South Korea to create AI ‘disaster response platform’

SMG said it will initially seek to create the ‘Seoul 119 Big Data Centre’ to manage 119 fire and disaster dispatch locations and create a 3D map of disaster-prone facilities for firefighters to use when rescuing lives.

The data centre will also serve as a public data provider for the National Fire Agency as well as SMG. Alongside this, the 3D mapping project will cover 626 disaster-prone facilities including nursing homes and aims to finish mapping 68 facilities by the end of 2022.

The disaster response digital platform, which SMG said it aims to be completed in 2026, will combine the scattered field response systems and enable disaster and dispatch information to be seen on monitors installed in mobile command vehicles. There are also plans to develop an algorithm that guides paths for disaster prevention patrol by analysing each region’s time slots where disasters are most likely to take place.

Choi Tae-young, head of the Seoul Fire & Disaster Headquarters, said: “Seoul’s urban structure is becoming more and more complicated due to skyscrapers and increasing underground facilities. As a result, it is difficult for us to predict the scope and scale of the potential damage. We will use the new digital platform for disaster response based on AI and big data to swiftly and effectively deal with disasters.”