Our climate is changing, and not necessarily for the better. We need to alter the landscape in our cities to cope with urban heat islands and flash floods and what not. This is up to the local governments, but they often-times do not know where to start. And should they make a change to the landscape, are they then on schedule, or is it not good enough?

Big data can help them at that. With GIS and remote sensing, we can help urban policy makers make the right choices. And in most cases, we can do this open source!

By saying open source I mean: open input data, open resulting data, open algorithms and open scripts.

Using landscape metrics like the 3+30+300-rule, the EU Nature Restoration Law, the Human Pressure Index: we can quantify in an open manor where the biggest issues are, and if policy makers are on par.

A true FOSS programme has been conducted in The Netherlands on this, and we would like to share our insights to other FOSS enthusiasts that would want to make their city a nicer place to live in. In our presentation we will go over the process, the applicability to policy, and the impact that has been made with FOSS in this field. Finally, we would love to cooperate with other fellow European FOSS-enthusiasts to make their cities greener and more liveable. A picture says more than a thousand words! Let’s make that picture, and convince your local mayor, journalists and citizens!