Table 1 Key analytical and practical applications of big data technology for multiple urban domains

Transport

Monitoring and analyzing road conditions and traffic jams to detect accidents early on and then quickly responding to them by providing alerts and road assistance, thereby reducing or avoiding them and ensuring safety to drivers

Controlling traffic flows and predicting traffic conditions with the aim to reduce roads’ congestion by opening new roads and directing vehicles to alternative ones, thereby improving traffic patterns as well as enhancing or re-engineering transport infrastructure on the basis of historical congestion data

Using open-source frameworks to implement large-scale agent-based simulation models where different scenarios can be supported by these models, such as air pollution from traffic

Explaining why traffic significantly varies from 1 hour or day to another even if demand profiles are similar, and how and the extent to which this may affect energy consumption patterns and concomitant GHG emissions levels accordingly

Predicting spatiotemporally the development and propagation of traffic congestion with small errors, and explaining how the severity of these effects can be stronger in case of non-recurrent events (e.g. accidents), as well as how this can affect the productivity and resilience of transportation systems

Helping to understand whether or the extent to which the real urban traffic can be considered an equilibrium system, equilibrium conditions with small variations, with respect to cost functions as well as how people really make choices in transportation networks for long periods and how these choices affect the development and propagation of traffic congestion in such networks

Providing effective ways to identify the macroscopic observables and control parameters that are of influence on individual decisions and integrating them in agent-based simulation models, based on the large number and variety of trajectories and disaggregated traffic data in different locations and of different sizes

Modeling the traffic evolution under strong or significant changes of network topologies

Calculating and analyzing the costs and environmental impacts of the transportation choices or decisions of people, combining all modes of transit

Interconnecting various components of transportation systems (vehicles, infrastructure, drivers, roads, networks, parking spaces, etc.) for enhancing the control, management, and optimization of different processes (in relation to, for example, energy efficiency, GHG emissions, land use, etc.)

Providing location-based services related to on-board navigation systems, which allows effective use of existing transport infrastructure and network and thus cost- and time-efficient routes. This in turn minimizes traffic congestion

Addressing equity and inclusion issues in urban transport using smartphone apps and thus playing a key role in creating and mainstreaming socially sustainable urban transport

Providing proximity-based services showing information when passengers really need it and thereby enabling them to choose different modes of transport in real time

Enhancing transportation system efficiency by influencing personal travel behavior decisions using advanced platforms and smartphone apps

Providing visibility into transit system performance based on cloud-based solution, and helping cities make better decisions about transportation by combining big data and spatial analytics

Advanced parking allows efficient management of multiple parking spaces using and integrating sensors, as well as access to real-time and historical data and making optimal use of parking resources

Gathering, integrating, and delivering the data on parking spaces by combining Wi-Fi infrastructure with IP cameras, sensors, and smartphone apps, and then providing visibility into parking analytics, including usage and vacancy periods, which can help with long-term city planning

Enabling an integrated solution to the parking search problems, a location-based smart application which monitors and controls sensors deployed on the curb-side, and communicates the information in real time to the drivers

Mobility

Finding answers to many challenging analytical questions about travel or mobility behavior, such as:

What is the spatiotemporal distribution of individual travel following the most popular itineraries?

How do individual behave when approaching a key attractor, such as a central station and airport?

How can we predict areas of dense traffic in the near future?

How can we predict travel behavior in mixed-land use areas across spatial and over different temporal scales?

How can we classify mobility behavior in high density areas?

How can we classify travel behavior according to some contextual variables (e.g. spatiotemporal setting)?

How can we predict areas of frequent cycling and walking mode in the near future?

How can we find useful travel behavior categories or collective mobility patterns?

How can we find correlation between mobility modes and environmental and life quality indicators?

