The possibility of unpredictable natural disasters has increased in Seoul. As well, the possibility of damage caused by human disasters such as fire and collapse has escalated the land use and also contributed to aging of facilities. The city has also been exposed to various social disasters and risks due to aging and increasingly single-person households. Accordingly, the level of consciousness in the citizens regarding various disasters and safety management has expanded higher than in the past, and the public role in safety management has become increasingly critical.
Recently, the need to build smart and safe cities incorporating advances in information and communication technology to address disaster and safety management issues has increased. Many countries including Europe, North America and Singapore, have addressed the need to establish smart and safe cities as their main policy agenda. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has also been engaged in a strategy to develop urban safety services using fourth-generation industrial revolution technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), big data and platforms in an effort to build smart and safe cities, and to develop a public platform.
In order to improve the safety functions of Seoul and provide enhanced safety to citizens, appropriate case studies highlighting the principles of smart safety, technology trends, analysis of safety service status, and citizens’ demand surveys have been conducted. Based on the findings, the basic direction of smart and safe cities and the necessary components for their implementation are presented. Each step of the project has been presented in an effort to establish smart and safe cities in the future.
The basic direction of the smart and safe city in Seoul has been to develop the requisite infrastructure, such as urban safety management based on the IoT, protection of the vulnerable population via customized services, response to disasters using big data analysis, and improved public platforms to enhance safety management. 
The core component of a smart city in Seoul includes information system necessary to construct an integrated platform based on big data and urban safety services. Urban safety services include management of safe facilities, response to climate and weather changes, enhanced ability for crisis management in administration, and protection of vulnerable groups. In addition, smart and safe city teams needed for the logistics should be established in accordance with institutional basis via amendment of “SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT ORDINANCE ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INTERNET OF THINGS CITIES”.
The establishment of a smart city consists of three stages: planning, establishing, and operation.
The first stage includes a basic information strategy plan (ISP) for the implementation of smart and safe cities. Further, improvement of the system to support the creation of a new organization and council for safety measures is necessary.
The second stage is establishing platforms and services. At this stage, the development and dissemination of IoT-based urban safety services, building information infrastructure, big data-based warehouses and data marts, and a safe integration platform should be carried out.
The last stage involves operation or logistics, entailing a pilot and demonstration project to implement urban safety services.