Shenzhen stood out among 429 cities from 64 countries and regions, winning the prestigious "City Award," the top prize of the World Smart City Awards, at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona on Nov.7 (Beijing Time).
The award highlights China's outstanding strength and immense potential in smart city construction.The "City Award" is awarded to only one city worldwide each year. The World Smart City Awards also include "Innovation Award," "Industry Theme Category Award" and "Leadership Award."
Shan Zhiguang, director of the Information and Industrial Development Department of the National Information Center and director of the Smart City Development Research Center, said the Global Smart City Awards is regarded as the "Oscar" in the field of smart cities by the industry. “Shenzhen's winning of this award reflects the international community's high recognition of Shenzhen's smart city construction and its achievements in digitalization and intelligent transformation,” said Shan.
The Smart City Expo World Congress, the largest event focusing on urban and societal smart development and transformation globally, has been held for 14 consecutive years since 2011. It received support from international and regional organizations such as UN-Habitat, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, C40, and the EU in parallel forums and activities, publicity, brand cooperation, and organizing exhibition groups. The three-day congress, under the theme "Live Better," attracted delegations from 850 cities representing 146 countries.
The congress recognized that Shenzhen has comprehensively showcased its innovations and excellent solutions in key areas such as enabling technologies, transportation, energy and environment, governance, industry and economy, livability and inclusiveness, infrastructure and construction. With its unique urban development concepts, Shenzhen has created an intelligent and human-centered digital city.
In recent years, Shenzhen has steadily pushed forward the construction of a digital twin city and artificial intelligence and strives to create scenarios for smart technology applications throughout the city. In terms of administrative services, the "i深圳" app allows users to enjoy the benefits of a smart city by handling their personal businesses online. The international version of the app offers services in nine languages that include policy updates, city information, travel and foreigner-related administrative services. The app now has over 20 million registered users and has provided 7 billion services. Regarding urban governance, Shenzhen has established a city-wide digital twin base, integrating detailed BIM models of nearly 10,000 key buildings to establish a data system for digital twins. Over 200 twin application scenarios, including those for water treatment, power supply and storage, and Metro line planning have been developed. The digital twins have been used in Houhai, Xiangmihu, and Guangming Science City to visually present complex vertical and underground spatial planning and assist in urban landscape designs.
