Introduction:

Urban Observatory is a platform that uses data from different sources to enable analysis and visualization over a geospatial platform. Such platforms churn out interesting analyses and visualizations by collating massive datasets. The concept of Urban Observatories was formally initiated at the UN Habitat-II Conference in 1997 in Istanbul.

Body:

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has inaugurated India Urban Observatory in New Delhi. The initiative, launched in partnership with Cisco, Quantela Inc, ESRI and AWS. The India Urban Observatory is an important component of the recently launched DataSmart Cities strategy that envisions to create a ‘Culture of Data’ in cities, for intelligent use of data in addressing complex urban challenges.

The key features of India Urban Observatory:

• The India Urban Observatory will collect data from various IoT devices and sensors, the Integrated Command & Control Center (ICCC) and other urban indicators and analyze them to generate insights for all stakeholders and city planners.
• It will leverage data analytics to optimise city operations, improve governance and enhance economic performance of cities across the country.
• It will showcase the insights gained from the Observatory and the various Missions/ offices with the idea to proactively engage with citizens/ visitors in spreading awareness about the various initiatives of the Ministry.
• It would progressively become the chief data analysis and Management Hub of the Ministry.
• It would enable evidence-based policy formulation, capacity building of ecosystem partners on data-driven governance, foster innovation through development of newer and better use cases thereby enabling solutions at scale and speed.
• Observatory recognizes the value of enhancing engagement among all four stakeholders of the ‘quadruple-helix’ model— Government, citizens, academia, and industry, along with improvements in the internal workflow and decision-making processes of city Governments.

Significance of IUO for DataSmart Cities:

• Making cities ‘DataSmart’ is key to realizing the full potential of technology interventions and innovation ecosystems in cities.
• The Data Smart Cities Policy allows cities to open their data to public view, such as number of hospitals, gardens, people, public toilets and other city management.
• It is imperative for the empowerment of communities that cities work on using information available through various sources to improve their functioning, public services, governance systems, achievements and failures in the public domain, thereby, empowering their citizens through the access to information.
• The future of Governance is data-driven and Indian cities are beginning to adopt this change in their functioning.
• Some examples of well-established Urban Observatories are the Global Urban Observatory network, the Dublin Dashboard and the City Dashboard of London.
• Such platforms churn out interesting analyses and visualizations by collating massive datasets.

Conclusion:

The ‘Smart Cities’ programme has been one of the biggest digitisation initiatives launched by any government across the world.  About 60% of India’s population is expected to live in cities by 2050.  Hence, to achieve sustainable urbanization, cities need to become smarter and more efficient. Cities can be ‘truly smart’ if they can leverage data for intelligent decision-making and the establishment of India Urban Observatory will go a long way in realizing this vision.