IOC Provincial Smart City Operation and Monitoring Center - the place to receive images and information from the "magic eyes"

Eliminate many "hot spots"

At the Smart Urban Operation Monitoring Center - IOC of the province, the phones of the operators kept ringing. "Hello, Hue-S Operator, please listen!", an operator received a call from a resident reporting environmental pollution in the residential area and was instructed to send images and information to Hue-S's "on-site reporting" channel for reception and processing.

During the working session, IOC staff are responsible for receiving and processing information. A large-sized video screen (which can be divided into multiple custom screens according to the task) displays the recorded image of the newly-emerged landfill in front of Huong Ho market area, which was identified by the camera. Head of the Network and Communications Monitoring Department Duong Van Sy showed us that the area identified by the camera as waste was zoned and recorded. “From this image, the IOC Center transferred it to the relevant authorities for receipt. Not long after that, the landfill in front of Huong Ho market gate was requested by the Ward People's Committee to be cleaned up by the Market Management Board,” said Mr. Sy.

Previously, the detection of newly emerging landfills or pollution black spots was often done by authorities checking and detecting or by people's feedback. Currently, through the "on-scene reflection" camera system, this situation has been minimized. "We take advantage of existing camera locations and build AI (artificial intelligence) solutions to identify waste. If there is illegal littering, the camera "scans" it, and the system will create a warning. Based on full images proving the violator, the IOC Center records this feedback and sends it to the authorities for timely handling. The monitoring of the "magic eyes" has contributed to minimizing the emergence of new landfills as well as eliminating "black spots" of environmental pollution in the area," said Deputy Director of the IOC Center Tran Trong Hieu.

The IOC also cooperated with the World Wildlife Fund in Vietnam – WWF to install 17 cameras concentrated in environmental pollution hotspots of Hue city. These cameras also use a waste identification solution similar to the IOC system.

"Magic eye" in many fields

According to Director of the Department of Information and Communications Nguyen Xuan Son, as one of the leading provinces and cities in the country in digital transformation, Thua Thien Hue has deployed a security camera system across the province with 650 cameras and 27 AI (artificial intelligence) solutions. Thanks to the operation of cameras, Thua Thien Hue has achieved results beyond expectations in many areas, such as monitoring traffic violations, preventing and fighting crimes, warning of forest fires, floods, and straw burning, etc.

Through camera sensors, the solution automatically detects and warns of forest fires, warns of violations of urban order, violations of environmental sanitation such as littering, measures traffic volume, warns of traffic jams, traffic jams, etc. This information is provided to the authorities to investigate and make timely decisions to punish violations, increasing deterrence for society. Deputy Director of the IOC Center Tran Trong Hieu said that since the beginning of 2019, through the camera surveillance system, more than 39,000 cases related to traffic, environmental, and urban order violations have been received and handled with a total fine of more than 8 billion VND; coordinated with the police to trace and prevent crimes in 826 cases.

The provincial camera system has also been very effective in the field of wildlife protection, with many cases detected and handled. In the field of forest protection, the system has also detected 1,947 suspected forest fires and verified 207 forest fires. Surveillance cameras have also warned about the problem of straw burning by farmers, with a total of 408 straw burning cases recorded and sent to the authorities to remind and warn people.

Thanks to the reasonable operation and installation of the surveillance camera system, it has contributed significantly to supporting the authorities to promptly handle the situation, creating a ripple effect and contributing to raising the general awareness of society about preserving and joining hands for a locality that is always green, clean and bright. "Currently, Thua Thien Hue is continuing to cooperate with partners to install more cameras, the goal is to have 1,500 cameras across the province to serve the monitoring, detect violations, resolve the needs of the people as well as better management work", Mr. Son informed.

Article and photos: LIEN MINH