Cities, data, and the New Urban Agenda

This chapter focuses on the institutional choices that governments at all levels, but especially local governments, can make regarding the entitlements over the data that is collected and processed in cities. It argues that governments should increasingly strive to create an urban digital infrastructure, comprised of the data that is collected by local governments, and the digital infrastructure needed to analyze it. The chapter deals with some key definitions that might be skipped by readers familiar with the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data. It explains the relationship between unprecedented urbanization and the digital transformation, and how the latter poses important risks and opportunities to meet the commitments of the New Urban Agenda (NUA). The impulse for using data in city government and giving cities more control over data and their digital infrastructure is slowly gaining international traction. The Coalition is “a joint initiative to promote and track progress in protecting residents’ and visitors’ digital rights.”.