Data Analytics and Data Science: Unlocking the Open Data Potential of Smart Cities

This article explores the integration of innovative data-driven technologies into digital governance at the local level, with a focus on open data, smart cities, and public sector data analytics and processing. Governments globally strive for digital transformation with emerging technologies, and data play a crucial role in improving service delivery and decision-making processes at the local level. However, there needs to be a proper debate about data analytics and data science in the public sector and the crucial aspects of smart cities’ interoperability and open data governance. This research aims to fill this gap, proposing a systematic approach to connect and link these innovations, promoting interoperability and data governance at the local level. Based on a multi-method literature analysis, including Portugal's remarkable digitalization journey, this study sheds light on the importance of comprehensive data analytics in the public sector. The findings indicate that the existing debate on data analytics in the public sector needs more depth and synergy from the point of view of data analytics techniques. By presenting propositions on the challenges for interoperability and open data governance of smart cities, this article provides valuable information for policymakers, decision-makers, and implementers looking for solutions to governance challenges at the local level.