The Connected City Data Hub Scoping Study & Roadmap Project will advise on options and pathways for UrbanGrowth NSW’s investment in data delivery services. Among its priorities will be to understand UrbanGrowth NSW’s current and future data assets and how these might be made systematically available to academics participating through the UrbanGrowth NSW University Roundtable.

The current rise of big data, the internet of things (IoT), open data and advanced analytics means there is growing demand for data-driven platforms, services and analytics that support the design, planning, management and evaluation of major city transformation projects.

The emphasis on 'smart cities' and smart infrastructure services also increases the need for investment in a city's data assets to its overall competitive positioning and the health of its digital economy. In NSW, the government has made investments to improve access to underlying data around urban transformation by decision makers, researchers and citizens, nevertheless access to high quality, consistent, updated and replicable urban data remains a challenge and many data assets remained siloed within and between organisations so their value is far from being fully realised.

Expected Outputs

1.    A review of national and international best practice - The review will comprise of current international best practice in government data governance/information management, with focus on Spatial Data Infrastructure implementation. 

2.   UrbanGrowth NSW data audit - This activity will involve an audit of UrbanGrowth NSW’s datasets and data custodians, a review the types and quality of datasets, as well as obstacles and opportunities around data access. The audit will identify opportunities and limitations to improving the connectivity of data assets to support wider benchmarking of projects, including commercial-in-confidence data and other private data.

3.   Investment Pathways - This activity will develop a set of options (up to three) for investment and roll-out of the Connected City Data Hub. Options will take into account the existing ecosystem of data platforms currently in development or released within NSW Government (GSC Dashboard, NSW DAC, DP&E Digital Planning Tools), nationally (AURIN, Urban Data Analytics Infrastructure, Nation map) and internationally (Open CitySmart) current technology solutions and example use case scenarios. The investment parthway will be formulated using an innovative co-design approach where UrbanGrowth NSW staff and other key stakeholders will design the 3 investment options through an intensive hands-on workshop.