Smart Sustainable Cities are data driven cities

“A smart sustainable city is an innovative city that uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social and environmental aspects”.

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) – Focus Group, Smart Sustainable Cities (ITU FG-SSC fifth meeting in June 2014, ‘agreement on definition of Smart Sustainable City’)

Utilizing data has been a cornerstone for building, maintaining and sustaining urban environments. For example, an enormous contribution to our knowledge of how to treat and prevent disease was made by John Snow who used data to analyse outbreaks of cholera in London in the 19th century. Snow used a map to correlate cases of cholera to the location of communal water pipes, leading to the insight that water-borne germs were responsible for spreading the disease. We wash our hands to prevent diseases spreading through germs in part because of what we would now call the “geospatial data analysis” performed by John Snow.

More recently, the gathering and analysis of data has allowed cities and communities to better plan and manage their infrastructure while introducing efficiencies in cost, operations and in reducing environmental footprint and waste. In addition to these benefits, there is a critical need to ensure that urban population growth is managed effectively by municipal authorities and cities.

Open Data

Open data, especially open government data, is a tremendous resource that is as yet largely untapped. Many individuals and organisations collect a broad range of different types of data in order to perform their tasks. Government is particularly significant in this respect, both because of the quantity and centrality of the data it collects, but also because most of that government data is public data by law, and therefore could be made open and made available for others to use. Why is that of interest?

There are many areas where we can expect open data to be of value, and where examples of how it has been used already exist. There are also many different groups of people and organisations who can benefit from the availability of open data, including government itself. At the same time it is impossible to predict precisely how and where value will be created in the future. The nature of innovation is that developments often comes from unlikely places. (“Open Data Handbook”, Open Knowledge Foundation)

Open Data Laws

Open data laws provide an opportunity not just to update and improve access to information that is already open and/or public but also to specify that new data sets and records be collected and published. All open data must be delivered in accessible, machine-readable formats for publication online in an easily usable format, without any requirements for access or restrictions on their use.

Beyond maintenance and availability related standards, municipal authorities, developers and utilities will be required to comply with Open Data Laws and relevant municipal data legislation as and when they come into effect. Compliance with Open Data Laws may also become a governance requirement for standards and/or certifications.