What Happened?
Chicago uses predictive models to pinpoint risk areas throughout city operations to find and implement solutions faster and more efficiently. The data-driven strategies are currently focused on public health initiatives to improve the efficacy of city inspections.
Goal
The city of Chicago is leveraging predictive models to make city inspections more effective. The strategy factors in a variety of key public data points to determine where risks are highest throughout the city. One project is centered on eliminating infrastructures exposing residents to lead poisoning, a problem that impacts about 500,000 children annually in the U.S. Chicago is analyzing:
- Home inspection records
- Census data
- Construction history
By using predictive models, the city aims to find lead poisoning danger zones before children are exposed and become ill.
According to New Scientist, Chicago’s initiative builds off the Plenario platform that was launched to collect and share public data. The predictive models aim to analyze a growing pool of public data, identify trends and proactively deploy solutions to common problems. For example, city officials can look at missed tax or utility payments to identify areas of possible building neglect to determine if these sites needed to be inspected and improved.
Open Data Policy
Another data-driven initiative was recently expanded in Louisville where city officials have increased the amount of accessible information by nearly 200 percent in the past 12 months. Louisville’s open data portal provides residents, agencies and businesses with information across a variety of topics such as city spending, home sales and residential complaints, WFPL reported.
In fact, the Louisville mayor is calling for all public data from local government agencies should be considered “open by default” to create greater levels of transparency and accountability. This will make all public data accessible without barriers such as fees.
According to Louisville’s Civic Data Alliance, an open data policy can be utilized to boost economic growth by attracting new businesses to the city with the online portal. Many startup companies and entrepreneurs are interested in the use of data in business operations. These professionals may appreciate working with a city that is embracing data-based platforms.
Latest Data Trends
The 2014 Open Data Benchmark Report from Socrata analyzed how public sector organizations are using open data initiatives to improve decision making and performance. Open data initiatives involve public agencies sharing collected or aggregated data with the public – where the information can be consumed, manipulated and shared. The report of local government agencies revealed:
- 80 percent will invest the same or more in open data within the next 6 months
- 72 percent believe pursuing open data initiatives requires local government leadership to succeed
- 48 percent are focused on converting important data into open platforms
- 41 percent have set a goal of launching open data policies
- 85 percent use open data to improve transparency and trust with residents
- 75 percent find open data policies boost economic development and job growth
- 59 percent report open data policies increase tax revenue
Furthermore, 67 percent of respondents agree that open data initiatives make constituents’ lives better.
The Dawn of Data
Gov1 has looked at a variety of strategies for improve data use, particularly how cities are harnessing large pools of information to improve performance and economic growth.