In what ways have the use cases in Leuven been developed to align with and support the objectives of the local Green Deal?

Leuven has made significant strides in developing policy plans to guide its climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. From its early commitment to the Covenant of Mayors to developing its Climate Action Plan, and through a series of programs outlined in the Leuven2030 Roadmap, and more recently signing the Climate City Contract, the city has clearly articulated its ambitions to address climate challenges. Drawing on a thorough review of policy documents and interviews with city officials, KU Leuven developed use cases for the USAGE project tailored to Leuven’s needs. The city emphasizes nature-based solutions and community engagement to implement these initiatives and build public support. However, data gaps remain in several areas. The use cases aimed to address these gaps by generating new data and producing decision-ready information to help identify areas most in need of nature-based interventions.

In what ways has data been leveraged in the Leuven use cases to support their development and impact?

Hyperspectral images were collected over the city of Leuven, and using machine learning, detailed surface material data was extracted, capturing materials present both on roofs and ground surfaces. This dataset plays a crucial role in Leuven’s use cases. Roof material data supports the green roof initiative by identifying suitable rooftops for greening. Ground surface materials have been used to quantifying the extent of front and back gardens and help pinpoint areas where unhardening efforts could be prioritized. Additionally, this information feeds into the urban heat island use case in the estimation of surface temperatures across the city. This type of detailed material data, previously unavailable to the city, has proven to be essential for generating meaningful and actionable outputs. Regional datasets from the Flemish Geoportal Geopunt like the GRB(Base map of Flanders) and more detailed local datasets, such as building stock dataset from the municipality and data from the university research projects like leuven.cool and GARMON, also complement and support the execution the use cases.

What synergies have been established to support the long-term sustainability of the Leuven data space?

The Leuven data space is foreseen to add value to both current and future projects of the city and the university. It includes output data layers that are relevant across multiple city departments and research domains. Outputs from the aerial survey(Hyperspectral, Thermal and high resolution RGB images), for example, are already in demand by city departments and will also support academic research. The city’s ongoing URBREATH project, which  includes the use of innovative tools for nature based solutions, is another key initiative that will benefit directly from the data and tools generated through the USAGE use cases. A data sharing agreement between the university and the city currently under formulation will define how the data space is governed and accessed. Ongoing discussions are laying the foundation for a sustainable and collaborative data governance framework.