[Ica-osgeo-labs] Urban Science - City Analytics - first thoughts

Sun Feb 22 12:23:25 PST 2015

Charlie,

Yes! We need a list of use cases that cities have for addressing their needs.
Then we need to boil that down into a set of requirements/functionalities.
We need to assess which are of more common interest and which might be easier or smarter (more fundamental) to build first.
And we’ll want real cities interested in participating, to be testing this out and providing feedback.

As for a foundational platform, yes World Wind is there, Java, iOS and Android. The interesting thing about the web version (JavaScript/HTML5/WebGL) we are developing now is that it will provide visualization for the subsurface. Much of a city’s infrastructure is underground, so this would seem an essential element. I think the only requirement should be that the OSGEO solution does not require proprietary software and has an open source license that allows others to continually advance the platform as needed.

And I don’t think this effort requires an education component (your item 3). It certainly would be free for GIS courses to include it in their real-world teaching experience. That will happen all on its own, especially if what we are doing proves valuable to the municipalities.

As for Goog docs or OSGEO wiki, the only reason Goog is being ‘nice’ is to sift you and sell you out. So I would prefer an OSGEo wiki.

-Patrick
 650.604.5656 (office)
 650.269.2788 (cell)

From: Charles Schweik [mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu]
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2015 12:33 AM
To: Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)
Cc: Chandola, Varun; Anthony Beck; Jeremy Morley; Chris Pettit; SERGIO ACOSTAYLARA; Antoni Pérez Navarro; Doreen Boyd; Phil Davis (pdavis at delmar.edu); Suchith Anand (suchith_anand at yahoo.com); Jim Miller (miller at ittc.ku.edu); MELICK Brandt; Mueller, Thomas; Tkachenko, Nataliya; Ye, Xinyue; Ruslan Rainis; Ingo Simonis; Gabor Remetey; Maria Brovelli (maria.brovelli at polimi.it); Giuseppe Conti; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: Urban Science - City Analytics - first thoughts

Patrick, Chris, All:

One direction would be to use this common interest across the network to do these things:

1) Inventory who in our network is doing what development or application in this Urban Science area currently;
2) Inventory key needs or research questions on the development (and application) side;
3) Inventory key educational needs/desires;
4) Use this above to develop a shared document (Google Doc or OSGeo wiki page maybe?) that we could use to go after funding to support our network.

I'm now freeing up to start to think about research network grant proposal writing... I don't know if somehow NASA's Worldwind could be a foundational technology here somehow?

My two cents,

Charlie

On Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 6:33 AM, Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX) <patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>> wrote:
Dear Urban Science - City Analytics Folks,

Chris Pettit is leading this and I am here to help. Each of you who are personally addressed, have expressed interest in moving this Urban Science - City Analytics theme into a bright future. If we think of this as putting the planet on track from the ground up, this is it, one city at a time! Solutions that we collectively share!!! To become a groundswell for all!

I think there may be a better name for this than "Urban Science - City Analytics" maybe 'Municipal Munificence' (just kidding) but at lease something less techno, i.e., SmartCity? This enterprise will not only address management of city infrastructure, zoning, permit process, taxation, flooding, traffic, routing of garbage trucks, and all the other munificent things integral to community living, but it will do this with an eye for constant improvement (analytics) to increase sustainability, prepare for climate change, and simply orient ongoing repair and growth in ways that continually improve the quality of city life.

This will necessarily decrease vehicle traffic, increase bicycle and pedestrian traffic, enhance more self-sufficient communities, increase cooperatives, and make schools, stores and services more accessible to more 'localized' communities. Then connect those local communities with each other via major public transportation arteries.

Okay, however ideal we orient, we must first address ^basic^ city management issues. Let's put together a list of what those are and then together prioritize them. At least that will establish the target. I see a lot of activity out there already thinking about these things. . .

Master programme in Sustainable Cities at Aalborg University Copenhagen
http://sustainablecities.aau.dk/

Climate Adaptation Guidebook for Municipalities
http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/documents/10180/14193/FY13-0119+Climate+Adaptation+toolkit+lowres.pdf

General background info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_city
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_energy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_transport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_living

WoW! A place where I would like to live!
A rural town in Italy, a leader in energy sustainability:
http://reregions.blogspot.com/2010/03/varese-ligure-italy.html

Local Grocery
http://www.cooperativegrocer.coop/articles/2004-01-08/mondragons-eroski-mass-retailer
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-new-economy/mondragon-worker-cooperatives-decide-how-to-ride-out-a-downturn

Local Agriculture & Industrial Equipment
http://opensourceecology.org/gvcs/gvcs-machine-index/
http://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski

Anyway, just a shot over our bow.
What shall we do? Where to from here?

-Patrick

 Patrick.Hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:Patrick.Hogan at nasa.gov>
 Project Manager
 NASA World Wind
 650.604.5656<tel:650.604.5656> (office)
 650.269.2788<tel:650.269.2788> (cell)

--
Charlie Schweik

Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Dept of Environmental Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration

Personal website: http://people.umass.edu/cschweik
Publications: http://works.bepress.com/charles_schweik/

Author, Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software (MIT Press, 2012) - see http://tinyurl.com/d3e4545

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