Consistency analysis of city indicator data

Abstract

Cities use a variety of metrics to evaluate and compare their performance with the goal being to improve city services. The ISO 37120 standard provides definitions for city indicators that measure a city’s quality of life and sustainability. A problem that arises in indicator-based comparisons, is whether the comparison is invalid due to inconsistencies in the data used to derive them. In this chapter we present three types of consistency analysis for automating the detection of inconsistencies in open city data. Namely, definitional consistency analysis that evaluates if data used to derive a city indicator is consistent with the indicator’s definition (ISO 37120); transversal consistency analysis that evaluates if city indicators published by two different cities are consistent with each other; and longitudinal consistency analysis that evaluates if an indicator published by a city is consistent over different time intervals.