Da Nang, Vietnam’s fourth largest city, and the International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) have just announced their first success in the upgrade of the city’s water and transportation system infrastructure using IBM-made sensors.

“Water and transportation are the first two areas where we are applying some of the most advanced technologies available,” Pham Kim Son, director of Da Nang’s Department of Information and Communications, said in a statement.

Using IBM’s Intelligent Operations Center, Da Nang authorities will be provided a summary of events and incidents through maps, dashboards and alerts, allowing city personnel to track trends, forecast demand and better manage the city’s infrastructure and assets. 

The central city is now equipped with a smarter water management system.

Da Nang Water Co (DAWACO), the city’s water utility provider, is implementing a program using IBM Smarter Cities technology for real-time analysis and monitoring of the city’s water supply to provide high quality water for more than one million citizens, tourists and local industries.

Not as previously, water samples will not be manually collected and analyzed. Via sensors installed throughout the water treatment process, DAWACO can measure water turbidity, salinity, conductivity, pH and chlorine levels in real time.

Therefore, people can instantly visualize operations and receive alerts and notifications when readings stray from norms or when analysis indicates that water quality has changed.

IBM-tech also helps install a smarter Transportation Management System for the central coastal city.

Predictably, traffic congestion will soon be a problem of a developing city just like Da Nang. Therefore, a new traffic control center in which city officials can monitor traffic and control the city’s traffic light system through a dashboard is very necessary.

IBM’s Big Data technologies and predictive analytics have been implemented for this purpose. Through the modern system, Da Nang's traffic control center will have the tools to forecast and prevent potential congestion and better coordinate city responses to issues like accidents and adverse weather.

Da Nang’s Department of Transport will have real-time information on its 100 city buses such as driving speed, location and predicted journey times. Moreover, via the department’s web portal, passengers will be immediately informed of changes to bus routes, timetables and estimated arrival times.

“Da Nang is developed with great vision on high technologies which will help to enhance management effect and to turn the city into a sustainable one”, said Tan Jee Toon, general manager of IBM Vietnam.

In the near future, Da Nang’s leaders plan to apply technology to transform other areas such as public safety, flood management and food safety.