City Indicators Visualization and Information System (CIVIS): Fid-Bau Portal

City Indicators Visualization and Information System (CIVIS)

Samperio-Valdivieso, Álvaro / Hernampérez-Manso, Paula / Miguel-Herrero, Francisco Javier / Vallejo-Ortega, Estefanía / Hernández-Moral, Gema

Abstract

Sustainable urban transformation is characterized by multiple factors (e.g. technical, socioeconomic, environmental and ethical perspectives) that should address the evaluation of alternative urban planning scenarios or opportunities. This defines a complex decision-making process that includes various stakeholders where several aspects need to be considered simultaneously. In spite of the knowledge and experiences during the recent years, there is a need for methods that lead decision-making processes. In response, a City Evaluation Framework is proposed in the TEC4ENERPLAN project aiming at supporting cities during the preliminary stages of the strategic planning process through the definition of an evaluation framework to assist city managers in transforming cities towards sustainability. This methodology, based on indicators allows assessing specific characteristics of the city, diagnoses challenges or discovers patterns through reliable metrics but also compares various aspects of the cities thanks to the standardization of the indicators and indexes defined. Additionally, there is a need for tools that support the city planners when handling and interpreting data, solving automatically the complex processes of data processing and storage, selection of indicators, and valorization of the city-related values. Inside the TEC4ENERPLAN project, a full web-based application called City Indicators Visualization and Information System (CIVIS) is being developed to fulfil the aforementioned goals. Combining programming in Shiny under R language and the usage of storage with PostgreSQL databases, with the integration of advanced statistical techniques, the multidisciplinary data from the cities can be evaluated within an evaluation framework defined by indicators extracted from related ISO standards. Currently, the tool is in its final stage of development, prior to final validation with data from the cities. The result will be a web-based application tool that will inform users about the city’s progress towards sustainable development through the visualization of the city indicators aggregated per city pillar; it will even enable their comparison with the ones belonging to other cities. The application works this way as a valuable advisor during the decision-making process by highlighting in accordance with the resulting indexes which city assets need to be enhanced, which ones comply with the objectives set by the city, and the degree of development of those assets compared with similar municipalities. In a long-term view, the graphics and data would help to trace the evolution of the various different city strategies or politics, exposing clearly if those actions have had a positive or negative impact on the sustainable development. Considering this, the application should perform as a reliable measure for the city policies through time.