GURI — The city of Guri in Gyeonggi Province has built a drone imaging system on its own network to block the risk of security leaks involving high-resolution geospatial data and to improve administrative efficiency. By linking a central government public system to its own servers instead of outsourcing development, the city saved 150 million won ($105,000) in development costs, in what officials describe as a model case of smart administration.
Guri said on the 13th that it had completed the drone imaging system by connecting the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's local service solution for the National Spatial Data Integration Platform, known as K-Geo, directly to the city's own virtual servers. The city plans to roll out the system across its operations after holding K-Geo guidance and hands-on training sessions for all employees on the 21st.
Large-volume orthophotos — images corrected for distortion — taken by drones are now widely used across local government work, including urban planning, disaster prevention and land analysis. But because the files are large and contain sensitive geospatial data tied to national security, concerns have persisted about data leaks when external clouds or private networks are used.
The city broke with the practice of outsourcing development and instead transplanted the national geospatial platform directly onto its internal network. The approach saved about 148 million won ($104,000) in system construction costs while securing tight data protection.
After building the system in May and completing three months of pilot operation and inspections, the city can now link, overlay and analyze high-resolution drone imagery and continuous cadastral maps in real time on its internal administrative network without connecting to an outside network. That allows faster and more precise administrative decisions, with security maintained, in land surveying, monitoring of terrain changes, field surveys of forests and farmland, and management of disaster-prone areas.
"Building a security framework that safely manages sensitive geospatial data is the starting point of intelligent administration," Guri Mayor Shin Dong-hwa said. "We will continue to actively link the latest ICT and public infrastructure to save money and deliver efficient city administration that citizens can trust."