Data at the service of territories and public administration: a conversation with Pedro Sarmento
Discover how Urban Management Platforms can promote more informed public decisions and territorial cohesion.
Pedro Sarmento is a Business Analyst at AMA (Agency for Administrative Modernisation), where he plays a key role in implementing the National Strategy for Smart Territories (ENTI). His experience blends technical and strategic expertise, gained through previous roles as a researcher at NOVA Cidade – Urban Analytics Lab and as a guest lecturer at NOVA IMS, specialising in geospatial intelligence and urban analytics.
In this conversation, held as part of the 3rd International Conference on Public Policy and Data Science, Pedro Sarmento shares his insights on the role of data in developing smarter, more cohesive cities and territories. The interview highlights the potential of Urban Management Platforms in data integration, contributing to the creation of more efficient public services centred on citizens’ needs.
“Urban management platforms provide a transversal view, integrating data from all these verticals and offering a holistic view of all this information, which can then be used to provide a comprehensive view of the entire territory (...)”
UW: Based on your experience at AMA, how can data be used to support decision-making in governmental contexts?
PS: Data can be widely used in governmental contexts. The main challenge – among several – is to understand exactly what the main problem is that we want to address, and which question we want to answer with this data. And then, how we access this data, meaning, which platforms do we use? In which formats do we consume this data, so that we can produce intelligence and knowledge about these data, so that we can respond to the needs of a governmental area, of the local public administration or the central public administration?
UW: What role do you attribute to Urban Management Platforms in promoting digital and territorial cohesion?
PS: Urban management platforms have a great advantage. In the past what has happened was that Municipalities managed their data in silos, in different information systems that respond to very specific municipal areas, namely environment, energy or water. Urban management platforms provide a transversal view, integrating data from all these verticals and offering a holistic view of all this information, which can then be used to provide a comprehensive view of the entire territory, develop use cases and solve very specific territorial issues. Ultimately, to create meaningful public services for the citizens.
UW: What is your vision for the future of Public Administration in Portugal regarding the use of data and technologies for the development of cities and territories?
PS: I think the main challenge here is that we have data and data-sharing services that can be shared across all public administration, both central and local, and also governmental areas. Because what has been observed so far is that municipalities need data from central public administration, and the opposite also happens. What AMA is pursuing with the National Strategy for Smart Territories and with various initiatives, namely the creation of the data system for smart territories, is creating an ecosystem for data sharing that allows access by municipalities to central administration data, and vice versa, so they can better respond to the needs of each of these entities.