Explaining how travel behavior or mobility mode is related to the network topology, and how small or large perturbations in demand profiles and network characteristics affect the choices of individuals concerning routes, modes, and departure times

Explaining how urban design features and related planning tools affect the choices of people in terms of travel mode, behavior, and route, and how this in turn affects social structures and economic networks

Gathering, integrating, and analyzing real-time mobility data and data from large-scale datasets that can simultaneously record and calibrate dynamical traces of individual and collective mobile movements across various spatial scales and over different temporal scales to understand the dynamic interplay between individual and collective mobility and social interactions

Using big mobility data to scrutinise different spatiotemporal patterns together with the intensity and frequency of social interactions as well as social structures, thereby coupling mobility patterns and social networks, which can edge towards understanding and studying the evolutionary dynamics of cities as social spheres and their evolving borders

Analyzing travel behavior and mobility modes together with transport systems and networks for discovering patterns, making correlations, and then acting upon the results by deploying them across different decision support systems

Enabling new business models such as Mobility-as-a-Service, such as car sharing, bike sharing, and driver service (as well as premium parking and city parking)

Enabling local authorities to monitor and respond to mobility in real-time manner

Improving the different aspects of physical and virtual mobility for effective spatial and non-spatial accessibility to opportunities, services, and facilities

Enabling complex knowledge discovery processes from the raw data of individual trajectories up to high-level collective mobility knowledge, capable of supporting the decisions of mobility and transportation administrators in relation to different aspects of sustainability

Advancing the content of social media to extract useful information that might be linked to new schemes for mobility management. Social media data will come on stream that is likely to be more focussed as social media technology becomes widespread

Allowing seamless, efficient, and flexible travel across various modes, i.e., multi-modal transport system. For example, a multimodal trip planner allows users to schedule transit, travel, and map information, and gives detailed step-by-step directions alongside interactive route maps and also details of public transport services required and transfer information

Providing hassle-free usage of multiple modes of shared and public transport

Enabling citizens to spend less time in traffic and more time for important things in life, to have flexibility to use the best-fitting transport mode, to enjoy safer and sustainable transport system, and to benefit from lower costs, as well as allowing cities to reduce or optimize the use of land resources

Energy

Finding answers to several analytical questions about energy usage levels and consumption patterns, such as:

How can we predict energy consumption increase and decrease in the near future?

How can we predict or characterize urban energy usage in dense and/or mixed-land use areas?

How can we predict or characterize household energy consumption?

How can we predict GHG emissions and their environmental impacts in the near future?

How can we predict urban energy usage over different temporal scales?

Allowing citizens to have access to live energy prices and to adjust their use accordingly

Enabling the use of pricing plans in accordance with energy demand and supply models

Reorganizing energy demand and supply using advanced pricing and billing mechanisms, based on the energy market and production

Providing incentives to the users and consumers that save energy, and creating other incentives to use renewable or carbon-neutral energy at a certain time by offering a better price for electricity on a windy or sunny day

Self-optimizing and -controlling energy consumption through integrating sensing and actuation systems in relation to different kinds of appliances and devices for balancing power generation and usage

Enabling distributed energy systems to become self-managing and self-sustaining, as well as services in the energy market to become dynamically reorganized and coordinated

Enabling new mechanisms for trade on the basis of supply and demand in the energy market

Allowing consumers to manage their usage based on what they actually need and afford

Enabling users to remotely control their home appliances and devices based on the IoT, and providing them with advanced functions like scheduling, programming, and reacting to different contextual situations

Controlling millions of connected distributed energy resources across the Internet using demand response optimization and management systems

Allowing users and consumers to precisely estimate rooftop solar electric potential (PV panels) for almost every building by a simple click or by inputting an address using an interactive online rooftop solar mapping tool

Enabling energy systems to gather and act on near real-time data on power demand, generation, and consumption from end-user connections (information about producers and consumers’ behavior)

Power grid

Supporting decision-making pertaining to the generation and supply of power in line with the actual demand of citizens and other city constituents to optimize energy efficiency and thus achieve energy savings

Optimizing power distribution networks associated with energy demand and supply

Monitoring and analyzing energy consumption and GHG emissions levels in real time across several spatial scales and over different temporal scales, with the purpose to curb energy usage and thus mitigate environmental impacts, as well as enhancing the performance and effectiveness of the power system

Managing distribution automation devices to improve the efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of power production and distribution

Avoiding potential power outages resulting from high demand on energy using dynamic pricing models for power usage by increasing charges during peak times to smooth out peaks and applying lower charges during normal times

Avoiding the expensive and carbon-intensive peaks in power grid using new ways of coordination with regard to the overall ensemble of users and consumers and provide dynamic pricing schemes

Enabling power distribution based on a community or neighborhood model instead of a broadcasting model

Improving coordination and planning around power generation from renewable energy plants depending on wind or sun, as good estimations of power generation from wind, solar panels, and photovoltaic plants can be made in advance

