Skip to main content

Table 5 Data-driven smart city competences and related functions

From: The emerging data–driven Smart City and its innovative applied solutions for sustainability: the cases of London and Barcelona 

Competences

Functions

Horizontal information platforms

• Linking together multiple technologies to enable greater coordination of urban systems and domains:

- Connecting all the sensors installed in the city and storing and integrating all the sensed data

- Aggregating and standardizing the flows of the functional and territorial data from the systems of state control, business environment, municipal sources, and numerous sensors and cameras for their subsequent analysis and visualization in 3D format

- Reworking and repackaging the collected data for daily consumption by different city stakeholders

- Allowing application developers to gain access to the sensed data in a more structured and convenient manner

- Providing comprehensive solutions to complex urban problems by integrating the self-contained and unconnected technological solutions and information systems used in different functional departments

• Improving the efficiency of the implemented applied technological solutions by means of the functionally compatible information platforms

Operations centers and dashboards

• Drawing together and interlinking real–time data streams to provide an integrated view and synoptic intelligence of the city:

- Using visualization sites to help both expert and no-expert users interpret and analyze information, and to allow citizens to monitor the city for themselves and for their own ends

- Relying on integrated, real-time data to track the performance of the city and to communicate the live feeds of real-time data to citizens with respect to a number of areas

- Using automated systems to respond to citywide events by making immediate decisions pertaining to various urban areas

- Overcoming urban challenges, keeping citizens up-to-date, and developing applications based on the standardized and published open data thanks to the horizontal information platforms

• Creating innovative platforms, promoting big data use and application, introducing data-driven technologies, and providing expert assistance

Strategic planning and policy office

• Making extensive use of data to guide urban planning and design, and to encourage various developers to deploy digital infrastructure to future proof new developments

• Using a one-stop data analytic hub to bring and weave together data from a variety of city agencies and departments in order to regulate and govern the city in a more efficient and effective way

• Cross–referencing data, identifying patterns, and recognizing and solving city problems

Training and educational programs and institutes

• Providing specialized academic programs involving big data science and analytics within such domains as urban science, urban informatics, urban computing, urban analytics, and urban studies

• Offering a large number of educational programs with big data science and analytics disciplines and introducing technologies for city operational functioning, management, and planning

• Implementing initiatives for developing competencies in a number of big data science and analytics areas in relation to urban sustainability by conducting seminars and providing trainings to improve the level of technological knowledge in this regard

Innovation labs and research centers

• Creating multidisciplinary teams based on practical know how, long–standing experience, international expertise, and access to global networks

• Enabling interaction and cooperation between scholars, researchers, industry experts, business professionals, and thought leaders to enhance research opportunities, academic excellence, real-world problem solving, and knowledge creation and dissemination

• Developing and testing innovative technological solutions for urban operational functioning, management, and planning

• Featuring the latest developments in urban technologies and solutions and demonstrating how they are applied in real-world settings

• Developing urban intelligence functions for improving and optimizing urban operations, functions, services. designs, and strategies

• Integrating resources and expertise for the benefits of the whole city through collective intelligence

• Managing, analyzing and visualizing different kinds of urban projects

• Supporting the city authorities in visioning, strategizing, and applying smart sustainable city targets and objectives