Urban Data Collective has partnered with the SHIFT innovation district in East London to conduct a three-month advanced data-sharing trial. The pilot program hopes to successfully demonstrate the concept of an ‘urban data commons’, where data from public and private sources – including real-time data – is pooled and used in agreed ways to tackle challenges.
Urban Data Collective’s Urban Data Exchange platform will provide a ‘sharing layer’ where live data from sensors, buildings, and other smart infrastructure in the area is made accessible.
The project will initially focus on renewable energy generation, using data from solar photovoltaic panels and environmental sensors to optimize the use of renewable energy and the management of renewable energy generation infrastructure. It will bring together data on particulate pollution, solar intensity, weather, and energy to better understand how these can be used to forecast energy generation and enable predictive maintenance.
“The learnings from this trial will have really wide relevance for East London and cities globally – using existing but largely unused data from across organizations to optimize existing infrastructure is a good example of how innovative use of data is helping us tackle some of the biggest issues facing cities today,” said Nick Turner, Data and Digital Manager at SHIFT.
Other organizations taking part in the trial include University College London, sensor provider Aeternum, and the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).
“While many people still talk about data-sharing and data spaces for smart cities and communities, we are actually bringing these to life,” said Alex Gluhak, CEO of Urban Data Collective. “We hope the trial will seed the grounds for many more innovative projects that will deliver real benefits to stakeholders on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and its co-located community and encourage more organizations to engage in data-sharing activities.”