The publication of open data is a practice that drives technological development, benefits the business sector, and informs citizens. However, there are still some institutions that do not publish their data in open format, either because they lack the means or the necessary guidance to do so.

To solve this problem, in a firm commitment to transparency and the reuse of public information, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) has created a list that serves as a guide to take the first steps in open data that can also serve as a reference for the different local entities.. The idea is to complement the catalogues of published datasets and try to get at least these datasets published. The reason? As the FEMP points out, "the fact that all local administrations publish sets of data on a specific topic generates synergies and opportunities for products and services, which can be replicated in different entities".

In 2017, the FEMP published a first list of 20 recommended datasets, rising to 40 in 2019 and reaching the current 80 that were submitted in 2023.

 The FEMP's 80 outstanding datasets can now be consulted on a website that gathers detailed information, and a document summarising the information. In this post, we analyse its content and recommendations.

Evolution of municipal open data engagement

Over the last few years, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces has been expanding the list of open data to be published by local entities. This expansion reflects not only the increasing maturity of local administrations in their capacity to manage and publish data, but also the increasing demand by citizens, businesses and other social agents for useful and reusable information to develop services, research or simply to better understand their urban environment.

The 80 recommended datasets, covering almost all areas of local management, are presented, structured in categories that respond to the most relevant information needs of citizens:

• Urban planning and public space

Among the priority data, it is recommended to publish information on general urban development plans, urban planning licences, technical inspection of buildings, street maps, cartographic representations of natural spaces, monuments and inventory of immovable property, etc.

• Transport

This category refers to datasets about public transport, cycle lanes, public car parks (including those for people with reduced mobility), electric vehicle charging points, loading and unloading zones, traffic and accidents.

• Environment

In this sector, the FEMP recommends publishing data on air and water quality, meteorological data, noise pollution, trees, parks and gardens, waste management, clean points, recycling containers, natural spaces and risk areas.

• Public Sector

Here the publication of budget data, subsidies, procurement, average supplier payment period, public debt, regulations, transparency obligations and administrative procedures is recommended.

• Demography and society

Data is collected on the municipal census, unemployment and employment, social aid, assistance services for people in need, census of associations and municipal facilities (educational, health, sports).

• Tourism and culture

We found datasets on tourist accommodation, tourist flows, places of interest, cultural agenda and events.

The FEMP not only recommends what dataset to make available to citizens, but also offers guidance and good practices to carry out this task. Through the web, various information on each dataset is easily accessible:

• Your description.
• If available, recommended vocabularies to ensure interoperability.
• Whether they are high value sets (and the subcategory to which they belong).
• Recommended minimum refresh rate.
• File formats in which it is recommended to have the information.
• Examples of bodies that have already opened such a dataset, for reference.
• Some examples of visualisations that have been made with such open data.
• Etc.

Materials for data management and openness

To facilitate this opening-up process, local authorities have a number of resources at their disposal. Among others:

•  The Standard Ordinance on Data Governance in the local entity, developed by the Open Data Group of the FEMP Network, which provides a common legal framework for the process of data openness and data management.
• Templates and guidance for the formulation of the RISP (Re-use of Public Sector Information) Plan, including key issues for developing an open data initiative.
• Guide for the deployment of data portals, a monographic report that compiles best practices and recommendations for developing and maintaining data portals in municipalities.

Challenges and next steps

Despite progress, the full implementation of these 80 datasets is a challenge for many municipalities, especially smaller ones, which may face technical or resource difficulties in publishing them.

Therefore, the continuous support of supra-municipal bodies such as provincial councils, autonomous communities and the FEMP itself is essential, as well as inter-municipal collaboration to share good practices, tools and technological solutions.

The extension to 80 priority datasets marks a milestone on the road to a data-driven governance model, where public information is transformed into a common good that generates value for both administrations and society as a whole.

We encourage you to consult the new project website and to progressively incorporate these datasets into your municipal portals, thus contributing to the construction of a more complete open data ecosystem, useful and transformative for our cities.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of targets adopted by the international community aimed at addressing the most pressing challenges of our time. These goals were born simultaneously with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and the International Open Data Charter, which provided a coalition of experts willing to harness the benefits of open data for the new development agenda.

In this regard, open data plays a very relevant role within the development agenda as indicators of progress towards the SDGs, as they allow measuring and evaluating their progress, as well as improving accountability through sharing that data with the rest of the community, providing great value in multiple ways:

• Facilitating decision-making when designing policies and strategies to help meet the objectives;
• Identifying inequalities and specific challenges among different regions or population groups;
• Improving efficiency in policy and program implementation;
• As an engine of innovation through research and development.

