China's Xiong'an New Area is deploying a future-ready urban management system powered by AI, big data, and cloud computing to schedule street cleaning, monitor household safety, and promote recycling.
Known as "the city of the future," Xiong'an is located about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing and was established in 2017. Directed by its all-in-one platform, workers and officials across the area handle every aspect of urban management with order and efficiency.
From early morning, the platform instructs cleaning crews on when and how to wash roads based on a weather forecast at hundred-meter resolution.
"It all comes as a text from the platform, straight to our phones," a sanitation team leader said.
The care extends to every household. With household data under around-the-clock monitoring, the platform provides instant warnings of abnormalities.
Guided by the platform, a community worker visited a household flagged with surging water and gas usage to eliminate possible safety risks.
"Our system flagged that your water and gas use is way above normal. We were worried that your home might have some kind of leak, or something wrong," the community grid worker told a resident during a home visit.
Luckily, the abnormality was caused only by piled-up chores.
"The kids are home doing laundry, so we use a bit more. The washing machine runs all day," the resident explained.
The platform also offers assistance with waste disposal. Xiong'an's recycling station helps residents sort garbage and records each recycling item. When recyclables generate income, residents receive their share.
"There are two rewards. Cash back comes from the recycler selling what is collected. Green points are the district's reward to residents. I can cash out 17.34 yuan (About 2.60 U.S. dollars) right now," said a staff member with the Urban Management and Comprehensive Law Enforcement Bureau of Xiong'an's Start-up Area.
Behind these micro-level management functions is Xiong'an's physical and digital "city brain" -- the Xiong'an Urban Computing Center. There, AI rolls out street-cleaning plans based on hourly and hundred-meter-level weather forecasts and records everything happening across the area.
"It texts our crews automatically: tomorrow, you can wash the roads from this hour to that," said Lu Quanyan, deputy director of the Administrative Committee of Xiong'an's Start-up Area.
"Grid workers, the 12345 hotline, delivery riders, calls and visits: every case lands on this one platform," added Zhang Ce, head of the Social Work Department of the Administrative Committee of Xiong'an's Start-up Area.
With 1,500 server racks, 120,000 CPU cores, 3,000 petaflops of AI computing power and 50 petabytes of storage, the center has stored over 170,000 files covering everything from buildings and households to trees and streetlights for the most futuristic urban management in Xiong'an.
Xiong'an New Area sets up future-ready urban management with AI platform
