Comparative assessments and insights of data openness of 50 smart cities in air quality aspects

Abstract Data Openness is considered as an indispensable component for scientific innovation, community engagement and smart city development. In this study, a Data Openness in Air Quality (DOAQ) framework that consists of 3 tiers with a total of 23 open data principles was established to assess and monitor the status and development of data sharing, release and centralization of air quality information in the top 50 smart cities (Top50SC) around the world. The DOAQ utilizes additive formulas with predefined coefficients to obtain scores in each tier, thus reflecting the relative importance on data availability and visibility of different air quality data. The scores of DOAQ were compared with the smart cities scorings from Eden Strategy Institute and ONG&ONG Pte Ltd. (2018), and other socioeconomic attributes (i.e., social, political and humane) within the current study. Strong correlations (i.e., 0.4−0.6) among these indices implicate that the status of air quality reporting could be a good proxy to gauge the environmental data openness in a city. Lastly, good practices (e.g., apps and air quality forecasts), essential criteria and directions for future smart city development on air quality reporting were summarized, with the aim of laying down practical and efficient guidelines for individual smart city that desires to seek for improvements in air quality data openness.