Smarter Cities Challenge Application Copyright 2014
City of Dubuque Consent Items # 14.
ITEM TITLE: Smarter Cities Challenge Application
SUMMARY: City Manager approval of the Smarter Cities Challenge Application to
address Community Health, Air Quality and Asthma and authorize the
Mayor to sign on behalf of the City of Dubuque.
SUGGESTED DISPOSITION: Suggested Disposition: Receive and File; Approve
ATTACHMENTS:
Description Type
❑ Smarter Cities Challenge Application-MVM Memo City Manager Memo
❑ Staff Memo Staff Memo
❑ Smarter Cities Challenge Application Supporting Documentation
❑ Mayor Letter Supporting Documentation
THE CITY OF Dubuque
UBE I
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Masterpiece on the Mississippi 2007-2012-2013
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Smarter Cities Challenge-Community Health, Air Quality, and Asthma
DATE: January 28, 2015
Public Health Specialist Mary Rose Corrigan recommends City Council approval of the
Smarter Cities Challenge Application to address Community Health, Air Quality and
Asthma and authorize the Mayor to sign on behalf of the City of Dubuque.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
Micliael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Mary Rose Corrigan, Public Health Specialist
THE CITY OF Dubuque
DuB E
III1.
Masterpiece on the Mississippi ,.2M-N13
TO: Mike Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Mary Rose Corrigan, Public Health Specialist
SUBJECT: Smarter Cities Challenge- Community Health, Air Quality, and Asthma
DATE: January 27, 2015
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this memo is to request City Council approval of the attached Smarter
Cities Challenge to address Community Healthy Air Quality and Asthma.
BACKGROUND
The Smarter Cities Challenge contributes the skills and expertise of IBM's top talent to
address critical challenges facing cities around the world. They do this by putting
teams on the ground for three weeks to work closely with city leaders and deliver
recommendations on how to make the city smarter and more effective. Over the past
four years, over 100 cities have been selected to receive these technical assistance
grants. The Smarter Cities Challenge is IBM's largest philanthropic initiative, with
contributions valued at over $50 million to date.
DISCUSSION
To plan for a community-wide health and wellness initiative and advance the Smarter
Health Project, local data must be collected and analyzed from a variety of sources,
including non-health specific data sets. Technology needs will also need to be
determined. The Smarter Cities challenge can assist in developing this data and
technologies platform, which is fundamental to proceeding with any consequential
community and population health initiatives using a multi-sectoral approach.
The City will submit the attached application to the Smarter Cities Challenge. The
application asks that IBM experts assist in mining existing data and exploring new data
sources from a variety of health and social sectors and determine technology needs for
gathering and analyzing the data related to air quality and asthma. There is no
financial requirement for this application. However, considerable community partner
and staff time will be devoted during and prior to this three week IBM staff visit, along
with follow-up report, composition, etc. If chosen, Dubuque will have the option of
reviewing the recommendations made by the consultants and implementing only those
we feel are appropriate and fruitful.
1
Staff involved in the application and preparation for the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
visit includes: Mary Rose Corrigan, Public Health Specialist and Health Department
staff; Cori Burbach, Sustainability Community Coordinator; Chris Kohlmann, Information
Services Department Manager; and David Lyons, Smarter Sustainable Dubuque,
Greater Dubuque Development Corporation.
RECOMMENDATION
I respectfully request City Council approval of the attached Smarter Cities Challenge
Application and authorization for the Mayor to sign the attached letter on behalf of the
City of Dubuque.
