Poster Paper:
Lessons from Rio: Opportunities for Street-Level Bureaucrats and NGOs to Optimize Big Data, Foster Climate Resilient Networks and Build Smarter Cities in Digitally Isolated Urban Areas
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Regency Ballroom (Hyatt Regency Chicago)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
In the 2016 publication of Vision Rio 500, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes outlines a bold vision for integrating the expertise and capabilities of private, public and nonprofit sectors in planning for a smarter and more resilient City of Rio. Rio has since expanded on its commitment to building a city that will survive and adapt to the various environmental chronic stresses and acute shocks it frequently experiences. In particular, rainfall causes significant surface flooding in low-lying areas and landslides on hilly terrains. Adverse rainfall shocks in 1967, 1988 and 2010 highlight significant impacts where each event caused 200-300 deaths and led to the displacement of 20,000 people. To prevent the high human costs of these environmental shocks, the mayor’s robust response to build a smart city includes data collection and monitoring from 30 citywide municipalities that retrieve information from 800 public service center cameras and 400 cameras operated by third party partnerships. However, how do these technologies, capabilities and networks benefit the most vulnerable areas of the city such as the digitally isolated favelas? Socio-economic factors and dense urban development further exacerbate vulnerabilities to floods and landslides to these favelas. Using the January 2015 release of “Rio Resilient: Diagnostic and Focus Areas” we assess the high risk areas of Rio and use these environmentally vulnerable zones as focus areas to guide our fieldwork. Throughout the month of May (2017), we will be conducting interviews with the Mayor’s office, street-level bureaucrats and NGOs who are tasked to lead resiliency efforts, and community members who experience lags in information. We seek to identify remaining challenges and opportunities for the utilization of Big Data to serve digitally isolated and climate vulnerable zones in the city of Rio.
