Hwaseong City Presents a Digital-Based Local Problem-Solving Model Involving 'Local Government + Residents + Businesses'

Working Together to Build and Manage Accessibility Facilities Information for the Disabled
Ministerial Award Achieved at Ministry of the Interior and Safety's 'Gonggam e Gadeuk' Performance Report Meeting

The regional problem-solving model proposed by Hwaseong City in Gyeonggi Province is attracting attention. It is evaluated as presenting a new model for solving regional problems by deriving efficient and systematic solutions through the participation of local governments, residents, and companies within the region.

According to Hwaseong City on the 21st, the project titled "Big Data-Based Hwaseong City Barrier-Free Urban Environment Improvement and Establishment," presented by Hwaseong City at the 'Gonggam e-Gadeuk' project performance sharing meeting held the previous day at the Korea Local Information Development Institute in Sangam-dong, Seoul, received the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award.

At the 'Gonggam e Gadeuk' project performance sharing meeting held by the Korea Local Information Development Institute, officials from Hwaseong City who received the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award are taking a commemorative photo. Photo by Hwaseong City

'Gonggam e-Gadeuk,' hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Korea Local Information Development Institute, is a digital-based regional problem-solving contest project. Residents participate throughout the entire process from discovering regional problems to solving them, and local governments and private companies cooperate to seek solutions using digital technology for the discovered regional problems.

Hwaseong City formed a consortium with the cooperative Jageun Siseon, the Korea Spinal Cord Injury Association Gyeonggi Branch Hwaseong City Chapter, and participated in the contest with the task of "Discovering Barrier-Free Stores and Providing Services to Increase Accessibility for Transportation Vulnerable Groups," and was selected. The consortium carried out the project for seven months from May to this month.

Jageun Siseon, the executing organization, built information on restaurants and eateries within Hwaseong City equipped with convenience facilities for the disabled based on public data and web image collection technology it possesses, and displayed it through its own application called 'Wheelchair.' Afterwards, together with the 'Seuseuro Haegyeoldan,' they verified the usability of the constructed data and the accessibility improvement rate due to the provision of convenience facility information. The 'Seuseuro Haegyeoldan' is an execution organization where local residents, information and communication technology (ICT) activists, and local governments collaborate to discover local issues and improve and solve them using digital technology.

In this process, Jageun Siseon provided Hwaseong City with a big data-based solution that can systematically manage and analyze accessibility information for transportation vulnerable groups, establishing a system for the practical improvement of convenience for these groups and helping them easily access information on convenience facilities. The consortium also conducted a collaborative campaign with new employees of Samsung Electronics to supplement and build images that are difficult to collect via the web.

Hwaseong Urban Corporation also participated in problem-solving. By analyzing vehicle dispatch data from the Disabled Mobility Support Center accumulated by the corporation, it was possible to visually identify locations lacking convenience facilities relative to the movement routes of disabled persons.

Jung Myung-geun, mayor of Hwaseong City, said, "This project is a case where residents, companies, and local governments cooperated to solve regional problems experienced by residents based on data," and added, "We will use the results of the contest project to dramatically improve the quality of life and mobility convenience for transportation vulnerable groups."