This study was carried out to analyze the economic feasibility of the expected investments for u-City by calculating the costs for the design of an information and communication network which corresponds to the u-City neural network and for the constr...
This study was carried out to analyze the economic feasibility of the expected investments for u-City by calculating the costs for the design of an information and communication network which corresponds to the u-City neural network and for the construction of the information and communication network systems required for u-City by implanting the ubiquitous technologies in the u-City space created from a new information space that is different from the existing urban space as a result of rapid technological development in the information and communication areas since the mid-20th century.As such information cities as technopolis, teleport, teletopia, and greentopia appeared after the first physical urban space that started with the industrial revolution during the 18th century, recently a new ubiquitous urban space has been born, enabling us to overcome the limits of, and efficiently use, the existing physical urban space.The urban development in the age of information systems is carried out around two axes: the expansion and arrangement of the information and communication infrastructure in existing cities and the planned, exemplary development of information cities through the construction of new information cities.To achieve the goals of new information systems development, existing cities grow into the forms of technopolis, teleport, teletopia, and greentopia as tried by advanced nations during the early stage, while the new information cities such as u-City are built on the basis of the predicted demand for information and communication in the planning stage and of the construction of an information and communication network infrastructureThese days, local autonomous governments are introducing or planning the introduction of u-education, u-culture, u-transportation and u-environment services without express legal grounds such as consolidated laws and regulations related to u-City.At present, more than 20 local governments are considering or planning to develop u-Cities. However, as the project leaders, the content and scope of development, development process, design standards and construction costs are varied, we need a design model for information and communication systems required for a u-City and the economic feasibility analysis to determine the construction costs of u-City.This study selected u-City areas to be constructed in the future as the subjects of study, and analyzed the environments of existing new cities that have similarities in the composition of population, statistical data, and geographical conditions to predict the number of residents in the u-City to be constructed and analyze the traffic demand by type, so as to suggest a design model for the information and communication network systems of u-City.Furthermore, based on this design model, the investments required for the construction of the information and communication network systems of u-City into the four areas of supplementary communication facilities, wired communication network, wireless communication network, and communication broadcasting center, and calculated the expected construction costs for each area to analyze the economic feasibility.The findings of this study can propose design standards for the standard design model for information and communication systems required for the construction of u-City. Even though the results of this economic feasibility study may not provide the absolute data for judgment on whether or not to carry out the project, I hope that they will be used as a useful supporting tool for examination of the feasibility of the project and the determination of investment decision.