Real-time Data Using Services: A Co-design Opportunity in ICOS Cities Project

ICOS Cities is an EU-funded project that aims to develop a systematic greenhouse gas measurement system for urban areas. The Work Package (WP) 1 of the project investigates economic, societal, and political dimensions that influence how city decision-makers use and will use emission data. The two main aims of WP1 are to: 1) Collect, unlock and harmonise prior information on city climate infrastructures and emissions, and 2) Investigate relevant services the city observatory should provide to answer the needs of cities in terms of estimation of their GHG emissions and implementation of their climate policies. Stakeholder engagement is facilitated in WP1 to map the information, service and policy needs of the city administrations, as well as by conducting social surveys and semi-structured interviews with the citizens. The authors are responsible for WP1 Task 1.4, which aims to co-design a number of service prototypes demonstrating the potential of the project in the pilot cities context and develop a general methodology for service development for the use of other cities. 

In the initial phase of our research, we conducted a benchmarking study to develop an in-depth understanding of existing services used by the cities to display and make sense of emission data and feed into policy processes from the perspective of their intended users. To achieve this, first, a number of stakeholders in different European cities have been surveyed to collect data on the existing services. Then, the technological constraints and the situation in three selected pilot cities of the project (Zurich, Munich, Paris) have been further explored in selected in-depth interviews with pilot city representatives or other topical experts. As a result, we developed an initial typology of existing services targeting different users of GHG emissions data, including but not limited to city-level policymakers. Several service types related to GHG monitoring were found, focusing on interactive carbon impact data, emission reduction monitoring, and services for estimating emissions of different types. These services have also been targeted at different actor groups and geographical resolutions and have different design realisations. 

Our findings indicate that services that connect real-time measurements (or even periodic measurements) to activities in municipal planning currently do not exist. Despite the availability of real-time data, the practices and standards on how such data is processed and used are only emerging, and the data is scattered amongst several actors. There also exist major challenges to moving assessments further from scope 1 (the direct impacts of energy and fuel use), and the process depends on many types of supplementary data. These gaps, amongst other elements of the service system, indicate significant opportunities for new service development, which we will focus on in the next phase of the project.