To celebrate the influential smart cities worldwide, Smart Cities Connect started to hold the annual event of “Smart 50 Awards” in 2018. Taichung City, which joined the 2022 Smart 50 Awards with “Air Quality Sensor IoT”, has a blockbuster result this year! It stood out from almost 200 applicants around the world and received the honor of the “Smart 50 Awards”. The city not only bravely stepped out of Taiwan to participate in an international competition, but also became the only East Asian city that received the award.
The Environmental Protection Bureau expresses that, after taking up her official post, Mayor Lu Shiow-yen has launched the “Blue Sky White Cloud Action Plan”, which aims to improve the air quality in all aspects with emphasis on open and transparent information. Even at the quarterly air-pollution improvement meeting hosted, she demanded officials to break the technical bottleneck of fire hazard point monitoring. This Action Plan has not only received international recognition, but also demonstrated the best model for cooperation and collaboration between and within bureaus and departments. Considering epidemic control measures for the awarding ceremony in the U.S., Deputy Mayor Linghu Jung-da has given special instructions and assisted in the coordination. Taichung City Government also would like to thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago for their full assistance. Yesterday (the 4th), Director of Economic Division Cheng Chin-Sung attended the Smart 50 Awards awarding ceremony held in Columbus, Ohio State, U.S., and received the award on behalf of Taichung City.
The Bureau further expresses that the assessment criteria of the “Smart 50 Awards” include the content of the project plan and the value and benefits for the city after implementation. Taichung City participated in the competition with the “Air Quality Sensor IoT” and its environmental governance results. That is, the city has combined its existing air quality sensor network with the Internet of Things (IoT) technology to bring the value of multiple applications into play, enabling the visualization of air quality information in real-time, tracking the scale of major air pollution incidents and pinpointing the pollution sources in industrial zones. This action plan has been highly recognized by the international jury panel and has become a winner in the 2022 Smart 50 Awards.
The Environmental Protection Bureau explains that TaichungCity already established an air quality sensor network with 1,411 sensors, which is higher than the number for any other county or city. and succeeded in optimizing the advantages and benefits of air quality network monitoring. Having it integrated with the IoT technology, the “Air Quality Sensor IoT” platform has adopted the major case handling technology from the police department to facilitate the city’s air quality management and smart enforcement. Last year, the platform even provided information on the real-time status of major fire incidents, and, under the collaboration with the fire bureau, analyzed their influence on the air quality for more than 40 instances. It also investigated over 30 air pollution cases and imposed penalties on the responsible entities (with a total amount of over NTD 10 million) accordingly. Due to the outstanding performance of this platform, Taichung City was also invited by the Environmental Protection Administration last November to share this experience with other counties and cities at the Air Quality Sensor IoT joint meeting and exchange activities. The recognition of “Smart 50 Awards” this time indicates that Taichung City’s Air Quality Sensor IoT has an outstanding performance not only within the country but also on the world stage. It proves that Taichung is a world-class Smart City with excellence in environmental technology governance.