EO-based Smart City Decision Support Services for Integrated Urban Governance: the DECUMANUS project

Abstract

Urbanization is a fundamental force of change and in Europe has underpinned the flourishing of civilization for millennia. However, the 21st-century is also witnessing the impact of other societal challenges, including climate change adaptation, and mitigation, as well as the need to secure the efficient utilisation of finite resources. These societal challenges are impacting not only the social fabric of urban life, and the economy of cities, but also the civil quality of urban environments throughout Europe. It is clear that if properly governed cities can become a major part of the solutions to the growing threat of these urban challenges, and so can become economically vital, culturally vibrant, and healthy environments delivering first-class quality of life for hundreds of millions of city dwellers throughout Europe. Nonetheless, the challenge of urban governance is immense, and must address the complex and interconnected reality of urban systems to secure a proper balance between the socio-economic and environmental dynamics of urban areas. The key to effective governance of cities is the generation of the necessary intelligence to inform decision-making by city administrations and politicians, to guide urban policy making and implementation, and to inform and engage all citizens in the delivery of sustainable urban development. The DECUMANUS project underpins this understanding that the delivery of more sustainable cities requires the application of enhanced intelligence in urban management, to produce an effective basis for assessment of urban complexity and decision-making. The enhanced services proposed by DECUMANUS offer the potential to provide urban planners with the tools and intelligence that allow city managers to deploy geo-spatial products in the development and implementation of their climate change strategies, and more generally in meeting the diverse challenges of sustainable urban development. The services are based on related state-of-the-art Earth Observation techniques, methodologies and products. The paper analyses the impact of the developed DECUMANUS services on urban governance and provides an overview of the services identified by the project city users as most relevant and useful for supporting the sustainable governance of the city.