cc Cori Burbach, Sustainability Community Coordinator
Chris Kohlmann, Information Services Department Manager
David Lyons, Smarter Sustainable Dubuque, Greater Dubuque Development
Coorporation
2
Masterpiece on the. Mississippi
Dubuque
***fir*
All -America City
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2007 • 2012 • 2013
Office of the Mayor
City Hall
50 West 13th Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001-4805
www.cityofdubuque.org
February 2, 2015
Dear IBM Smarter Cities Challenge:
On behalf of the City of Dubuque, the Dubuque City Council and staff, I am pleased to submit
this application to the 2015 IBM Smarter Cities Challenge. While disappointed that our finalist
application for the 2014 Challenge was not selected, we have taken input from a wide range of
sources within IBM and conducted additional research here in Dubuque to help focus and
improve the application. If accepted, this application will provide a path not only for Dubuque to
address key priorities on reducing childhood asthma and improving air quality, but will also
begin to point the way on how cities can unlock large, diverse data sets stored in multiple "silos"
and unleash them to positively impact public health/wellness.
Since 2006, Sustainability has been a top priority of this community. Since 2009, the City has
proceeded with a wide range of public and private partners, including IBM Watson Research
Center, to launch the Smarter Sustainable Dubuque Initiative. Since then we have completed
successful pilots that have given us the insights into resident engagement and resource use in
the areas of water, electricity, transportation and waste. We have benefited greatly from
working with these partners, including IBM, and have proven our ability to capitalize on lessons
learned to create sustainable change and improvement in our community and replicable models
for other communities to follow. Dubuque is ready to advance the Smarter Sustainable
Dubuque model to address the health and wellness challenges to our community and its
residents, and specifically as it relates to one of our highest sustainability priorities ... reducing
health risks, specifically childhood asthma, through a data driven approach to air quality.
However, to do that we need to partner with the expertise of IBM researchers to determine how
data which is collected for diverse purposes and exists in multiple silos today can be
coordinated and analyzed to provide direction to the City and its citizens.
We have a strong history of sustainability research and implementation and I look forward to the
opportunity to work with an IBM expertise team to improve air quality and the health of our
children in Dubuque, while pointing the way to new data -driven methods to improving public
health and wellness in Cities across the globe.
SincerpIy,
Roy D. Buol, Mayor
cc Beth Tracy, IBM
Service
People Integrity Responsibility Innovation Teamwork
Smarter Cities Challenge Application
Contact Information
Applying City or Regional Authority
City or Regional Authority: Dubuque
State/Province: Iowa
Country: USA
Contact Person
First Name: Michael
Last Name: Van Milligen
Street Address 1: City Hall
Street Address 2: 50`"W 3rd St
City: Dubuque
State: IA
Postal Code: 52001
Country: USA
E-mail Address: ctvmer(cDcitvofdubuque.org
Phone Number: (563) 589-4110
Proposed Topic
A. What challenge facing the city or region do you propose addressing with a Smarter Cities
Challenge grant?Please provide a brief summary of the context surrounding the proposed topic
area, including past efforts and current initiatives. If desired, include links to relevant articles,
papers or blogs covering the topic, to provide our review team with additional background
material.
• Public Health/Air Quality/Childhood Asthma. Since 2006 Sustainability has been a top
priority of the Mayor,City Council and community of Dubuque (SD Link). Since 2009 the
community's sustainability work has been supported and advanced by a series of
public/private research efforts known as Smarter Sustainable Dubuque (SSD link). One
of the key sustainability principles of the community contained within this work is Air
Quality (Healthy Air= Fresh,clean air, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and minimized
health risks). In 2014 Dubuque began work and response to one component of the Air
Quality issues for the community, namely Fine Particles known as PM 2.5 (link to "Path
Forward" document). The work has reinvigorated the community on the issues of
improving Air Quality. Additionally,the increasing awareness and impact of childhood
asthma in the community has become a high priority to understand and address. The
community wishes to move forward but is stymied by a major barrier. The key to
"Smarter Sustainable Dubuque" action here has been the ability to have the research
deliver answers to one basic question .... "How do we give people what they need (data
specific to them) so that they can do what they want(save money, protect the
environment and improve their quality of life)?" With other areas of Dubuque
sustainability action,there has been access to discrete individualized data (water
utilities,electric meters, travel apps for smart phones,etc). For Air Quality,there is no
discrete data source. There are, however, diverse and rich data pools available to City
government that together could create the needed information and connections, but
which are presently trapped in silos (EPA regional air quality data, City of Dubuque
health and epidemiology data, hospital health data and air quality complaint data,to
name a few). Dubuque needs assistance in creating a data, information technology and
analytic framework for utilizing these pools of data to conduct multi-sectoral data
analysis and create a means to give that data to citizens for a more direct picture of how
air quality affects them,and what they can do about it.
