Prague wins an “Oscar” for GIS use in urban planning

A considerable amount of the data, collected by the city, is also open to the public

Prague’s Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) has just won one of the world's most prestigious awards in the field of data and geography, as the city website informed yesterday. The award, given by Esri – a leading geographic information system (GIS) software provider – recognizes the capital’s long-term use of data for urban planning and mitigating the effects of climate change.

In particular, Prague was praised for effectively transforming information into green and economic solutions that improve the life quality of its citizens and guests.

A data-based urban governance

At the conference in San Diego, California, watched by over 30,000 spectators, the Czech capital received the highest award by Esri – or the “Oscar for data” as the city website refers to it. This ranks Prague alongside cities such as New York and Philadelphia, which have also received this recognition in the past.

The praise is mainly for Prague’s use of GIS in urban planning. Thanks to the operation of its geoportal and all applications such as the digital spatial plan, heat map, technical infrastructure drawings and others, Prague can develop systematically and efficiently.

"We run the city based on data. It is an essential method of modern management of the metropolis of the 21st century. Thanks to this, we manage to monitor the traffic flow in the city on a daily basis, solve urban planning efficiently or manage waste smartly.

By the way, it has also proven itself in two unprecedented crises that Prague has been exposed to in the last four years - both in the covid pandemic and now during the Russian dictator's invasion of Ukraine and the related refugee crisis," commented Mayor Zdeněk Hřib, as quoted on the city website.

City officials further pointed out that data is the cornerstone of the Institute for Planning and Development and that the data is freely accessible to the general public.

At the conference, IPR was also awarded for the innovative and significant deployment of geoinformation technologies. Territorial analytical documents used in Prague contain information on the state and development of the capital's territory, its values, planned development and limits and problems, as well as essential data on transport and climate.

The Portal of Territorial Analytical Documents, where these documents can be found, was highly evaluated for the volume and quality of the published data, and especially for the innovative way of presenting individual outputs. Through its portal, IPR provides data and information to experts, developers, politicians and the general public in one place.