(Yicai Global) July 1 -- The Shanghai government has been upgrading its urban management system in recent years through the harnessing of a huge amount of computer processing power to make the running of the mega city with over 25 million residents more automated and efficient.

The Shanghai Urban Operations Center is part of an effort to move the whole urban management system online and use Big Data and artificial intelligence to make up for a deficiency in 'human governance'. It has a giant bank of computer screens that displays over 1,700 pieces of urban data, such as the weather, public transport status, water and electricity consumption. Every five seconds the screens are refreshed.

Every day, Shanghai handles 24,000 tons of household garbage, consumes 7.9 million cubic meters of water and 430 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, completes more than 660,000 medical diagnoses, answers more than 26,000 110 alarm calls and receives more than 23,000 appeals from residents through the 12345 hotline.

Operations Center uses a three-tier model that encompasses the municipality, its districts and sub-districts to keep a tab on what is happening in every corner of the 6,300 square kilometer city. This enables administrators to monitor the operation of the city from both macro and micro perspectives and to better coordinate the mobilization of resources to deal with any problems.

For example, complaints received through the 12345 hotline are forwarded to district-level urban operation centers and then allocated to the relevant offices for handling. When a resident living in downtown Huangpu district called the hotline in March to say that an elderly person had fallen from his wheelchair due to a flaw in the design of an access ramp, the fault was fixed in four days.

Staffer Qin Jingwei deals with between one and three complaints forwarded to his department from the 12345 hotline each day. Usually he had solve an issue in two to three days and has a response time of up to 15 working days.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Kim Taylor