Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PoliVisu (Policy Development based on Advanced Geospatial Data Analytics and Visualisation)

Teaser

In today’s world, there is a widespread expectation that policy making should be more agile to keep pace with societal changes which are increasingly driven by the rapid development, deployment and expansion of emerging technologies and data. As the volume of collected data...

Summary

In today’s world, there is a widespread expectation that policy making should be more agile to keep pace with societal changes which are increasingly driven by the rapid development, deployment and expansion of emerging technologies and data. As the volume of collected data increased over the years, so did the number of available analytics/mapping tools. This is not surprising given that visualisations can make complex information more digestible than written text alone. Convey data in the right way graphically and hidden patterns suddenly become more apparent, similarities or differences more stark and key relationships easier to remember. By harnessing visualisation technologies, PoliVisu begins to evolve policy making that traditionally relied on intuition on post-its. As problems are illuminated, policy-making can become more targeted, with attention appropriately and efficiently directed; more tailored, so that responses fit divergent needs; more nimble, able to adjust quickly to changing circumstances; and more experimental, with real-time testing of how problems respond to different strategies. PoliVisu\'s overarching objective is to help public administrations easily explore, experiment and test innovative approaches in response to local problems so that cities can benefit from more sustainable policy decisions, creating win-win opportunities for all.

Work performed

\"In the first year, PoliVisu managed to achieved the following
- build a professional working relationship within the consortium, one that is based on trust and united by a common cause i.e. to help cities implement smarter policies using co-creation, big data and advanced visualisation technologies,
- advance the understanding of different models and processes that characterise today\'s policy making ,
- gain insights into data literacy among public administrations across Europe,
- gather detailed user requirements for scenario planning in each of the participating pilot cities: Ghent, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Pilsen,
- attract new cities to test the PoliVisu solution (Mechelen, Kortrijk),
- develop technical specifications for the PoliVisu Toolbox that meet evolving preferences of its potential end users,
- design an evaluation framework capable of capturing all of the project\'s outputs, impacts and outcomes methodically and accurately,
- raise awareness about PoliVisu among thousands of prospective adopters in Europe and internationally, and
- draft an exploitation plan that can lead to long-term sustainability of PoliVisu results.

The overall progress has been dependent on achievements within individual work packages
- WP1 Ethics Requirements provided important guidance for project partners on privacy and confidentiality, and in so doing helped them prepare for future work with citizens/research participants. It explained concepts like \"\"informed consent\"\" and periodically checked whether PoliVisu activities were in line with data protection regulation.
- WP2 Project and Quality Management applied tried and trusted project management techniques to ensure sound coordination of work across different teams and work packages. Crucially, it ensured consistency and quality in the consortium\'s work by providing templates, looking after the shared online space, organising meetings (online and offline), monitoring risks, answering queries, sending reminders about important dates and tasks, among many other tasks.
- WP3 Policy Making and Experimentation Cycle conducted high-quality research to investigate the situation of data literacy among public administrations in Europe, a task it completed by initiating a survey that yielded more than 100 responses. Another important contribution was the creation of PoliVisu policy making model whose purpose is to guide future pilot activities and provide vital policy content for publication in the Toolbox.
- WP4 Technical Components outlined key tools that will be used in the project to support data driven policy making. Additionally, it covered different aspects of data management, from storage to metadata to visualisation, that are crucial for interoperability and long-term success.First visualisation tools focused on traffic accidents and traffic intensity were released.
- WP5 Components Integration was responsible for creating a plan that would tie all the different technical components together. As part of this work, WP5 team produced a collection of mock-ups for the forthcoming Toolbox.
- WP6 Pilot Scenarios and Deployment analysed datasets that demonstrator locations in Ghent, Issy-les-Moulineaux and Pilsen currently have against their future needs. The exercise concluded that most datasets are already available and that missing ones will become available in the future subject to third party\'s good will/willingness to cooperate. WP6 also succeeded in expanding the number of pilot cities by two. Conversations are now being held Mechelen and Kortrijk about how PoliVisu can best address their policy needs.
- WP7 Policy Impact and Evaluation WP7 created a methodology for assessing the impact of various pilot activities using different summative and formative evaluation techniques. By the end of Y1 it reported on the results of a closed evaluation, so called because it was carried out mostly on people working in public organisations linked to three pilot partners.
- WP8 Dissemination, Exploi\"

Final results

PoliVisu will help six cities/regions implement smart mobility policies that have a clear public benefit. PoliVisu tools (e.g. WebGLayer, Spark Traffic Modeller) will boast a user-friendly interface and can be plugged into any dashboard software, for example Macq M3. The tools along with dataset types, visualisations and inspiring case studies are published on the platform (Toolbox) for the benefit of others who may wish to replicate PoliVisu success in their city. The impact of project results is augmented through advanced discovery services that enable PoliVisu data, metadata, visualisations and case studies to be easily discovered via search engines thanks to the application of rich card/snippet format. Interested parties can also benefit from the PoliVisu MOOC to learn how to use big and open data and tools to make better policy decisions.

PoliVisu is only thirdway through its journey but its visualisations already helped stakeholders in Flanders and Pilsen to make better policy decisions. The Flanders accident map is based on Federal Police data for 2014-2018 and displays accident hotspots across the entire region. It was used by decision makers to investigate the incidence of pedestrian casualties near schools and car accidents near junctions with broken traffic lights. The Pilsen traffic volume map sources data from the city\'s open data portal and shows how many cars pass through the streets of Pilsen as per sensor data. The visualisation has been used by decision makers to plan roadworks in different parts of the city.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.polivisu.eu.