Aseana City locators benefit from tech-enabled services

MANILA, Philippines - Fifteen new projects by diverse locators including residential, entertainment and office developments set for completion by 2018 or earlier boost the claim of the 107-hectare Aseana City beside Manila Bay as the next tourism and business destination of the Philippines.

The recent inauguration of City of Dreams Manila in Aseana City’s main thoroughfare, Asean Ave., and a succession of other projects are now speeding up the growth of this urban center strategically located between Pagcor’s Entertainment City and the Mall of Asia complex, according to Delfin “Buds” Wenceslao, managing director of Aseana Holdings, a member of the D.M.Wenceslao Group of Companies.

Anticipating a great influx of visitors, employees, residents, entrepreneurs and other business owners, “Aseana City is utilizing advanced city management technology to ensure an enhanced quality of life for all,” he said.

  The city management system is part of an information and communication technology (ICT) backbone enabling it to offer smart city or technology-enhanced services to locators and residents. The first phase of the project now operational in the emerging urban center focuses on public security and safety services assisted by advanced CCTV cameras with face and car plate recognition features in key locations of the business district.

The cameras have the capacity to zoom in on faces half a kilometer away even after dark. Once the cameras detect a suspicious person that has been profiled as a possible security threat, the system alerts the integrated operations center, which can then keep closer watch on the person through the CCTV system and alert security personnel on the ground when necessary.

Jorge Ibaretta, associate director for estate operations, discloses that in addition to the prevention of criminal activities, the security and safety system through its recording and documentation capabilities can help assist in the speedy resolution of security issues.  Moreover, it is supplemented by security personnel who have clocked in an average response time to alerts including traffic accidents of three to five minutes.

A joint undertaking between Aseana and Centios, the smart city network will also be designed to include, in the near future, a transportation information service, traffic control system, digital information kiosks, among other services. Centios is a partnership between Korea’s leading telecommunication service provider, Korea Telecom, and Cisco, global leader in Internetworking solutions, technology and services.

Wenceslao explains that a city is usually made up of hundreds of different systems and protocols that do not interoperate or talk to one another. The ICT backbone allows for all these systems to converge in one integrated open-systems network to facilitate greater productivity and innovation. By investing in this ICT infrastructure, Aseana City will be able to implement future smart city application when the need arises.

The smart city system, set to expand as the city expands, also monitors weather disturbances and provides “real-time assessment of current conditions,” says Ibaretta.

“We will be able to quickly send equipment to move debris, for instance.” He believes flooding will be an unlikely occurrence considering that Aseana City is over three meters above sea level and has further been engineered to avoid storm surges.

Wenceslao anticipates that Aseana City’s ICT system will allow it to reap the benefits enjoyed by other smart cities like Songdo City in South Korea, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Barcelona in Spain and London in the UK. Chief among these are lower operating costs since less personnel on the ground are needed for monitoring and assessment. Moreover, considering walkability is one of the main goals of Aseana City, residents both office and condominium, will be able to enjoy greater benefits of the enhanced pedestrian safety provisions.