Environment

Improving the environment through increasing air quality and reducing noise pollution and GHG emissions by deploying and setting up stations across the city as well as mounting sensors on bike wheels and cars for measuring and analyzing air data and acting upon the obtained results

Providing information about air quality extracted from cities’ preexisting environmental monitoring networks using Web applications, a rapid and effective technological answer to the needs of people with special sensitivity to environmental allergies

Connecting data, citizens, and knowledge to serve as a node for building open indicators and distributed tools, and thereafter the collective construction of the city for its own inhabitants, using an open-source platform for crowd-sourced environmental monitoring

Predicting future environmental changes based on spatial and temporal geographic maps, and detecting natural disasters to save lives and resources

Removing many types of pollutants detrimental to the pubic health through pervasive sensors deployed for detecting pollution in the air and water systems

Monitoring the urban climate and analyzing related data to discover the origins of GHG emissions, as well as measuring and monetising cities’ CO₂ emissions by combining satellites and ground sensors’ data

Buildings

Monitoring and optimizing the operational energy use within residential, industrial, public, and commercial buildings by means of an integrated system of sensors and actuators associated with the mechanical, electrical, and electronic systems of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC). This can even be more effective if implemented across several spatial scales and over different time spans

Monitoring and managing the environmental conditions in buildings as well as demand control ventilation and control temperature, in addition to the energy system performance

Minimizing heat/cooling losses and monitoring CO₂ emission levels

Managing window and door operations and providing lighting based on occupancy schedules

Allowing the digital and physical objects in buildings to, based on a sensor and actuator system, process data, self-configure, and make independent decisions pertaining to their operations and functions by reacting to the physical environment

Building energy benchmarking through visualization tools that make it possible to view energy usage for individual buildings using maps, charts, and statistics to hone in on a region of interest and view energy usage

Infrastructures

Monitoring and controlling the operations and structural conditions of urban infrastructures, including roads, railway tracks, bridges, tunnels, power grids, and water systems to minimize risk, decrease cost, and ensure safety and service quality, thereby improving incident management, emergency response coordination, service efficiency, and operational costs reduction

Allowing for scheduling repair and maintenance activities in an efficient manner by coordinating tasks between different service providers and operators of urban infrastructures and facilities

Monitoring, managing, and enhancing waste and water systems and related distribution networks

Relating urban infrastructures effectively to their operational functioning through control, automation, optimization, and management enabled by data analytics

Smart waste systems designed for public spaces, which comprise modular components that enable cities to deploy waste and even compost stations that respond to the needs of each station’s locations

Increasing efficiency and transparency in waste management based on sensor solutions, through tracking container fill-levels and optimizing pickup routes, thereby reducing the environmental footprint of the waste

Enabling a dynamic routing system for waste management using software tools and sensors to lower costs of services by building, delivering, and analyzing the most efficient routes for a fleet

Using simulation models to estimate water supply and demand. Users can explore how water sustainability is influenced by different scenarios of regional growth, climate change impacts, drought, and water management policies

A cloud-based platform for data-driven water demand management intended, which maximises water-use efficiency and improve financial forecasting accuracy through engaging citizens

Smartening up urban metabolism by collecting, processing, and analyzing a large amount of data pertaining to the use of material and energy resources as well as waste generation, and then identifying and suggesting alternative routes of development that would reduce the ecological footprint of the city while ushering in new relations with the immediate surrounding lands and water

Urban planning

Relating the urban infrastructure to its planning through monitoring, analysis, modeling, simulation, prediction, and intelligent decision support associated with engineering, strategy development, and policy design

Fully integrating urban systems, coordinating urban domains, and coupling urban networks to enhance land use and development, optimize resource utilization, reduce city costs, and streamline processes

Integrating urban systems in terms of operations, functions, services, strategies, and policies for more effective and efficient functioning, management, and planning

Helping cities quickly identify underperforming domains, evaluating improvement and cost-saving potential, and prioritising domains and actions for energy and performance efficiency interventions using decision-support tools

Developing intelligence functions for the efficiency of energy systems, the improvement of transport and communication systems, the effectiveness of distribution networks, the optimal use and accessibility of facilities, and the optimization of ecosystem and human service provision

Using urban simulation models to aid urban planners and strategists in understanding under what conditions urban systems and domains may fail to deliver or underperform at the level of sustainability and what to do about it

