Infrastructure

Building enduring smart city data platforms to provide urban management support

Former CURA visiting scholar Kristina Wolf recently published the paper “Building enduring smart city data platforms to provide urban management support: lessons learnt from UK Urban Observatories and the US Smart Columbus Operating System” in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities. Former CURA post-doctoral fellow Jonathan Stiles and myself are also co-authors. The paper is a case study of the Smart City Operating System (SCOS), part of a Smart City project awarded by the US Department of Transportation in 2016 in Columbus Ohio. SCOS was developed as a robust smart city data management platform. However, despite a well-designed organization, methodology, and processes, the platform did not sufficiently capture city users, and was no longer used soon after demonstration funding ended in 2021. The study compares the SCOS with urban data observatories in the UK, concluding their more restrained scope, university support and stable funding environment made them more successful.

Wolf, K., Stiles, J., Miller, H.J., Dawson, R.J., Mills, J.P., Blythe, P. and Morley, J. (2025) “Building enduring smart city data platforms to provide urban management support: Lessons learnt from UK Urban Observatories and the US Smart Columbus Operating System,” Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 7:1512847.

Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice: New Report

Decades of research have shown that the most disadvantaged communities exist at the intersection of high levels of hazard exposure, racial and ethnic marginalization, and poverty. Geospatial environmental justice (EJ) tools, such as the White House Council on Environmental Quality-developed Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), are designed to integrate different kinds of health, social, environmental, and economic data to identify disadvantaged communities and to aid policy and investment decisions that address the pervasive, persistent, and largely unaddressed problems associated with environmental disparities in the United States.  Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, offers recommendations for developing environmental justice tools that reflect the experiences of the communities they measure.

I am very proud to co-chair this consensus study committee and grateful to work with an excellent study committee and the first-rate National Academies staff on a report that I sincerely hope leads to environmental justice for all in the US.

Electric, Autonomous, & Green: The Future of Personal Transportation – Columbus Metropolitan Club – May 3 2023

On Wednesday, May 3 2023, I had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion on the Future of Personal Transportation at the Columbus Metropolitan Club. Joining me on the panel were Preeti Choudhary, Executive Director, DriveOhio, Ted Angel, Director, Aerospace Affairs, Dayton Development Coalition, and  host Walker Evans, Co-Founder & CEO, Columbus Underground.

My main message – the future of personal transportation should be similar to the history of personal transportation – walking, biking and public transit. Electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles and advanced air mobility are simply continuations of the same thing we have been trying for a century – cars and car dependence.  As should be clear, cars are not working well, and we can’t solve our car problem with more car-ing.

Event Page

Video of the panel discussion