How Jakarta Smart City Makes Urban Life Easier Through Big Data

Developing smarter cities through adoption of the internet of things (IoT) is a work in progress. Our previous articles have talked a lot about the exa

mples on how big data and smart city apps have helped disentangle the complexity of living in a big city. 

Yet, in order to learn about the small steps we can take to make cities smarter, we can also take a look at Indonesia’s capital: Jakarta.

How software adoption has made things better for Jakarta

The city’s administrators launched the Jakarta Smart City in about 2016 to address primarily three major issues: pollution, traffic and flooding. 

One of the first actions taken with the project was to change the Jakarta Smart City task force data and analytics team’s data analysis platform to deal with these three issues. 

Previously, the team members had simply been using simple charts and graphs in spreadsheets copied and pasted into presentations. 

Since 2016, the team has been using Tableau, a platform which helps them gain faster insights through faster data input and analysis capacity. 

At the same time, Tableau has also been helping the team present the data in a more interesting and engaging manner.

Upon adopting Tableau, about 50 of the task force’s data and analytics division members have by now been operating the platform. 

The platform’s efficiency has helped the division bring down the time lag they need to create dashboards just to a few days. 

Previously, under the manual system, it took weeks for the dashboard to develop. The team has reduced their dashboard creation time by 70 percent, thus allowing more time to be involved in other tasks and dedicate their energy for creative ideas.

At the same time, the platform has also helped the city data and analytics division generate 60 visualizations focusing on pollution, traffic and flooding using the internet of things (IoT). 

So, with the enhanced features offered by Tableau, how has the Jakarta Smart City team dislodge the three most complicated issues which have made life so woeful for Jakartans? 

Concrete results

So far, the platform has helped the team analyze traffic flow, which resulted in the ‘odd-even’ traffic policy, restricting certain roads to vehicles on certain days based on the last digit of their registration plate. 

At the same time, the platform has continuously helped the administration refine the traffic restriction regulations.

In terms of flooding, the platform has also helped city administrators identify risk factors earlier, so they can mitigate the flood severity. 

The platform has also proven useful in the city’s efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic situation. 

Recently, the division has created a public dashboard providing an overview of confirmed cases in Jakarta and across Indonesia, attracting more than 2.8 million viewers on a daily basis. 

Furthermore, the data on the confirmed cases also help the city administrations map out the COVID-19 zones and clusters across Jakarta. 

The platform’s modeling has given the administration insight on the red zones which need more social restrictions, as well as design the school reopening plans.

It is also thanks to the platform that Jakartans have by now been able to navigate these different zones carefully, taking the infection levels into account before they decide to visit these places for their activities. 

With all the advances in Jakarta’s big data adoption, it will be interesting what the future might hold for big data use development...