Urban dog spaces: the openness of dog-related government data in the city of Zagreb, Croatia *

Dogs and dog owners are increasingly present in modern urban spaces, and the construction and maintenance of urban infrastructure that includes places for them has become standard in most major cities. We wanted to investigate the extent to which the City of Zagreb is adhering to open data principles when it comes to dog-related data it makes available to citizens.The openness and quality of dog-related data was analysed in three steps. First, dog-related data was searched on various official websites and portals of the city and the data formats were ranked according to the five-star system for open data. In the second step, based on the available data, a field survey was conducted in 2020 to verify the found datasets and geocode them using a GPS device. In addition, the locations obtained from the local community of dog owners through social media were reviewed. Finally, data obtained from the survey was cross-checked with the government data to assess their quality. Government data on the locations of 300 dog waste bins and 72 green areas where dogs can be walked off-leash were available in Croatian from one or more government sources. All data sets found received the lowest score in terms of open data formats. Field survey revealed differences between the data and reality. The location of 40 dog waste bins could not be confirmed, and additional 53 bins were found that were not mentioned in the data. As for green areas, there were reportedly 10 dog parks in the city of Zagreb. The survey confirmed all locations and discovered 12 more, five of which were mentioned in the data but not designated as dog parks. The results suggest that the municipality needs to update the already open datasets more frequently. Improved implementation of these datasets into existing city data portals or the creation of a separate hub for dog owners would greatly improve the availability and reuse of this data by citizens

Showcase of Active Learning and Teaching Practices in Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Education

The new concept of Open Spatial Data Infrastructures (Open SDIs) has emerged from an increased interest in open data initiatives together with national and international directives, such as the EU Open Data Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/1024), and the large investment of European public authorities in developing SDIs for sharing spatial data within public authorities. Open SDIs have the potential to boost reaching SDIs’ general aims and goals of facilitating the exchange and sharing of spatial data to support planning and decision-making by including public participation and increased openness in all aspects of SDIs, including Open SDI Education. The open SPatial data Infrastructure eDucation nEtwoRk (SPIDER) project aims to address Open SDI Education by particular emphasis on studying Active Learning and Teaching (ALT) methods for SDI education. This article provides a theoretical basis of ALT for SDI methodologies. We show in which way ALT practices were already implemented in SDI education at the Partner universities before the COVID-19 pandemic. We also describe how the pandemic functioned as a catalyst for implementing ALT practices to an online environment, and how students evaluated these practices. The outcomes of our research can serve as an inspiration for SDI education in other countries

Benchmarking geospatial high-value data openness using GODI Plus methodology: a regional level case study

The 2019 European Open Data Directive identifies geospatial data as data that could have a major impact on human activities (high-value data, HVD) and advocates its provision as open data (OD), i.e., without barriers to access and re-use. Although Croatia has implemented OD policies to support the provision of open data, much geospatial data is still not available, or if available, its level of openness ranks Croatia lower than Slovenia and Serbia on some ranking lists. Benchmarking tools have proven to be a powerful tool in identifying barriers in OD. This paper, therefore, benchmarks the level of openness and provision of geospatial HVD in Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia using the extended and modified Global Open Data Index methodology (GODI Plus). It is expected that this will provide an answer to the status of OD policies and government engagement in OD in Croatia and identify good OD practices among the three countries analyzed. Furthermore, the results will be a zero benchmark for future HVD analyses. The results reveal low data openness for Croatia and Serbia, and a low level of government engagement in all three proposed countries

Readiness for Re-Use of Open Government Data for Solving Societal Problems Based on Public Participation: Kindergartens in the City of Zagreb

Urban Data Scienc

Readiness-for-reuse of open government data for solving societal problems based on public participation: kindergartens in the City of Zagreb

Urban Data Scienc

Methodology on Active Teaching and Learning on Open SDI

This report looks at different methods of active teaching and learning and the application of these methods at the partner universities of the SPIDER project. Different methods of on-campus and online teaching are presented and reports on experiences in their application at the partner universities are discussed. In combination with the results from Intellectual Output (IO) 4, this results in best practices for Open SDI Education.Urban Data Scienc

Showcase of Existing Active Teaching Practices

This report presents showcases of active teaching and learning in spatial data infrastructure education in the SPIDER partner universities. It includes detailed descriptions of the practices that have been implemented, as well as the results of the evaluation of the practices from an active teaching learning perspective.Urban Data Scienc

Open Data as a Condition for Smart Application Development: Assessing Access to Hospitals in Croatian Cities

This research aims to assess available spatial open data related to access to hospitals in the three largest Croatian cities (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka), with a future aim to create digital services as an ecosystem that will be used in everyday situations, as part of the concept of “digital society”. Data analysis is performed for the following datasets: hospitals, hospital specialization, public transport (tram, bus), bike routes, car routes, parking and parking for people with disabilities. The future aim is to create a new mobile, multilingual and voice-based application that would enable quick access to information on hospital access, relying on the principles of the open data ecosystem, which would improve over time. There are four specific aims: (1) to identify and analyze portals and open datasets of the selected categories for the three largest Croatian cities; (2) to analyze existing open data assessment frameworks and detect gaps; (3) to create a conceptual open data assessment framework as an open data ecosystem that integrates new end-user perspectives; and (4) to analyze existing open datasets for the three largest cities in Croatia, based on supply and demand by researcher/developer categories, using the newly developed framework. The results show that existing open datasets related to hospital access in the three largest Croatian cities are scattered across different portals. Analyzed frameworks existing on the supply side of open data are more focused on the status of the components, lacking evaluation scales and not including end-user-driven aspects, which would be crucial for the open data ecosystem. As a result, the new “Hospital Access Framework” is created as a conceptual ecosystem, including five categories: supply, demand by researcher/developer, demand by end-user, legal aspect and impact. Analysis of existing open data for the three Croatian cities is performed for two categories (supply and demand by researcher/developer), for which KPIs, indicators and evaluation scales are developed. The other three categories are not analyzed, since the application cannot be developed from existing data, which are insufficient for the creation of a smart application. Results show that existing open data related to hospital access are incomplete or do not exist at all (hospital specialization, parking for people with disabilities, data on multilingualism and voice enabling). Average scores of the supply category are higher than those for demand by researcher/developer, although they are below the average grade, showing a lack of available data that could be used for further development. The new conceptual “Hospital Access Framework” open data ecosystem would benefit from end-user interaction, therefore, improving over time with end-users through interaction.Urban Data Scienc