3 Smart City Initiatives You Didn’t Know Were Already In Place In Selangor
All through technology!
By John Lim — 12 Sep 2017, 05:43 PM
Did you know you could report annoying potholes to the Selangor government on Waze?
Since October 2016, Selangor motorists could file complaints on potholes via Waze, through a collaboration between Selangor local authorities and Google Asia Pacific under the Waze Connected Citizen Programme.
The partnership was a no-brainer. Waze is one of the most popular apps among Malaysians and potholes, well, they're pretty much everywhere.
Almost a year later since its inception, the response has been great and repair effciences have improved vastly, according to Smart Selangor delivery unit deputy director Dr Fahmi Ngah
Smart Selangor delivery unit deputy director Dr Fahmi Ngah giving his keynote speech.
Image via SAYS"We're making some good progress. From Feb 2017 to July 2017, 5173 valid reports were received. About half were resolved within 5 days," he said during his keynote speech at the Selangor Smart City & Future Commerce convention last weekend.
The three-day event focused on how smart and digital technologies are transforming major cities around the world. It also touched on how the state of Selangor can benefit from the ever-changing tech landscape.
1. Smart Well-Being monitors air quality around Klang Valley
The Selangor state government has been keeping a closer eye on the air quality index around Klang Valley through its air quality monitors.
"We've partnered with the Federal government to acquire real-time statistics so we can investigate on peak pollution periods more precisely. This data will be made public soon," he added.
An order of 80 air quality monitors have also been placed by the state government and they're expected to be up and running by end of this month.
2. Smart Transport & Mobility provides free rides in Wi-Fi enabled buses
The Selangor Smart Bus provides free bus rides to residents living in Shah Alam, Subang Jaya, Klang, and most recently, Balakong.
The air-conditioned buses come with CCTV for security, are disabled friendly, and even offer free Wi-Fi.
Dr Fahmi added that a dedicated app that can monitor bus arrivals and departures is currently under development.
3. Smart Waste Management reduces landfills through crowdsourcing and drone surveillance
The Smart Waste Management system kicked off in Klang last year and it aims to solve the ongoing waste collection issue.
"We were initially getting 50 to 90 complaints, a day, when we started and our staff worked day and night to address each one," Dr Fahmi said.
The system has expanded to Ampang and Selayang in March this year. The latter has since witnessed a significant decrease in landfills and wastes in its residential areas.
Besides that, drones have been deployed to scout areas like forests and lakes for rubbish. It's also a tool that can be used to investigate cases of open burning and illegal dumping.
While the initiatives mentioned above are still in the stage of fine-tuning, Dr Fahmi is optimistic that Selangor can become a "smart state" by 2025
"Our vision is to become the premier smart state in ASEAN by 2025," he noted.
In his closing, Dr Fahmi added that more initiatives including a traffic light fault reporting app, are currently in the works and Selangorians should keep their eyes peeled for more updates and news.