Today, there are large global databases, both generalist and thematic, that we can use for these purposes, in addition to all the national data sources available in our own country. However, there is still a long way to go in this regard: the proportion of SDG indicators that are conceptually clear and have good national coverage is still 66%, according to the latest SDG progress report published in 2023. This leads us to continue facing data gaps in vital areas such as poverty, hunger, education, equality, sustainability, climate, seas, and justice, among others. Additionally, there is also a fairly general and significant lack of data disaggregated by age and/or sex, making it very difficult to properly monitor the potential progress of the objectives regarding the most vulnerable population groups.

This report takes a journey through the dual role that open data plays in supporting national and global progress in achieving the SDGs. The first part of the report focuses on the better-known role of open data as mere indicators when measuring progress towards the objectives, while the second part addresses its role as a key tool and fundamental raw material for the development of society in general and for the achievement of the objectives themselves in particular. To this end, it explores which datasets could have the greatest potential in each case, showing some practical examples, both national and at the European level, in various specific development objectives.

If you want to learn more about the content of this report, you can watch the interview with its author.

El Instituto de Estadística y Cartografía de Andalucía (IECA), in collaboration with the Andalusian Agency for International Development Cooperation (AACID), has incorporated new indicators at the municipal level into its Sustainable Development Indicators System for Andalusia for the Agenda 2030. This effort aims to integrate statistical and geographical information while enhancing the efficiency of the Andalusian public administration and the information services provided to society.

Thanks to these efforts, Andalusia has been selected as one of the participating regions in the European project "REGIONS 2030: Monitoring the SDGs in EU regions," along with nine other regions in the European Union. All of these regions share a strong commitment to the analysis and fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recognizing the importance of this work in decision-making and sustainable regional development.

The "REGIONS 2030" project, funded by the European Parliament and developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and EUROSTAT, aims to fill data gaps in monitoring the SDGs in EU regions.

Image 1: "REGIONS 2030" Project: Monitoring the SDGs in EU regions.

Source: Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography (IECA)

The new indicators incorporated are essential for measuring the progress of the SDGs

The Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography, in collaboration with AACID, has created a set of indicators that allow for evaluating the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals at the regional level, available on their website. All the new municipal-level indicators are identified with the Joint Research Centre (municipal) for Andalusia, and they address 9 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The methodology used for most of the indicators is based on georeferenced information from the Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography, using publications on the Spatial Distribution of the Population in Andalusia and the Characterization and Distribution of Built Space in Andalusia as reference points.

One of the indicators provides information on Goal 1: No Poverty and measures the risks of poverty by assessing the percentage of people residing at an address where none of their members are affiliated with Social Security. This indicator reveals more unfavorable conditions in urban municipalities compared to rural ones, consistent with previous studies that identify cities as having more acute poverty situations than rural areas.

Similarly, the per capita Built-up Area indicator for Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities has been calculated using cadastral data and geospatial processes in geographic information systems.

Visualization and query of the new municipal indicators

Allow for obtaining information at the municipal level about the value and variation of the indicators compared to the previous year, both for the entire Andalusia region and different degrees of urbanization.

Image 2: Data visualization of the indicator.

Source: Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography (IECA)

Moreover, the applied filter enables an analysis of the temporal and geographical evolution of the indicators in each of the considered areas, providing a temporal and territorial perspective.

Image 3: Visualization of the indicator's evolution by area.

Source: Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography (IECA)

These results are presented through an interactive map at the municipal level, displaying the distribution of the indicator in the territory.

Image 4: Interactive map of the indicator.

Source: Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography (IECA)

The data for the indicators are also available in downloadable structured formats (XLS, CSV, and JSON). Methodological information regarding the calculations for each indicator is provided as well.

The inclusion of Andalusia in the "REGIONS 2030" project

Has integrated all of this work with the existing Sustainable Development Indicators System for Andalusia for the Agenda 2030, which has been calculated and published by the IECA to date. This collective effort among different regions will serve to establish a methodology and select the most relevant regional indicators in Europe (NUTS2 European level) so that this methodology can be applied to all European regions in the future.

The "REGIONS 2030" project, after completing its initial work in Andalusia, has disseminated its results in the article "Monitoring the SDGs in Andalusia region, Spain," published by the European Commission in July 2023, and in an event held at the Three Cultures Foundation of the Mediterranean on September 27, under the title 'SDG Localisation and Monitoring Framework for 2030 Agenda Governance: Milestones & Challenges in Andalusia.' In this event, each selected region presented their results and discussed the needs, deficiencies, or lessons learned in generating their reports.

The "REGIONS 2030" project will conclude in December 2023 with the presentation and publication of a final report. This report will consolidate the ten regional reports generated during the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals at the regional level in Europe, contributing to their effective monitoring as part of the proper implementation of the Agenda 2030.