Using advanced modeling and simulation systems to predict changes and forecast potential problems, and accordingly to enhance current designs, mitigate environmental impacts, and avoid public health risks

Predicting population growth and socio-economic changes and needs and thus devising more effective strategies in terms of seamlessly integrating advanced technologies and sustainable urban design and planning principles

Grouping, characterising, and profiling citizens in relation to sustainable lifestyles for inducing behavioral changes and improving the quality of life and well-being

Enabling joined-up and integrated planning which allows system-wide effects to be tracked, understood, analyzed, and built or integrated into the very designs and responses that characterize urban operations, functions, and services

Analyzing policies and their impact and effectiveness with the aim to improve or change them according to new social and urban trends and major global shifts

Enabling space-time convergence in planning (and design) methods based on sophisticated simulation models using computer models of various kinds that operate at various spatial scales and over different time spans as to predicting changes and understanding how cities function in connection with land use, densification, public transport, location of physical activities, and so on

Enabling short-termism in city planning—what takes place in cities measured, evaluated, modeled, and simulated over days or months instead of years or decades

Urban design

Monitoring, analysing, and evaluating the environmental and social performance of urban sustainability strategies (typologies and design concepts) in terms of the extent to which they contribute to sustainable development goals

Analyzing and evaluating the relationship between individual and collective mobility and environmental and socio economic performance assumed to be achieved through urban sustainability strategies, i.e., spatial and urban proximity, contiguity, agglomeration, and/or connectivity

Enhancing the performance and practicality of urban sustainability strategies through augmenting them with smart applications and services, or improving their integration based on different spatial scales using simulation models

Optimizing sustainable urban design in terms of the principled set of organized and coordinated spatial patterns and structures and physical arrangements with regard to the contribution to sustainable development goals

Informing future designs on the basis of predictive insights and forecasting capabilities enabled by the aggregated urban simulation models of different situations of urban life thanks to the recent advances in, and pervasiveness of, sensor technologies and their ability to provide information about medium- and long-term changes

Facilitating the application of systems thinking and complexity sciences to solve the existing wicked problems associated with sustainable urban design, such as the distribution of sustainable typologies across several spatial scales

Allowing citizens to view the location and size of their city’s trees, submit information to help tag them, and advocate for more trees in their area, based on an interactive Web application that measures cities’ green spaces. This relates specifically to greening which is a key concept of sustainable urban design

Academic research

Overcoming the limitations of ‘small data’ studies associated with such data collection and analysis methods as surveys, focus groups, case studies, participatory observations, interviews, content analyzes, and ethnographies, including high cost, infrequent periodicity, quick obsolescence, inaccuracy, incompleteness, as well as subjectivity and biases

Overcoming the inherent deficiencies of limited samples of data that are tightly focused, time- and space-specific, restricted in scope and scale, and relatively expensive to generate and analyze, which affects the robustness of research results

Drastically changing the way the research data can be collected, processed, analyzed, modeled, and simulated within various academic and scientific research domains so as to make decisions easier to judge and more fact-based in relation to urban operations, functions, strategies, plans, policies, and other practices

Completely redefining urban problems and understanding them in new ways, as well as enabling entirely novel ways to tackle them, thereby doing more than just enhancing existing practices, especially in relation to sustainability

Transforming and advancing knowledge based on the deluge of urban data that seeks to provide more sophisticated, wider-scale, finer-grained, real-time understanding, and control of various aspects and complexities of urbanity

Enabling well-informed, knowledge-driven practices based on advanced forms of intelligence with regard to the operational functioning, management, design, planning, and development of urban systems in the context of sustainability

Promoting and facilitating openness and access to public data and their integration with the private information assets for use in city analytics and big data studies to advance the knowledge about sustainability

Advancing environmental indicators and objective targets for the purpose of monitoring progress, implementing strategies, allocating resources, and increasing the accountability of stakeholders

Enabling novel and harmonising urban-level metrics for monitoring the goals of sustainable development through more objective and robust indicators and targets developed and continuously enhanced based on big data analytics

Exploring and discovering laws and principles of sustainability pertaining to environmental and socio-economic aspects, and allowing an inference of stakeholders’ responses to operations, functions, services, strategies, designs, and policies in relevance to sustainability

Governance

Enabling governments to establish, formulate, and implement more effective policies based on the enhanced insights (trends, shifts, lifestyles, environmental concerns, etc.) resulting from the useful knowledge that is extracted from large masses of data on citizens and their behavior and tendencies in terms of sustainability, education, and healthcare

Facilitating platforms for shared knowledge for ensuring democratic governance and informed participation by allowing citizens to get more involved and engaged and to blend their knowledge with that of urban experts

Enabling widespread participation of citizens in relation to several functions of city governance and planning

Building up e-governance tools and connecting the cooperative participation with the personal knowledge of citizens with respect to promoting environmentally friendly activities, such low-carbon mobility, sustainable travel behavior, emission-free transport, demand-based utility, incentive-based energy usage, etc.

