The design and use of dashboards for driving decision-making in the public sector
Roman A. Vila, Elsa Estévez, Pablo Rubén Fillottrani · 2018
Cities are human settlements subject to constant evolution. They involve various types of systems, like transportation, housing, health and sanitation, security and protection, environmental care, infrastructure and communication systems in continuous interaction and change. In this scenario and based on the deployment of digital technology, a huge amount of city data is produced on a daily basis. This data can be used to build and measure indicators to study and analyze different urban phenomena. Information obtained through such indicators enables to understand city patterns, develop public policies and implement corrective actions. This on-going research work explores the use of dashboards - information visualization tools, as a powerful mechanism to enhance decision-making processes in government. At this preliminary stage, we introduce the motivations to use dashboards in the public sector and the main issues concerning their adoption by municipal governments. We analyze how dashboards can be applied to obtain accurate and representative information about urban problems with the aim of supporting decision-making processes to improve cities performance. We discuss related initiatives and describe our case study in the city of Bahía Blanca. Finally, we compare our approach with those previously presented, focusing on common features and improvements.