How Smart City Solutions Help Government in a Battle with Covid-19
Initially identified in China, the new coronavirus disease outbreak is continuing to grow more than 3 months after it was first detected in December last year. Given the official name of Covid-19, coronavirus has infected more than 2 million people in more than 200 countries and regions across the globe, with more than 126.000 deaths have occurred as per mid of April 2020.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in Indonesia continues to rise. All the government efforts to flatten the curve hasn’t shown significant result. In some cases, some people under surveillance (ODP), or even patient under treatment (PDP), tried to get out from hospital quarantine and it would bring more Covid-19 cases to the communities. They run because of lack information about Covid-19 from the government. The pandemic has also hit the economy of Indonesia, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected worst economic fallout since The Great Depression.
With the destructive power of Covid-19, every element of the society, both citizens and volunteers, must work together to help others. The government has set a budget of Rp110 trillion for a social safety net for citizens who are vulnerable to the economic impact of Covid-19. On the other hand, this large amount of fund requires accurate data on the grassroot level to ensure the fund disbursement accuracy and to avoid corruption.
This is where the role of smart city technologies play an important role. The technologies that combine citizen reporting and AI-based sensors will help the government in formulating data-based decisions to cope with the pandemic based on the real situation on the field. The transparent, quick and accurate decisions will also make the communities calm down and help them get through this pandemic situation.
Neighborhood leader (Ketua RT) as the lowest community organization in the country, is the person who understands the most of its communities’ condition. They can report various data, such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) players, informal sector workers, or even workers who have been laid off by their companies. They can report it directly to the government in real-time and accurate manner. Then, the report can be integrated with existing reporting citizen applications to cut-off the government bureaucracy which has been an obstacle for the distribution of the aid. Both local and central governments can access the same data bucket as it is an integrated data.
Reports from the neighborhood leaders are important data for the government as it can help them to map the areas impacted by Covid-19. By mapping the problems, government can distribute the aid properly and accurately, based on each areas’ needs. The data will be visualized in an integrated dashboard that can help the efficiency and effectiveness of non-medical volunteers (workforce) on the field to conduct verification and distribute the aid right on the target. Volunteers on the field are also equipped with an application that is also connected directly to the same dashboard.
In addition, the smart city platforms will enable the government to use CCTV as an automatic sensor to provide reports. For example, the computer vision engine developed by Qlue enables CCTV to be a sensor by enabling them to recognize face and analyze crowds. This capability can be integrated with various data, like Covid-19 patients data, population data, and civil records owned by the government. By integrating Covid-19 patient data with computer vision, the government can act quickly if there is a Covid-19 patient who escapes the quarantine. It will also send notification to the security guard’s smartphone, so they can respond to the problem in a timely manner.
Enhancing CCTV capabilities with AI computer vision will also enable CCTV to detect crowds automatically. With the vision-to-speech system that is also integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT)-based speakers, it will have the ability to give warning to the crowd automatically. Other than that, the CCTV will also send notification to the nearest security officer, who will disperse the crowd directly.
On the other hand, a smart city platform will also allow people who undergo a self-quarantine to give periodic updates that can be monitored by the government. By providing citizens a GIS-based application, citizens can provide daily reports about their conditions, and can immediately provide alerts to the government if their conditions are getting worse.
At the end of the day, smart city platforms and solutions will help the government to effectively reduce the spread of Covid-19 by leveraging data and AI-based sensors. Both regional and central governments should be able to implement the technologies quickly to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The transparent and reliable data will recover or gain the public trust, which has been decreasing since the first Covid-19 case was occurred in Indonesia. Covid-19, inevitably, will encourage city transformation and smart city technologies implementation faster, which will lead to Indonesia smart nation.
