Enabling Smart Rural: The Open Data Gap
Publication Date/Time
2019-12-04T09:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
The European Data Portal published a report about open data in and
from rural regions
CAN "RURAL" LEARN FROM "URBAN"? 

Cities and urban areas have become avid users and sources of data,
largely under the catch-all and loosely defined term _smart cities_.
Open data is considered a "defining element" of smart cities because
data is vital for cities and citizens. Due to its significance,
projects such as the Urban Data Platform
[/en/news/joint-research-centres-urban-data-platform] utilise open
data with the aim of speeding up the adoption of common open urban
data platforms, ensuring that "300 million European citizens are
served by cities with competent urban data platforms, by 2025". This
focus on cities makes sense:

 	* They have a dense population which can be reached comparatively
easily;
 	* Infrastructural changes in smaller geographical areas can have
substantial impact; and
 	* In many countries, such as Spain, Cyprus, Malta, and the United
Kingdom, reaching the urban population effectively means reaching 50%
of the entire population.

But what does the term _smart cities_ imply for the 27% of EU citizens
who live in rural (non-urban) areas? While many densely populated EU
Member States have a very high proportion of citizens living in urban
areas, the opposite is also true, especially in most Central and
Eastern European countries. Over half of Lithuanians, nearly half of
Slovenians, Hungarians, and Croatians, live in rural areas. But also,
in more Western states, such as Ireland and France, over a third of
citizens live in rural areas.

One approach to tackling the domination of the urban paradigm is to
directly import the tools and techniques of smart cities and big data
into the rural environment. For instance, the Stonehaven Rural Co-op
[https://www.smartrural.coop/] project in Scotland claims that, "Rural
- it's just a low-density city." This implies that smart processes,
technologies, and activities that succeed in cities can be
successfully implemented in the rural setting. Another example is the
Scottish initiative: Smart Fintry [http://smartfintry.org.uk/] - a
recently completed project that aimed to bring urban innovation to a
village in Stirlingshire.

However, there are challenges in transposing urban practices to a
rural setting. Some of the key areas of smart city investment, such as
those to do with traffic and parking management and multi-modal
transport, are far less applicable in rural settings. In comparison to
their urban or suburban counterparts, rural populations tend to
experience (negative) gaps in education, income, device availability,
and internet access. Furthermore, according to the Rural Open Data
Project [http://www.ruralopendata.ca/], "few if any rural local
governments provide open data, and little is known about how open data
affects rural communities. If there is a benefit to communities from
open data policies, it is likely that rural communities are benefiting
less than urban ones, if at all."

 

RESULTS OF EXAMINING THE AVAILABILITY AND ROLE OF RURAL OPEN DATA IN
EUROPE

The European Data Portal's [http://www.europeandataportal.eu/] (EDP)
report "Enabling Smart Rural: The Open Data Gap
[/sites/default/files/analytical_report_14_enabling_smart_rural.pdf]"
focuses specifically on leveraging insights from existing research and
use cases. By seeking to understand and define 'rural' open data, the
quality, quantity, uses, and barriers to use can be examined. Two
types of rural open data are discussed - those about people living in
rural areas ('rural populations') and those about traditionally rural
industries ('rural economy').

The report examines the collection, availability, and use of open data
in rural areas through the lens of a _smart city_. By doing so, the
report asks what the prioritisation of the development of services and
products for urban populations and industries means for the rural
populations and rural industries and their specific requirements. It
finds that these are not currently being met and are insufficiently
examined or supported by open data, except for agricultural, fishery,
and forestry data in more urban Member States, which are thriving.
Moreover, the report suggests that a _smart city_ approach should not
be simply transposed onto the rural environment, but that there is
value in _smart region_ approaches that recognise the relationship
between cities and their surrounding countryside.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RURAL OPEN DATA

The report recommends the following activities directed at Member
States with larger rural populations:

 	* The institutionalisation of open data skills and knowledge;
 	* Increasing awareness of High Value Datasets;
 	* Engaging with complementary data owners such as non-governmental
organisations and researchers;
 	* Developing skills links with urban areas; and
 	* The creation of hackathons or challenges that specifically target
rural issues.

In addition, the report provides six key recommendations under three
themes to policy makers who wish to encourage the use of data at
various levels of government at the rural level:

	* Data Collection 

 	* Support local champions to establish and institutionalise the
processes and practices of open data in rural administrations, with
close relationships to urban open data groups.
 	* Highlight the importance of the agricultural High Value Datasets
to the Member States that have been identified as having a gap between
their agricultural percentage of GDP and their open agricultural
datasets.

	* Data Opening 

 	* Create collaborative links with complementary data owners,
including Not for Profits, NGOs, researchers and private
organisations, that allow data to be opened and made available
together.
 	* Invest in understanding the key factors of smart regions that mean
they are more fit for purpose than simply being smart cities with
sprawling reach.

	* Data Reuse 

 	* Establish links with urban areas, via such instruments as hubs or
universities with complementary interests.
 	* Identify and support a wider range of rural-specific challenges,
such as out-migration, health solutions that address distance, and
food provenance.

The need for institutionalisation of the commitment to, and
appropriate skills for, open data remains a key barrier to the
publication and use of open data in both rural areas and sectors. It
is crucial that rural populations and industrial sectors are not
(unintentionally) excluded from the benefits of the data economy. To
do this, _smart rural_ must become something more real than a few
isolated projects and a faint replica of smart cities. The greatest
opportunity for this lies in _smart regions_ that create the necessary
links between urban and rural, while acknowledging the differences.

For more information on open data related topics and datasets, such as
open agriculture data [/en/highlights/open-data-agricultural-sector]
or available agriculture datasets
[/en/highlights/open-agriculture-data-european-data-portal] on the
EDP, explore the EDP's Featured Highlight
[/en/what-we-do/highlights-archive] and follow us on Twitter
[https://twitter.com/EU_DataPortal], Facebook
[http://www.facebook.com/EuropeanDataPortal] or LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/10478056/admin/] to stay up to date!
