What Happened?
The city of Chicago revealed a new strategy to use geospatial data to improve its sustainability initiative. The data sets will help decision makers and the private sector remain aware of the city’s progress in reducing carbon emissions and investing in greener energy sources.
The Goal
The city’s Sustainable Chicago 2015 project has laid out several goals divided into seven categories:
- Economic development/job creation
- Energy efficiency and clean energy
- Transportation options
- Water and wastewater improvements
- Parks, open space and healthy food
- Waste and recycling
- Climate change
The use of geospatial data is part of the energy efficiency and clean energy portion of the strategy. Two municipal energy-related data sets will be generated and shared with the public, allowing viewers to see how energy is consumed throughout Chicago and where alternative fuel sources can be found for upgraded or retrofitted vehicles. The interactive map offers information collected from local utility companies to detail energy usage by census block.
Then What?
After aggregating the data, the city is launching several public awareness campaigns to encourage the private sector to play a bigger role in energy-efficient initiatives. Demonstrating the value of the sustainability data, city officials are hoping to engage individuals and organizations to take full advantage of greener options and monitor progress.
WindyGrid
Chicago is also taking advantage of available spatial data to create a complete view of the city’s operations and equip leaders with information to make more informed decisions. The data sets include past information and real-time updates so strategies can be devised on how to prepare for events, respond to incidents and learn from history.
The city’s geographic information system tracks emergency calls being made, public transit updates, infrastructure information, public communications and other activities. Keeping a constant eye on what is happening throughout the city will help city officials avoid being caught off guard when incidents or disasters occur. The dangers of large crowds, major storms or other potentially hazardous events can be mitigated with constant monitoring and sharing of public data through the open source software tool.
When shared with city officials, WindyGrid aims to offer three functions:
- Situation awareness and incident monitoring
- Historical data retrieval
- Real-time advanced analytics
Therefore, users will be aware of what is happening at any time, how it compares to past incidents and how the situation progresses.
Human Energy
Another aspect of the Chicago Sustainability 2015 effort is to create alternative transportation options that reduce overall greenhouse emissions and reliance on harmful fuel. The city’s Divvy Bikes program was recently launched and provides a bike-sharing system to help residents traverse Chicago streets sans cars.
Similar to other bike-sharing programs across the country, Divvy Bikes offers users convenient locations throughout the city where bikes can be picked up or dropped off. The website also features bicycle safety information and a breakdown of Chicago’s laws to ensure the rides are hassle free.
Data Usage
Gov1 has monitored the use of data to improve communications and create interactive, informative maps.