Projecte centre de coneixement urbà: EUP de Mataró - Ajuntament de Mataró: eines d’ajuda a la presa de decisions dins de l’àmbit de la gestió municipal

Abstract

The use of massive data within the field of local-government management causes some important problems to extract information and knowledge from data. In this article, tools are presented to help in decision-making. These tools allow to show complex analysis which connect diferent types of data, such as physical structures and elements in town (streets, blocks, plots of land and doorways), with the inhabitants who live there, service supplier centers and economic activity characteristics. Hypothesis and simulations of diferent scenes are also enabled. The Servei d’estudis i planificació - Study and Planning Service – of Mataró Town Council has put into practice these tools in its own town. The data used have their origin in diferent departments, such as Inhabitants Register, Property Register, and the City’s Map Department. Mataró Town Council, through Servei d’estudis i planificació, and the Escola Universitària Politècnica de Mataró (Mataró School of Engineering), as technology partner, have created the Centre de Coneixement Urbà – Urban Knowledge Center – to carry out these activities. The project is mainly based on the idea that graphically-presented information is more useful than alphanumerically-presented information. An essencial aim is the location of data in the territory from its georeference, as a Geographical Information System (GIS) does. In our case, however, the GIS is used just as an interface. What is actually valuable and strengthened is the integration of the diferent types of data to create graphic and georeferenced indicators (entities and thematic maps), which summarizes and improves the quality of the information. Application: 1) Service suppliers and proximity centers The main idea is to associate an area of influence to a particular Service Supplier Center (a school, a health center, a community center, etc.) with its number of vacancies and with the inhabitants targeted by and around this service. So, an indicator of the area of influence around the center can be generated. This indicator is a great tool to politicians or managers because it allows them to understand, over the city map, if there are empty areas not covered by the analysed service. Therefore “what if “ questions can be used to change the number of vacancies of the center, its situation or even removing or creating new ones. 2) Economic activity and relationship with population It allows to have a view of the town’s economic activity grouped into sectors. The user can choose diferent activities related in some diferent ways, for instance: retail, wholesale trading, restaurants, banks, textile, etc. All the entities corresponding to each query are shown on the map as plots of lands or doorways. And you can also graphically see the area legally declared by the owner of the activity. Moreover, these entities can be related to the inhabitants by previously defining a zone of influence of each activity center and by showing a thematic map of inhabitants left out from the area of influence, thus allowing geomarketing applications