What is the USAGE approach to the creation of urban data spaces?

Aiming to create urban data spaces in the four pilot cities (Ferrara, Graz, Leuven and Zaragoza), the USAGE project has designed (and is in the process of implementing) a series of use cases related to certain European Green Deal policy areas. Although these use cases relate to different sectors, together they enable the setup and operation of the entire data space. The USAGE use cases are meant to support the challenges and priorities contained in the Local Green Deal / City contract for each pilot city, in turn referred to different European Green Deal policy areas. The use cases are then formalised in a series of processing steps that require the execution of innovative tools and algorithms and the use and production of datasets. The USAGE approach described above ensures a close link between the technological solutions produced within the project and the concrete policy needs at city level.

Which are the main challenges and opportunities related to this approach?

The above described approach allows to provide concrete solutions to real policy needs, connected to the European Green Deal policy areas. This enables a data-driven urban planning, allowing the municipalities to effectively address environmental needs at local level. These opportunities are not limited to the pilot cities. In fact, scalability and replicability are key features of the USAGE approach, which can therefore be applied also to other cities across Europe. A challenge encountered within the project is related to the integration of different actors/stakeholders, coming both from the technical and the non-technical world (e.g., technology providers, city authorities, and researchers). However, this challenge can be turned into an opportunity, as increased cooperation between the different actors/stakeholders will result in added value for municipalities and citizens.

What is a Decision Ready Information and what is its role in the USAGE approach to the creation of urban data spaces?

In the context of USAGE, a Decision Ready Information (DRI) is data that has been processed and structured so that it can be used immediately to take informed decisions. It goes beyond raw or unprocessed data by ensuring that the information is accurate, relevant, timely and easy to interpret. This enables effective decision making within a local data space. One or more DRIs are the result of the execution of the use case processing steps. They respond to concrete policy needs of the pilot cities and concretely support the decision makers in taking informed decisions.