Open Government Data Portals and SDG 11: Lessons from 19 U.S. Cities

Abstract

Open Government Data (OGD) portals have the potential to be powerful tools for advancing progress toward the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this paper, we examine the extent to which U.S. municipal open data portals support SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and a more complete set of sustainable city indicators, which we call SDG 11+. We focus on the 19 U.S. cities ranked in the 2024 Sustainable Cities Index. Amazingly, none of the cities had data that directly addressed SDG 11 indicators, showing a pressing need to link U.S. OGD portals with the SDGs. In terms of SDG 11 target areas, data were most available for transportation (31% of datasets) and green and public spaces (25% of datasets), though these databases often lacked demographic and equity details. Cities ranking highly on sustainability (New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.) had far more such datasets available than low-ranked cities (Atlanta, Tampa, and Pittsburgh). We propose an expanded list of urban sustainability indicators (some within other SDGs) and recommend that cities emphasize coordination with the SDGs, usability, breadth of content, links with policy, timely updating, and greater disaggregation of data when managing OGD portals.