This framework would also provide a longer-term roadmap for an integrated multi-
sectoral data base and analytical approach/tool that could be used for the comparative
assessment of potential high impact, community-oriented interventions to improve
health, well-being and active living. The City in partnership with IBM Research and the
University of Iowa College of Public Health would build on this work to create a major
health and wellness initiative.
Which key stakeholders are invested in the proposed topic area, both inside and outside
of government? Please describe their current roles and involvement in the topic area.
Key Stakeholders
In addition to the City of Dubuque Mayor's Office and City Council:
• IBM: Martin-J. Sepulveda MD, IBM Fellow, IBM Research; Dan Pelino, IBM Sales &
Distribution General Manager, Global Public Sector;Anne Altman, General Manager, US
Federal and Government Industries
• College of Public Health, University of Iowa: Sue Curry, Dean of the College
• Dubuque County Wellness Coalition, cultivates and supports the efforts of the
organizations, collaborates to impact policy and infrastructure,and communicates to
identify gaps and duplication of efforts, utilizing data to influence individual and
community health.
• Greater Dubuque Development Corporation (GDDC),conducts new business
recruitment, business retention and expansion, workforce solutions,and retail
expansion.
• Iowa Department of Natural Resources,Air Quality Division
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• The City of Dubuque Health Services Department, which collaborates in community
health assessment,assurance and policy development to ensure the public's health.
• Health Care Delivery System:
• Crescent Community Health Center (CCHC),a Federally Qualified Health Center(FQHC)
provides basic primary medical and oral health care. CCHC offers high-quality and
affordable care to anyone needing a medical and/or dental home, including individuals
and families who are uninsured, underinsured and those with various types of
insurance.
• Mercy Medical Center-Dubuque is a general medical and surgical hospital,with 272
beds.
• Unity Point-Finley Hospital is a general medical and surgical hospital with 119 beds.
Medical Associates Clinic is a multi-specialty medical group practice with over 170
providers,delivering primary and specialty health care services to residents of the tri-
state area.
• Dubuque Internal Medicine has over 35 physicians, with some sub-specialty. Dubuque
Internal Medicine is the largest internal medicine group practice in Iowa.
• Tri-State Independent Physicians Association is a multi-specialty group organizations
representing a full array of primary care and sub specialties in the area.
• Dubuque Visiting Nurses Association provides public health nursing services and medical
case management for lead poisoning and asthma,etc.
B. Which senior staff member would serve as the project's sponsor, and potentially lead the
implementation of recommendations?
• Mike Van Milligen, City Manager
C. Which areas are connected to the proposed topic?
• Environment (Air Quality), Public Safety (Heath) and Citizen Engagement.
D. What systemic factors prevent the city and community from addressing this issue without a
Smarter Cities Challenge grant(for example: insufficient budget organizational culture,
regulation, legislation, etc.)?
The systemic Factors that prevent the City and Community from addressing this Issue without a
Smarter Cities Challenge Grant include, but are not limited to:
• Lack of technical capacity to examine and create the data, information technology and
analytic framework for utilizingpools of data to conduct multi-sectoral data analysis
relating to Air Quality.
• Lack of technical capacity to design citizen engagement systems capable of allowing
citizens to fully view and utilize new data to modify their behaviors.
• Lack of access to the outside expertise or the required software and development
licenses needed to begin addressing these multi-sectoral data challenges.
Anticipated Outcomes
A. What would be successful short and long-term outcomes of a Smarter Cities Challenge
engagement for the city?