Organizing and coordinating various governmental agencies with common interests towards collaboration, integration, optimization, and further development

Enabling responsive e-government to rich, dynamic, and real-time data for efficient service delivery, enhanced interaction, and empowered citizenry, or more effective government management. This can be enabled through wireless communication networks, data processing platforms, cloud/fog computing, distributed computing, and mobile computing that have the ability to transform relations with citizens and other relevant arms of government

Reducing corruption, enhancing transparency, providing convenience, decreasing costs, achieving equity and inclusion, and promoting citizen empowerment through advanced e-government

Healthcare

Predicting epidemics, disease outbreaks, and cures, as well as preventing or avoiding preventable death

Flagging potential health issues frequently or on a demand basis by monitoring and analyzing complex occurrences and events

Enabling efficient healthcare systems that provide permanent monitoring, traceability of patients and their medical

devices, and full accessibility of their data

Using monitoring devices or specialized sensors to quickly detect anomalies, recognise patients’ behaviors, and identify and predict changes in their normal parameters

Enabling remote health monitoring systems by observing patients outside of conventional medical or clinical settings, thereby reducing healthcare delivery costs

Integrating clinical devices into living spaces to enable patients to communicate health data to hospitals or medical centers using smartphone apps

Enabling efficient emergency notification systems by facilitating the dissemination of messages to many groups of people alerting or notifying them of an extant or pending emergency situation

Connecting medical centers, patients, and doctors with data repositories and health monitoring software tools

Enabling doctors to detect the warning signs of serious illness during the early stage of treatment

Facilitating rapid changes in the models of treatment delivery and many decisions behind these changes

Using consumer devices to encourage healthy living, especially for senior or elderly citizens

Mining DNA of citizens to discover, model, simulate, and improve health aspects

Enabling responsive and proactive environments that allow for easy participation of citizens in their own healthcare management, as well as a remote monitoring of physical activity and well-being and e-inclusion for citizens with physical disabilities

Mainstreaming and tailoring care services, enhancing diagnosis processes, and providing precautionary and proactive care services as well as accurate, appropriate, and history-aware responses to health issues

Public safety

Monitoring urban environments to alert citizens and informs public services of potential risks and vulnerabilities

Contributing to risk assessment and hazard identification and providing immediate response to perceived threats

Allowing or denying access to certain individuals to public places as well as preventing potential unrest and thereby protecting public places and citizens

Predicting natural disasters to save lives and resources

Enabling a data-driven approach to understanding and addressing transportation-related health issues using an online database and analytical tool to inform public and private efforts to improve transportation system safety and public health

Tracking and predicting pollution or spread of chemicals in certain urban areas to prevent or mitigate adverse health effects by notifying citizens to evacuate or avoid those areas

Education

Improving education and learning methods in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and richness through adaptable, personalised, flexible, and pertinent processes and services

Optimizing evaluation methods as to finding out whether the allocated resources are producing the right results or the allocation is being done efficiently, as well as whether there is a need for the integration and coordination of these resources for further effectiveness, efficiency, and cost reduction

Enhancing learning attitudes and behaviors by analyzing interactions with the different sorts of academic material and reactions to academic curriculums, and the acting upon the obtained results

Enhancing the existing, or creating new, education and learning practices based on deep insights into emerging social trends and global shifts, extracted as a result of big data analytics

Allowing citizens to actively engage in, and benefit from, the kind of leaning environments that are conducive to the adaptation to societal development and change in terms of new scientific paradigms, emerging intellectual transitions, discontinuities, disruptive innovations, technological advancements, and so on

Continuously advancing knowledge production, teaching, and learning methods to deliver and disseminate the most relevant and useful forms of education with regard to current societal needs and market demands

Reducing private education cost, providing life-long learning and eduction opportunities, and enabling self-learning and creative education