risk of welfare crises by analyzing big data, including tax delinquency records and social security and health insurance information); and ▲ "Welfare Link Seoul," an AI-powered automatic welfare resource matching system (building an operating system that integrates data on welfare resources, including public welfare services, private donations, volunteer work and care services, and recommends suitable resources to recipients).

From May through August, Seoul City held an open call for proposals among employees of the city, its autonomous districts and its investment- and funding-affiliated institutions. It received a total of 699 proposals and selected eight after internal and expert reviews. The city plans to quickly implement proposals announced at the event that can be put into practice, so that citizens can experience tangible changes in their daily lives.

Since introducing Creative Administration in 2023, Seoul City has held a total of 16 Creative Policy Presentations, including this one. It has gathered a total of 8,700 ideas and selected 156 outstanding proposals, turning them into administrative services that make a tangible difference to citizens. Examples include the first Creative Administration initiative, a transfer fare system that allows passengers to reboard the subway within 15 minutes, and Ongi Warehouse, which helps residents of jjokbangchon (densely populated neighborhoods of tiny single-room dwellings) and had expanded to its fourth location last year. The city's heated bus stop seats, introduced in 2009 as the first local government in the country to offer this transportation welfare service, are also a leading example of Creative Administration.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.