• Successful Short Term Outcomes
Short term success would be the assessment of existing air quality and health data
sources (which are relevant, accessible, usable), identification of potential data
frameworks for the combined data, identification of needed data technologies, analytic
methods and visualization technologies to consider,a proposed method for delivering
information to (and its use by) citizens and a proposed method to measure progress
toward Air Quality goals and improvement in local rates of childhood asthma.
• Longer term success would be that the outcomes and learning of the 2015 Challenge
would lay the ground work for development of analytics for health,social, and
environmental data as it relates to systems, and Sustainable Dubuque and Smarter
Sustainable Dubuque efforts as they are occurring. The framework from the challenge
grant recommendations would be incorporated into a major, multi-year community and
high risk neighborhood health proposal to be brought to public and private funders.
IBM and the University of Iowa College of Public Health are the core partners for the
new technology platform and analytics, and the community health research and
engagement expertise.
B. After the engagement, what specific actions would betaken to implement recommendations?
What efforts would be taken to share best practices with other cities and regions?
• First, as part of our media action plan we would meet with local media, business, health
and education leaders to review the entirety of the engagement, its importance to
achieving community priorities and possible methods for the dissemination of the
information/learnings throughout the community. The City has a very positive approach
and relationship with local media outlets,who have partnered in information
dissemination on past initiatives. Our community partners in the Lead and Healthy
Homes Programs will also assist in education,outreach,and engagement.
• Second,the community would launch, promote and support Air Quality and childhood
asthma outreach to citizens using the new data/tool/visualization to increase
community engagement and action,as well as sharing of the new information with
colleague communities across the country.
• Third, based upon community engagement results Dubuque would incorporate these
data-based analytics into its targeted policy actions on reduction of childhood asthma.
• Fourth, the Dubuque City Council would incorporate the results of the Smarter City
Challenge into the City Council Goals and Priorities under the topic of the Community-
Wide Health and Wellness Initiative or Smarter Health.
• Lastly,this proposal will tell us about the form,variety and accessibility of the data, and
technologies for acquiring,qualifying,assessing,organizing and managing a multi-
sectoral data base on a broader range of public health interests. We would undertake
the data and technology work which would be fundamental to proceeding with any
consequential community and population health initiatives using a multi-sectoral
approach. The City of Dubuque has a long history of creating community partnerships
and utilizing a variety of funding sources including local, state, and federal dollars with
private sector and philanthropic sources for large-scale community project. Our strong
and longstanding partnership with IBM and innovation is a key competitive advantage
for taking on this leading edge,data and analytics driven approach.
Capacity for a Driving Change
A. Please describe the city's accomplishments in encouraging innovation and driving change, that
demonstrate the city's and city leader's capacity for acting on recommendations delivered by a
SCC grant.
• Capacity for a Driving Change
The City of Dubuque has partnered with IBM Research on numerous pilot projects since
2009, all of which fall under the "Smarter Sustainable Dubuque' initiative. Through this
partnership,the City and IBM have worked to implement technologies that provide
residents with information on services such as smarter water and electricity usage,
transportation, physical activity,and solid waste disposal. The goal of these pilots it to
identify how citizens' behavior responds simply to having access to this valuable
information. Due to this continued partnership, the City has developed and
demonstrated the capacity to implement recommendations delivered by a Smarter
Cities Challenge grant. We have actively engaged over a dozen federal and state
agencies on multiple projects. For example, the City of Dubuque Childhood Lead
Poisoning Prevention program and Healthy Homes Initiatives has reduced the incidence
of childhood lead poisoning from over 11.5%to the current rate of 1.5%over the last 17
years. By having access to healthcare provider lead poisoning data, housing, and
income data, Dubuque's Health and Housing Departments were able to target efforts to
eliminate lead-based paint hazards and reduce the incidents of childhood lead poisoning
in Dubuque. This highly successful program, funded primarily by HUD, utilized
numerous community partners, resources, and funding sources to produce not only
fewer numbers of lead poisoned children but 1,151 lead safe housing units and 1,786
trained contractors,workers, and inspectors. The impact of this program will have long-
lasting effects for the community,especially considering the impact detrimental effects
lead poisoning has on society. Another example is the Bee Branch Watershed Flood
Mitigation Project which will ultimately lead to reduced flooding and improved water
quality in the city of Dubuque. Locally we have developed the Sustainable Innovations
Consortium with local business and industry,designed to concert new research and data
into actionable economic activity.
