Donghae, a city known for international trade, advanced technology and tourism, is moving to build a smart city with state backing.
Donghae has been selected for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's small-scale smart city development project, securing 8 billion won ($5.78 million) in national funding and setting the total project budget at 16 billion won. Work is set to begin in early next year.
According to the city Tuesday, the project aims to introduce smart technologies tailored to local conditions and urban challenges to improve residents' quality of life and boost the city's competitiveness.
In transportation, AI and IoT (Internet of Things) technologies will be deployed to manage traffic flow more efficiently, with smart services extended to public safety functions such as emergency vehicle routing and road hazard monitoring.
Donghae plans to roll out advanced mobility services in stages, covering autonomous driving demand-responsive transit, or DRT; customized DRT and purpose-built vehicles, or PBV; virtual stations; adaptive intelligent traffic signals; real-time urban data collection and analysis; and a traffic policy decision-support platform.
Donghae is focusing on building a future-oriented transportation network centered on National Route 7, connecting residential areas, tourist destinations and industrial hubs.
The project gives particular attention to the city's elongated north-south layout and its heavy reliance on National Route 7, aiming to improve mobility for transportation-disadvantaged residents and tourists while enhancing access between key residential, tourism and industrial nodes.
In the project's first year, 2027, a total of 900 million won — including 450 million won in national funds — will be invested to lay the groundwork through detailed design work, field surveys, consultations with relevant agencies and the drafting of a detailed implementation plan. Infrastructure and services will then be built out on an annual basis.
The city expects the project to benefit local commerce and tourism by making it easier for residents and visitors to move around and reach key destinations.
"Securing 8 billion won in national funding through this project selection has laid the foundation for Donghae to transition into a future-oriented smart mobility city," said Lee In-seop, the city's safety division chief. "Starting with detailed design work in 2027, we will build smart mobility services suited to Donghae's urban structure and transportation characteristics in stages, creating a city where daily life, tourism and industry are more conveniently connected."
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