Incheon Metropolitan City’s project to build a digital twin-based spatial information platform has been selected as an outstanding project in the 2025 national spatial data implementation review. It earned high marks for applying cutting-edge spatial information technology to public administration, cutting the budget and improving citizen convenience at the same time.
 [코리안투데이] The three-dimensional digital twin view of Incheon’s iMap spatial information portal © 장형임 기자 |
Incheon Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Chan-dae) announced that its project to build a digital twin-based spatial information platform has been named an outstanding project in the 2025 national spatial data implementation review.
The review covered spatial data projects carried out over the past year by central government ministries and local governments across the country. Outstanding projects were chosen through a comprehensive assessment of each project’s performance, the degree to which spatial data was utilized, and gains in administrative efficiency.
Incheon’s project was recognized for integrating digital twin technology to build a precise urban space and applying it across a range of municipal tasks. Specifically, the achievements reflected the development of a future-city policy decision support system to tackle problems in older downtown areas, the migration of aging spatial data systems to a domestic geographic information system (GIS) engine and cloud infrastructure, and the development of iMap (www.imap.go.kr), an immersive three-dimensional spatial information portal ranked among the best in the country.
One of the most notable outcomes was the budget savings. By successfully switching from foreign GIS software to a domestic engine, Incheon lowered the platform’s annual maintenance costs from 1.3 billion won in 2025 to 570 million won in 2026, a reduction of about 730 million won. By also cutting the foreign licensing fees that had recurred every year, the city expects to save an additional 5 billion won or so over the next ten years. The savings will be reinvested in upgrading the platform and updating the latest spatial data.
The changes went beyond internal administrative efficiency to improvements that citizens can feel directly. The iMap spatial information portal, fully overhauled and relaunched on March 23, recreated a digital twin environment identical to the real urban setting on the basis of an ultra-realistic three-dimensional map. As usability improved, the average number of monthly visitors roughly doubled, from 110,000 in 2025 to 220,000 in 2026.
A map service that lets users view public data exactly as it appears in the real city has broad applications in areas closely tied to daily life, such as real estate, urban planning, and disaster response. Incheon’s move to reduce its reliance on foreign technology and shift to a domestic foundation is significant in that it lowers the city’s financial burden over the long term and creates a virtuous cycle in which the savings are channeled back into services for citizens.
Lee Won-ju, director general of the city’s Urban Planning Bureau, said, ‘Being named an outstanding project in the 2025 national spatial data implementation review is the result of our steady pursuit of data- and technology-driven administrative innovation.’ He added, ‘We will continue to use our ultra-realistic three-dimensional spatial information infrastructure to build a happy Incheon that citizens can experience firsthand.’
지역 홍보대사 신청 기자양성과정 신청 코리안투데이 지부장 신청 코리안투데이 인천강화코리안브랜드대상 신청 최고경영인대상 신청 소비자만족도대상 신청
<저작권자 ⓒ 코리안투데이(The Korean Today) 무단전재 및 재배포 금지>
