I.Project background
The smart building marking system of the Ministry of Interior, ROC was established in 2004, and applications have been accepted since then. As of the end of September 2018, a total of 335 buildings have been awarded smart building marks and candidate certificates, which are the basis for evaluation on the smartness of new buildings. Secondly, to encourage the addition of smart improvements in existing buildings to receive subsidies, as of the end of 2017, a total of 275 improvement cases have been completed, thereby driving the research, development, and integration of smart industrial technology. In addition, in response to the public demands and issues faced in sustainable community development, the “Innovative and Empirical Demonstration Plan for Sustainable Smart Communities” has been in place since 2016.
Compared with general communities, smart communities have more ICTs and service integrations of diversified technologies, which can create a humanized environment with the attributes of safety and disaster prevention, health and comfort, convenience and intimate, and energy-saving management. However, from the smart improvement operations that have been subsidized over the years, it has been found that the smart promotion of residential communities is difficult and there are more problems under the surface that require discussion.
Through the industry-academy-research cooperation mechanism, this study mainly discussed the current development and future trend of smart residential communities at home and abroad, investigated the demands of implementing smart management services into residential communities, developed the industry-academy-research cooperation mechanism, selected cooperation fields, held promotion seminars in the north, central and southern regions, and carried out promotion based on the evaluation, strategies, program planning, and efficiency analysis on implementing smart management into the benchmarking fields.
II.Research Method and Process
This study commenced in June 2018. After two working meetings, the direction for executing the plan, the working items, and the execution methods were specified as follows:
1.Analyze the current development and future trend of smart residential communities at home and abroad:
(1)Collect cases, literature and others related to smart residential communities at home and abroad.
(2)Invite specialists and scholars from industrial, academic, and research circles to hold three interdisciplinary exchange symposiums on issues related to smart residential community management.
2.Investigate and evaluate the demands of implementing smart management services into smart residential communities:
Conduct questionnaire surveys on general residents in the north, central, and southern regions and perform in-depth interviews with industrial representatives to understand the demands, construction intentions, and expected benefits of all interested parties on the smart management services of residential communities through investigation and analysis.
3.Plan an industry-academy-research cooperation mechanism for smart residential communities:
(1)Plan the cooperation mechanism: Analyze the difference between privately-owned residential communities and publicly-owned residential communities and propose a industry-academy-research cooperation mechanism and promotion strategies for smart residential communities based on interviews from individuals from privately-owned residential communities and publicly-owned residential communities that have been granted smart building marks.
(2)Evaluate the cooperation fields: Select four fields that the smart management services are expected to implemented into the existing residential communities and conduct evaluation, strategies, program planning, and efficiency analysis on the implementing associated problems that could arise.
(3)Evaluate the benchmarking fields: Select four fields that the smart management services have implemented and conduct evaluation, strategies, program planning, and efficiency analysis on the implementing associated problems.
4.Hold promotion seminars
Invite individuals from industrial, academic, and research circles, as well as government and relevant participants of residential communities to hold three promotion seminars on smart residential communities in the north, central, and southern regions.
III.Important findings
From the questionnaires and interviews of this study, it was found that, currently, many residents still do not know what a “smart system” is. In addition, most residential communities have implemented the basic equipment needed for a smart system, but the users do not think that access control systems, lane control systems, and video monitoring systems are part of smart systems, therefore they have no idea of the advantages and disadvantages of the implemented smart system.
In order to enable the residents in residential communities to learn more about smart systems, in this study, based on questionnaires, interviews and cases from home and abroad, 24 smart systems were organized and classified according to the attributes specified in the “function option” index of the smart building evaluation index: safety and disaster prevention, health and comfort, convenience and intimate, and energy-saving management.
When the smart system enables the users to feel its benefits in their lives, such as safety and disaster prevention, health and comfort, convenience and intimate, and energy-saving management, the users will believe that it is worthy to be implemented. If no smart system is implemented and there is no inconvenience, users will believe it is not necessary to import a smart system. Hence, the government must strengthen the promotion of the benefits of smart systems to the residents in residential communities and promote step-by-step implementation based on demands; in this way, the initial cost would be low, and users would be more willing to accept it.
In addition to the investigation and evaluation of the demands of implementing smart management services into smart residential communities, this study proposed countermeasures to address the lack of intent to implement a smart system and improve the user satisfaction of implementing smart management into communities. This study also provided suggestions to major leaders regarding the implementation of smart management and government policies.
Through questionnaires, interviews, specialist symposiums, and reference to industry-academy-research cooperation cases at home and abroad, this study developed an industry-academy-research cooperation mechanism for smart residential communities and selected four residential communities with implemented smart management services to be the benchmarking fields for other future study cases.