In 2015, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an action plan made up of 17 global goals to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity. This is what is known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In order to measure and evaluate the progress of the SDGs - in addition to their own development - accurate, up-to-date, sufficiently disaggregated, relevant, accessible and user-friendly data and statistics are needed. In other words, quality open data disaggregated by sex, age, municipality, etc. is needed.

In this regard, the UN itself has developed a set of indicators and statistical data aimed not only at monitoring progress, but also at informing policy and ensuring the accountability of all stakeholders. There are 232 indicators that refer to 169 targets. In addition, the Open SDG Data Hub portal provides geographically referenced data by target. Users can explore, analyse and use authoritative data sources on the SDGs to discover patterns, relationships and trends. For its part, the World Bank has an atlas where it presents interactive narratives and data visualizations on the SDGs, using its World Development Indicators database as a primary source.

But what if we want to delve deeper into what is happening in our country with respect to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals?

Resources related to the Sustainable Development Goals in Spain

Several organizations publish open data on the SDGs in our country. Below, we show you several examples at national and regional level.

National Statistics Institute (INE)

Through its website, the INE has launched an electronic platform with updated statistical information about the global indicators established by the UN to monitor compliance with the SDGs.

When entering the available sub-indicators, the evolution of the indicator is shown graphically and, when possible, the breakdown by Autonomous Communities, age and sex. Data tables can also be accessed and downloaded in various formats (XLS, CSV, PC-Axis, etc.). These data are also available in our data catalog.

Content prepared by the datos.gob.es team.

The Data Journalism Workshop 2019 is already underway. It will be held from March 25 to 29 at Medialab Prado (Calle Alameda 15, Madrid). Under the motto "Follow the food", this year's edition will focus on the world of food, with reference to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The objective is that participants " analyse, narrate or redesign, in a creative and radical way, changes in the food models that can serve to reduce the likelihood of environmental collapse." For this purpose, they will have to search and analyze public data from different sources, as well as reuse data to create new visualizations or applications.

Among all the ideas presented in the call for projects, 7 have been selected. Collaborators who want to develop these projects are now sought. To this end, a call for collaborators has been launched, aimed at any citizen who wants to be involved in the development of a project based on data: from professionals in the field of journalism, programming, sociology or design, to students or pensioners. It should be noted that Medialab-Prado offers 20 free accommodation places for those who sign up for the call and do not live in Madrid.

Participants can sign up to the following projects:

• School feeding in Spain. Project promoted by Del Campo al Cole entity, which seeks to promote healthy and sustainable nutrition in schools in Madrid. In collaboration with other organizations such as Carro de Combate and SEO / BirdLife, they have compiled a large amount of data about this subject, as the result of requests for public information to Autonomous Communities and the Ministry of Education. Now they are looking for help to interpret and visualize these data in a simple way, in order to facilitate their dissemination and create awareness about the reality of school feeding in Spain, taking into account the different aspects (public purchase, catering companies, environmental impact, social inequalities ...).
• Food ultraprocessing: the hidden truth. This project seeks to disseminate the NOVA classification system, which classifies food according to its level of processing. Taking the example of Mexico, an interactive map will be developed to help understand the relationship between habits and dietary choices, as well as their repercussions on the environment by analyzing energy consumption and waste generation associated with each type of food.
• Intesive livestock farming = extensive problems. This project seeks to create awareness of the problems arising from intensive livestock farming. With a holistic and global vision, the dimension of the problem will be investigated in the whole chain of production: from animal husbandry to final consumption. Some of the questions the participants will have to answer are: how many animals do we sacrifice? Is the way we feed them sustainable and healthy? How do exports and imports work? Do we eat everything we produce?
• Undressing foods. Through the mapping and artistic visualization of the route that the food takes from the place of production to the final point of consumption, this project seeks to stimulate responsible consumption habits. The final result of the project will be a technological tool that allows the user to locate the origin of a product, using  information about the route taken, the environmental impact generated (CO2, especially) and the aesthetic impact that this route could generate in the product.
• Food in km. The objective of this project is to create a tool that facilitates the search for information about products on the market, to promote responsible consumption. The tool will allow ordering the results depending on the distance between the origin of the food and the province where it is going to be consumed, as well as filtering products according to labels - bio or not - and ingredients - those ingredients involved in environmental conflicts or restrictive in certain diets.
• The oil we eat. This project seeks to analyze how the import of agri-food products has evolved in recent years, and calculate how much oil has been consumed to bring a certain food to our table. The participants in this project will create a website and a recipe book whiout cooking time, calories or nutritional contribution. Instead, it will talk about oil costs. Later, maybe it is possible to carry out a transmedia work, involving several platforms, promoting citizen participation using gamification.
• From the seed to your plate. This project is the continuation of the work started in the Visualizar'18 data visualization workshop. Migrations: Soy de temporada. Now their creators look to deepen the environmental and economic costs of consuming products exported from faraway places. To this end, the entire production line of maximum four products will be analysed, comparing their implications: two vegetables and two fruits, one fromlocal production and one from global trade,

In addition, during the workshop, participants can also participate in a series of training workshops, such as Blockchain's Introduction to journalism or PLN with Python NLTK.

