On December 3, and in a virtual format due to the exceptional circumstances due to the Covid-19, the final event of the third edition of the World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe took place where the winners and finalists of each of the calls, Barcelona and Kobe, were announced. The goal of the competition is to use data analysis and visualisation to highlight the challenges for smart cities and for these visualisations to be of use in drafting better public policies. The subject for this year’s edition were the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set out by the UN, tying in with the strategy to promote the 2030 Agenda in Barcelona.
Among the finalists in the Barcelona round, the ‘People’s level of education in Barcelona’ project was the double winner with the Barcelona Award “World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe” and the special Menció Universitats Barcelona “. Its authors, Marina Rosell and Raúl Higueras, are students from the Universidad Politècnica de Catalunya.
Among the finalists in the Kobe round, the “Visualizing City Parks” project by Junk Tougo, Yume Iwamoto and Noriaki was the winner of the Kobe Prize” World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe” and the “ZER -Zero Energy Refuse collection and Disposal System” project presented by Tomoki Ichimura, Yoshiki Tanaka, Ayame Tashiro and Saki Okamoto have received the Special Prize from the Kobe jury.
In the Barcelona call, the other finalist projects invite us to reflect on issues such as housing, domestic violence, mobility, the concept of the multi-service city and noise pollution. The rest of the finalist projects of the Japanese call study aspects such as improving the flow of people in shopping centers thanks to Artificial Intelligence, the sophistication of the practice of outdoor sports thanks to geolocation and how to bring online and offline interactions with each other now that the pandemic has considerably developed the first one.
This year, on the part of Barcelona, the Bit Habitat Foundation, the urban innovation center of the city, has led the project, which continues to count on the collaboration of the Department of International Relations and the Municipal Data Office of the Barcelona City Council, main organizers of the two previous editions of the contest.
Participants in the final event
The final event, which was broadcast live on YouTube, was attended by the Deputy Mayor for Agenda 2030, digital transition, sports, territorial and metropolitan coordination, Laia Bonet, who highlighted that “the data explained clearly and visually have the ability to make evident structural challenges that cities have, such as mobility, public services, housing or gender equality”. The commissioner for Digital Innovation, Electronic Administration and Good Governance, Michael Donaldson, and Tere Serra i Majem, member of the jury, also participated in the event. On behalf of the city of Kobe, participated Kaoru Onda, vice mayor; Yasushi Sato, General Consul of Japan in Barcelona and Taisuke Matsuzaki, director of Smart City Projects of the Kobe City Council.
Once the event was over, all the participants were able to network, on this occasion and given the exceptional circumstances due to the COVID-19 through the Facebook group “WDVC 2020 Barcelona-Kobe Networking Corner”.