Catalyst for transportation and urban infrastructure management

Amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution taking place strongly, digital transformation has become an inevitable trend across multiple sectors, especially in transportation and construction. The application of digital technology not only enhances management efficiency and reduces costs, but also contributes to sustainable development, environmental protection, and an improved quality of life.

The city’s command centre enables smart monitoring and management of the traffic light system. Photo: NGOC LONG

Developing smart operations systems

On June 17, 2021, the Da Nang Party Committee issued Resolution No. 05-NQ/TU on digital transformation in the city through 2025, with a vision to 2030. The Resolution identifies digital transformation as a breakthrough strategy, especially in traffic management and construction.

In recent years, numerous digital applications and technologies have been deployed to improve traffic efficiency and safety, including the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). This is one of the most prominent applications of digitalisation in traffic. ITS uses technologies such as sensors, cameras, global positioning systems (GPS) and artificial intelligence (AI) to collect real-time traffic data.

This allows command centres to analyze traffic patterns, forecast congestion, dynamically control traffic lights, and provide accurate traffic updates to road users via mobile apps and electronic boards. These measures not only ease congestion but also optimize traffic flow, reduce fuel consumption, and lower emissions.

According to the municipal Department of Construction, the Smart Street Lighting Control Centre automates the operation and monitoring of lighting systems, minimising manual input, improving centralised management, and facilitating data retrieval.

Currently, the smart traffic surveillance camera system with 296 cameras is equipped with vehicle identification software, traffic measurement, and license plate detection features. This helps identify traffic violations promptly and support traffic planning and zoning efforts. The Department is implementing a project to expand the smart traffic control monitoring system at more than 200 intersections, with completion expected by 2026.

In addition, 187 traffic light intersections and 172 warning light clusters are connected to the central control centre for real-time monitoring and adjustment. Since 2020, the Department has piloted a solution to automatically count traffic flow and control lights at key intersections, aiming for a future “green wave” model.

Mr. Nguyen Ha Nam, Director of the municipal Department of Construction, shared that the construction sector focused on building a digital data platform, digitizing important data related to urban planning, permits, project management, and construction quality. These efforts are guided by the principles of integration, uniformity, and data sharing across relevant agencies.

The construction sector will boost the application of advanced technologies such as AI, 3D GIS, Building Information Modeling (BIM), Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR), and Digital Twin models in design, construction, urban monitoring, traffic management and construction management. This is an important foundation to help improve infrastructure quality, optimise management and ensure smart urban development. With these orientations, the city’s construction industry expects to create a strong transformation towards sustainable development and modernising urban management, contributing positively to the city’s overall growth.

Many full-process online public services offered

Despite the many benefits of digital transformation, challenges remain, including high investment costs for technology, infrastructure, and workforce training. Additionally, shifting work habits toward digital tools for management, monitoring, data analysis, and forecasting presents a steep learning curve for personnel.

However, the opportunities that digitalisation brings are enormous such as reducing construction and operation time, saving costs and optimizing resources. Therefore, over the past years, digital transformation in specialised activities has been promoted by the city’s construction industry. The concentration has been on digitising databases and building smart traffic infrastructure. The database system on planning, traffic infrastructure, traffic technical infrastructure licenses, and construction permits has been also digitised to improve management efficiency and ensure traffic safety and order.

In 2023, the Da Nang Department of Construction developed specialized specification documents for the transportation sector, including a comprehensive list of sector-specific databases, open data, and shared data systems to facilitate interagency connectivity. This initiative laid the groundwork for a sector-wide digital data repository.

The Department of Construction has already completed the integration of 100% full-process online public services for all eligible administrative procedures onto both the National Public Service Portal and Da Nang’s local e-government portal. This includes 98 services benefiting citizens and businesses. Thanks to these efforts, the unit is now one of only two departments in the city to offer enhanced full-process online public services, having issued over 30,000 results, more than 6,000 of which were processed through the city’s system.

DA NANG Today