If you are interested in telling stories based on data, sign up before March 16th.

For one more year, the VI Data Journalism and Open Data Workshop takes place at Medialab Prado (Alameda 15, Madrid), on this occasion organized by "Datalab". This is a meeting aimed at journalists, programmers or anyone interested in generating content using data. The meeting takes place between April 19 and 22 with the participation of different representatives from public administrations, companies, research groups, social organizations and experts.

This event is part of the Data Journalism Workshop, composed of 5 sessions (we spoke about it in a previous article). The topics included in the current agenda revolve around the Sustainable Development Goals (also known by the acronym SDG or Agenda 2030, because we project these objectives towards 2030), a project approved by the UN for "end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity".

Under the slogan, Data of the SDGs, the different sessions of this Conference focus on the fight against climate change, including different aspects related to the environment in Madrid region. The objective is to create an inclusive event, where participants can acquire knowledge, share their opinion and establish relationships that encourage the creation of data-based stories.

The meeting begins on Thursday 19 at 10 in the morning with a session dedicated to "mobility data", whit the participation of Madrid City data portal, EMT (Municipal Transport Company of Madrid) and its MobilityLabs, among other. On the afternoon, there is a critical session on the SDGs, with the participation of Carmen Borja Segade, of ISI Argonauta, José Manuel Naredo, economist and statistician, and Ignacio Santos Molina, consultant on environment, development and international cooperation.

On Friday 20 in the morning, there is a symposium of touristification data, one of the contents that has created most interest, organized together with Montera 34. This symposium include, in the afternoon, the beginning of the touristic data workshop. During 3 sessions - Friday afternoon and Saturday and Sunday morning - we manage some tools for obtaining, cleaning and analyzing data. The objective is to collectively produce a report that helps to understand the impact of rental platforms for tourist accommodation in Madrid, using the question and answer method.

In addition to these contents, the VI Data Journalism and Open Data Workshop is also useful to present different initiatives related to data and SDGs, such as the Tipi Ciudadano project (Friday 20, 18 hours), an online tool that facilitate to follow the activity of @Congreso_es related to poverty and inequality, with its scanner and personalized warning system – in July 2018 it will also focus on compliance with the SDGs-; the Innovation and Human Rights project (Saturday 21, 18 hours) that promotes innovation to protect human rights; the presentation of the projects approved in the first round of data journalism workshop (Saturday 21, 16 hours); the session of JournoCodersMAD (Saturday 21, 17 hours); or the latest news in data training according to the "Specialization Diploma in Data Journalism and Visualization of Blanquerna".

You can see the full and updated agenda on its website and you can follow the ewent through the hashtags #datosods or #jpd18, or the accounts @datalabx and @jpdatos on Twitter.

Medialab-Prado organizes the sixth edition of Data Journalism Workshop. This year, it will focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The purpose of this event is to create stories based on data related to SDGs and the fight against climate change in Madrid.

For those interested in participating with their project, the deadline for submission is now open until March 12. Registration is free, but the projects must meet the following requirements: reuse data to create a story or journalistic tool; use reliable and localized data sources, and be focused on the topic selected in this edition. The list of selected projects will be published on March 20.

This event is aimed at those professionals - from developers and analysts to journalists - who want to work with data. It is composed of five sessions that will be held in the following months.

The first session, dedicated to free software, already took place on February 13-14. The second appointment will be held on the occasion of Open Data Day. Since 2017, the Data Journalism Workshop is linked to International Open Data Day celebration. For this reason, on March 2-3, Medialab organizes different activities to learn how to make open data requests into open data catalogs, how to use linked data, how to understand scraping techniques or how to delve into different aspects such as ontologies.

The second session agenda will include a talk on open data, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as six work stations, during the course of the day, where it will be showed how to leverage the potential of Madrid data catalog, how to search data on the Net or how to work with sources such as Wikidata.

Later, in the following session of Data Journalism workshop (April 17-22), the selected projects will be presented and the work teams will be established; every team will work from June 8 to 10, supporting by mentors and associated journalists. For all those interested in working on any of the projects presented, Medialab-Prado will open the call for contributors on March 6.

Finally, the workshop will end with the fifth session (June 22-24): the working groups can finalize the projects and show them to the rest of the participants.