As the world’s population shifts to urban areas, the complexity of cities has become increasingly difficult to manage. Now, a team of researchers proposes the concept of the ‘urbanome’ to address this complexity.

The urbanome is the genome of the city, a set of data that describes all elements of the city in a complete way. The goal of the urbanome is to enable an extensive analysis to be done using this data, allowing cities to be built and managed in a harmonious way.

To build the urbanome, the researchers propose a transdisciplinary approach that utilizes modern data collection techniques, Big Data analysis methods, and the potential of other ‘omics’. This theoretical approach aims to quantify and qualify population outcomes, providing a comprehensive picture of all elements of the city.

The development of a comprehensive urbanome requires the incorporation of considerations such as flexibility to accommodate evolution, and transparency in purpose, goals, underlying values, assumptions, premises, and objectives. The researchers propose the establishment of KPIs that reflect not just input/output achievements, but also outcome/impact achievements. This would allow for a more nuanced understanding of the city and its population.

In addition to KPIs, the researchers emphasize the importance of data availability and form, as well as temporal, spatial, and governance boundaries, and contextual factors influencing the data. The researchers propose that this should include data harmonization and standardization of methods.

The concept of the urbanome has the potential to revolutionize the way cities are built and managed. By providing a comprehensive picture of all elements of the city, the urbanome could enable cities to be built and managed in a harmonious way that takes into account the needs of all members of the population.

Paper Title: How to build Urbanome, the genome of the city?

Authors:

Lidia Morawska a,b,c,j*, Wendy Miller c, Matt Riley d, Sotiris Vardoulakis e, Yong-Guan

Zhu f, Guy B. Marks g,h, Prachi Garnawat i, Prashant Kumar j, Marie Thynell k

a Queensland University of Technology, International Laboratory for Air Quality & Health (ILAQH), Brisbane, QLD, Australia

b Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Science, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

^cQueensland University of Technology, Institute of Health Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), Brisbane, QLD, Australia

^dNSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Climate and Atmospheric Science, Sydney, Australia

^eAustralian National University, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Canberra, ACT, Australia

^fChinese Academy of Science, Institute of Urban Environment, Xiamen, China
g South Western Sydney Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

h Woolcock Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

i RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

j Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, Surrey, United Kingdom

k University of Gothenburg, School of Global Studies, Göteborg, Sweden

The full paper can be found here which includes an early-stage concept of urbanome framework.

Stay Tuned: Next study to develop KPIs if the project gets funded.