A slide reading "ISCN Online Advisory Programme: Cities and Data Platforms on multiple geographic levels", three stacked layers

ISCN Online Advisory Programme #11: Cities and Data Platforms on multiple geographic levels

The 11th session of the ISCN Online Advisory programme delved into the world of 'Cities and Data Platforms' across various global regions. During this event, our city experts showcased three innovative real-world examples, making the journey into the data landscape both informative and engaging.

Event details

Datetime
12.10.2023, 13:30 - 15:00
Event type
Online (virtual)
Participate online
Dokumentation
Download ICS File

Paragraphs

The valuable insights from the event highlighted that data platforms come in various shapes and sizes, tailored not only to specific needs but also to the structure of government at different levels. We discovered that the key to enhancing the usability of data platforms lies in combining knowledge and resources, either through open-source code or collaborative efforts between cities. Additionally, involving a diverse array of participants, including the general population, is essential in this process. 

Key takeaways 

  • We can speculate about the future, but only data gives us the possibility to speculate with a measure. Actively listening, working together and designing rather than predicting should be the core principles when aiming at increased contribution of data platforms.
  • The power of contracts: In Lyon, one key tool to make data usage work are contracts to oblige partners in the district to share data.
  • Diversity in teams: For a good product to come to live, team spirit, diversity and inclusion are the foundation. That’s what worked for Buenos Aires!
  • Procure together: Even though it can be a long road from first talk to implementation, smaller cities can pool ressources and procure digital infrastructure together. For Leuven, Roeselare and Bruges, this has worked magic!

Here’s what happened in detail:

Renate Mitterhuber, head of the division “Smart Cities” at the German Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building, started this session of the Online Advisory Programme by underlining the importance to foster knowledge exchange between cities all over the world.  Mitterhuber pointed out the essence of Urban Data Platforms as core infrastructures for cities “on the path to digital transformation”. She also encouraged to continue using the ISCN’s platform for vibrant discussions, cooperations and the exchange of experiences.

Prof. Jörg Noennig, professor for Digital City Science at HafenCity University Hamburg/Technical University Dresden, gave a keynote speech  on the topic of "Data Work in the Urban Context". He elaborated on the broad variety of Data Projects, ranging from urban data decision rooms in Amaravati/India, over IT-planning for rapid construction in Mykolaiv/Ukraine to the regional analysis institute for mitigation of disaster risk in Ecuador. He concluded that distinctive tools and settings already exist when it comes to data work in the urban context. They can add value to urban qualities such as health, security, sustainability, and participation: “The informational code of the city is just as the genetic code of an animal – it helps us understand the city better. Therefore, engineering the DNA of a city is crucial in order to make cities more liveable”.
 

Baptiste Mougeot took us on a journey through Lyon and specifically the district “La Confluence”. La Confluence transformed from industrial wasteland to a positive energy district in only two decades. A sustainable action plan has guided the transformation and is currently supported by the European research and innovation project ASCEND (Accelerate Positive Clean Energy Districts). The data platform comes into play when data from different buildings of the district are collected to monitor the buildings’ energy performance. While La Confluence has advanced a lot in the past years when it comes to collecting data, improving the quality of data sets, and establishing a user-friendly interface, a challenge for the future remains the creation of an active energy community in “La confluence”. 

Buenos Aires reduced the time for approving new construction in the city from 25 days to one week. How? They made crucial data available in their platform “3D City (Ciudad 3D)”.  Melisa Breda, Chief Digital Officer of Buenos Aires, Argentina, highlighted the need for evidence-based decision-making in public policies. Ciudad 3D allows any user to understand what the government is planning by “straightforward ways of translating urban planning code of the city of Buenos Aires in an easy, accessible language”. Making the code of Ciudad 3D available as Open Source, the government encourages the reuse of data as well as more efficiency on a human resources and financial level. For Buenos Aires, technology remains a great enabler for modernisation, as far as “we encourage active listening, mutual collaboration and diverse perspectives into the process of transforming cities.”

Tim Guily from Leuven and James Van Zandweghe from Roeselare were “united by the same pain”: Data silos, vendor lock-in, incompatible end-to-end solutions and proprietary data, which they couldn’t use. Together with a third city, Bruges, they teamed up to procure and implement a shared urban data platform. Why? First and foremost, to reduce costs for each of them individually. For each city, it would have been too expensive to develop or buy a platform each. Now they share the infrastructure and cooperate in developing use cases on top of it. 
The exciting project started with a European tender and a framework agreement under which every city in Flanders can join the cooperation: Costs are shared based on number of inhabitants and data usage for solutions. By implementing use cases together, the three cities have significantly reduced costs and risks of getting an urban data platform up and running.

Tim Guily (Leuven) and James Van Zandweghe (Roeselare)

In Germany, cities are also coming together. Ingo Lenzen, manager for data management, governance and platforms of the German city of Mönchengladbach, told us how they are developing an urban platform together with the city of Paderborn. In the framework of a newly established working and development group on urban data platforms, they are sharing their experiences with other German cities. Paderborn and Mönchengladbach are both funded by the German national funding program “Model Projects Smart City”.

Contacts