Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, is doubling down on digital innovation for urban management. The city has agreed to extend its partnership with Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation (LX) by three years, reinforcing its commitment to building a digital twin-based urban management system that serves both city administrators and citizens alike.
The original agreement, signed in 2023, laid the groundwork for a collaboration that has already yielded tangible results. Together, Busan and LX successfully secured the 2024 Digital Twin Pilot Zone Development competition, establishing Busanjin-gu as the testbed for what the city envisions as a citywide digital twin rollout. Administrative and public service platforms currently run on LX’s cloud infrastructure, providing a stable foundation for further expansion.
The city has also taken steps to protect the public character of its platforms by registering trademark usage rights for its citizen-facing platform ‘1365 Twin‘. This explicitly blocks commercial use and affirms its status as a public service.
On the ground, the platform is already making a difference. Citizens benefit from real-time urban air quality monitoring, smart emergency response tools and artificial lighting safety analysis. IoT sensors installed on city buses continuously collect data on fine dust and volatile organic compounds, while the system also provides emergency facility locations and optimal route guidance for urban safety management.
Looking ahead, Busan aims to improve accessibility by enhancing user manuals and case studies, with ambitions that extend well beyond its own borders. According to Baek Myeong-gi, director of Busan’s Urban Planning Bureau, the city intends to ensure citizens can easily understand and make use of digital twin services, and to actively expand the Busan model throughout the country.
Busan and LX extend digital twin partnership to scale urban innovation | GIM International