Data
A. What role can open data and citizen engagement play in addressing the proposed topic area?
B. In the near term, regional air quality data from the EPA will be used as will data from federal and
state health sources and health care providers in the community (although it is currently limited
to hospital-based, reportable diseases, behavioral risk factor surveillance survey data and other
state-gathered information). Data from citizen complaints and inquiries is available along with
data from community volunteers. Dubuque has a strong history with being able to initiate
volunteer efforts related to sustainability as seen in many of the previous Smarter Sustainable
Dubuque pilots. In the longer term, data from a variety of health, social and other multi-sectoral
sources could create the ability to assess specific health and wellness related needs and also
point to the specific areas(health, housing, diet, neighborhood, disability,etc.) that should be
addressed in order to effectively meet the need. Limited data is available from the Healthy
Homes Program,which is focused on environmental hazards in the home. Although this
program only impacted 100+ homes in its first phase, the outcomes on asthma are significant.
C. What data relevant to the topic area would be available to a Smarter Cities Challenge team for
analysis?
• EPA regional air quality data, as well as any locally conducted air quality studies,and
some local point source data.
• Hospital-based data from the 2 community hospitals along with data from a large multi-
specialty clinic
• Public Health and Environmental data from the Iowa Department of Public Health
• Energy Data from Local Utilities
• Neighborhood/Socioeconomic Data
• Complaint and inquiry data from City Web QA system
• Local GIS Data encompassing over 350 layers
• Healthy Homes Program data
D. Please describe your city's policy for the publication and release of city data, and, if available,
provide links to the following: Published Open Data Policy, Data Glossary, Terms and Conditions,
and Contact Information for Chief Technology Officer or Equivalent.
• Currently there are no publicly available published links for direct data access. County
and city data can be obtained from the Iowa Department of Public Health. Request for
GIS data can be made by logging into the City of Dubuque's customer relationship
management(CRM) portal:
http://m ygovhel pa d m i n.us/D U B U QU E IA/_cs/Req uestLogi n.a spx?xSessio n l D=&rqst=4&t
arget=%2fDUBUQUEIA%2f_cs%2fRequestOpen.aspx%3frgst%3d4. GIS data and map
layers are available on request. Current guidelines for data acquisition and data request
form can be found at https://citvofdubuaue.sharefile.com/d/s8l9de79ee5444lc9. All
users of available GIS data are required to sign a data use agreement to obtain data. All
other data requests are handled on a case by case basis using the GIS data use and
access policies and conditions as a guide.
For a data glossary,GIS data model and available layers can be found at
https://cityofdubugue.sharefile.com/d/sl43f2ed46f94e21b. All other data schema can
be obtained upon request. Similarly, terms and conditions for GIS data access and the
use agreement can be found at
http://citvofdubuaue.sharefile.com/d/sla6ec8f4d564lc28. Terms and conditions for
acquisition and use of data would be similar to those for GIA but would be created on a
case by case basis.
Contact information for Chief Technology Officer or equivalent:
Information Services GIS
Chris Kohlmann, IS Manager Nikki Breitsprecker, GIS Coordinator/Analyst
City Hall Annex City Hall
1300 Main St 50W13 1h St
Dubuque, IA 52001 Dubuque, IA 52001
ckohlman@cityofdubugue.org nbreitsp@cityofdubugue.or�
563-589-4281 563-589-4174