What is the main role of KU Leuven in the USAGE project?

KU Leuven is involved in technological as well as non-technological aspects of the development and implementation of urban data spaces, with focus on the data space for the City of Leuven. KU Leuven is leading and contributing to the analysis of co-design mechanisms for policy making and data management. KU Leuven assessed the status quo of the current use of data and tools in the context of the Green Deal, working together with the partners to collect the necessary information and analysing the results. KU Leuven is developing and hosting the data space of Leuven, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders from the City, the Flemish Regions, academic partners and not for profit organisations such as Leuven 2030. In this context data is being processed and brought together in order to support several use cases such as the identification of potential green roofs, the possible areas for greening the city through e.g. better garden management, among others. The integration of citizens science data is part of these efforts. KU Leuven also contributes to the validation of the resulting data spaces in the different pilot cities. Part of this work is still to come.

How is KU Leuven supporting the municipality of Leuven within the pilot activities?

KU Leuven has brought together the key departments of the city, as well as Leuven 2030, to better understand and discuss the policies and processes that are relevant for the Green Deal. KU Leuven has created awareness on what an urban data space is and what it can do to support their daily work. Although KU Leuven is currently hosting and managing the data space of Leuven, the idea is that it will be handed over to the city and that it will be maintained and used by the city and other stakeholders in the future, also beyond the lifetime of the project. In January 2024 a first workshop took place bringing together some key players of the city, the university and the private sector on how the data space can further evolve and be used in various scenarios. In the course of 2024 and Spring 2025 there will be more workshops, a series of training sessions and a datathon to transfer knowledge and skills to staff from the city so they are able to manage and further develop the data space.

How is USAGE supporting the European Green Deal priority actions?

USAGE is supporting the Grean Deal priority actions through the implementation and testing of various relevant use cases in the field of climate change, biodiversity, water management and more. To describe and monitor, understand, and analyse, and to make decisions to adapt and mitigate to climate change, the necessary data need to be brought together, processed and transformed into decision ready information. That is where USAGE is contributing to, starting from the operationalization of four data spaces. In this context existing tools are being used and new tools (including Machine Learning tools) are being developed and applied to the use cases. In the City of Leuven, particular attention is being paid to better water management (e.g. unsealing soils), improved biodiversity (e.g. better garden management), cooling down (e.g. by using green roofs), etc.