A new era of urban resilience and efficiency
Publication Date/Time
2025-10-28T09:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
How high-value datasets help European cities and regions improve
public services and everyday life
High-value datasets are key public sector datasets that play a crucial
role in delivering social, environmental and economic benefits. In
line with EU regulations, they are available for free, in
machine-readable formats, and are central to creating innovative
public services across Europe.

Several European cities are now showing how these datasets can be used
to tackle urban challenges such as wildfires, road maintenance,
emergency response and sustainable mobility. This data story
highlights how cities and regions like ATTICA (GREECE), HERNE
(GERMANY), NAPOLI (ITALY) and PORTO (PORTUGAL) are turning open data
into real-world solutions that improve citizens’ daily lives.

 

ATTICA: A SHIELD AGAINST WILDFIRES

Every summer, the capital region of Attica in Greece faces a growing
risk of wildfires. Traditional fire monitoring relied on static risk
assessments and limited public involvement. With the help of open data
and digital tools, local authorities introduced a real-time alert
system that uses crowdsourced reports, social media posts, satellite
data from Copernicus [https://www.copernicus.eu/]and fire data from
the European forest fire information system
[https://forest-fire.emergency.copernicus.eu/].

The transition from a top-down approach to citizen-driven monitoring
marks a major shift. With data quality scores increasing from
34–39 % to over 85–90 %, this system has dramatically improved
the quality and responsiveness of fire detection. By integrating data
on nitrogen dioxide levels and real-time social media activity, the
system has reduced false alarms and enabled earlier intervention.

The high-value dataset
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/attica-no2-air-quality?locale=en]
and other related datasets
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets?locale=en&query=beopen&page=1&publisher=CERTH]
used in Attica are available on the European Data Portal
[https://data.europa.eu/en].
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/attica.jpg]
FIGURE 1: INTERACTIVE WILDFIRE DETECTION MAP IN ATTICA, GREECE
The system combines real-time inputs from satellite scans, data on
nitrogen dioxide levels, social media posts and citizen reports to
pinpoint fire events and guide rapid response.

 

HERNE: SMARTER ROADS AND SAFER EVENTS

Herne, a city in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, with an extensive
road network, struggled with a lack of real-time data and inefficient
traditional maintenance methods, leading to delayed repairs and high
costs. By equipping city vehicles with cameras and sensors,
authorities used artificial intelligence to detect and classify road
damage in real time. This has improved road condition data quality and
completeness from only 22 % to 100 %.

The same concept was used to improve crowd safety during major public
events like the Cranger Kirmes fair. Using radar sensors, parking
applications and artificial-intelligence-powered crowd density
cameras, city officials could forecast crowd flows and respond quickly
to security risks.

Herne has made several of its high-value datasets
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets?locale=en&query=herne&page=1&catalog=beopen&limit=10]
publicly available, supporting transparency and reuse.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/herne.jpg]
FIGURE 2: REAL-TIME CROWD PREDICTION IN HERNE, GERMANY
The system uses high-value datasets and live data to forecast crowd
density during large public events, improving safety and emergency
response planning.

 

NAPOLI: IMPROVING MOBILITY AND GREEN SPACE DATA

Napoli tackled the challenge of fragmented data around shared mobility
(such as bike rentals and car sharing) and green infrastructure. The
city adopted a new system to standardise, validate and publish its
data, including Earth observation datasets for soil temperature and
green adaptation.

This has helped the city map mobility hubs, cycle paths and areas for
environmental improvement while building internal capacity around
EU-compliant data practices.

Several high-value datasets
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets?locale=en&query=herne&page=1&catalog=beopen&limit=10]
from Napoli are available on the European Data Portal.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/napoli.jpg]
FIGURE 3: MOBILITY AND GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE DASHBOARD IN NAPOLI,
ITALY
The city uses satellite imagery and high-value datasets to monitor
shared mobility, cycle lanes and green infrastructure, supporting more
sustainable urban planning.

 

PORTO: PREDICTING AND PREVENTING FLOODS

Flooding poses a serious threat in Porto. Until recently, emergency
response teams relied on delayed, external data. With support from the
BeOpen project (see further down), the city developed a machine
learning model to predict floods and a real-time dashboard to guide
emergency services.

The system combines live weather data, traffic conditions and the
geolocation of police and fire crews. After deployment, more than half
of the city’s emergency responders and planners reported using
geospatial data more frequently to monitor conditions and guide
decision-making, and data quality scores jumped from 0–70 % to
100 % across key sources like CCTV, meteorology and tree coverage.

Porto Digital, the city’s municipal innovation agency, has shared
several high-value datasets
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets?locale=en&query=beopen&page=1&publisher=Porto+Digital].
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/porto.jpg]
FIGURE 4: URBAN PLATFORM IN PORTO, PORTUGAL
The dashboard integrates real-time weather, traffic and emergency
services data to forecast floods and support rapid response powered by
high-value datasets and machine learning.

 

FROM PILOTS TO POLICY: WHAT CITIES CAN LEARN

The four pilots featured in this story were developed as part of the
EU-funded BeOpen project [https://beopen-dep.eu/], which supports
cities in using high-value datasets to address urban challenges.

Lydia Montandon, Community Outreach Coordinator at the FIWARE
Foundation, a non-profit organisation and member of the BeOpen
consortium, said: ‘Digital tools and better data quality can improve
the delivery of public services. By making high-value datasets more
accessible and reliable, the BeOpen project has helped participating
cities enhance decision-making and service provision and offers a
model that others could build on.’

These examples show how public data, when opened and improved, can
drive smarter, faster decision-making in European cities and regions.
Whether it is by protecting citizens from wildfires, forecasting
floods, managing traffic or improving green infrastructure, the reuse
of high-value datasets is unlocking new levels of urban resilience and
helping deliver better public services across Europe.
