New Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Insights acquired from assessing Openness of Air Quality Data in Smart Cities

Using top 50 “smart” city governments identified by Eden Strategy Institute and ONG&ONG Pte Ltd. (2018), we first establish a data analytic and statistical scoring framework to assess and investigate their existing open data policies, and review respective performance in releasing environmental and air quality attributes and information to public. The framework considers data availability, data accessibility and visualization perspectives, which explains how metadata related to air quality and meteorology could be accessed, interpreted and utilized by general public, professional experts and city officers. Some of these datasets are highly sensitive and subjected to quality control, thus local and national governments have responsibilities in achieving systematic data documentation and integration among data types, provision and management of centralized big data information system related to air quality attributes and health-related factors, and implement DDI to obtain prescribed formatting for data release and usage, at the same time protect the rights of relevant air quality data providers. All these require the engagement of community and joint efforts of government and citizens, in creating a safe and useful documentation of open scientific database for enhancing scientific innovation and steering modern smart city development forward, as a result promoting DDI in the long run.