Urban water

Municipality of Utrecht

To correctly determine the level of urban water and sewerage, we prevent negative side effects caused by a relatively high or low level of urban water. In doing so, we contribute to the safety of residents and a cleaner city.

Last change on 12th of July 2024, at 9:34 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
• Impact assessment: DPIA, ...
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

Nature and Environment

Begin date

-

Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

Predicting the elevation of urban water and sewer system

Considerations

Results Uthiek Assessment: with this approach, we encourage urban water levels to remain at the right level. This contributes to the value Safety, as excessive urban water levels can lead to flooding and unsafe situations for residents. The level of sewerage directly affects the value Health, as it can lead to reduction of a clean city.

Human intervention

The algorithm (with direct impact on Utrecht residents and their living environment) only serves as a source of information for an employee, who takes the right follow-up step based on this information and the context of the situation. This principle is included in our Utrecht framework Internal Guidelines for Algorithm Application.

Risk management

The Utrecht data scientists, Information and Process Advisors (IPA) and Decentralised Information Security Officers (DISO) within the Utrecht municipality have a controlling and monitoring role in the application of the algorithm, in addition to the employees directly involved. By doing so, we want to prevent the following risks from occurring:

- data leak by making personal data of Utrecht residents publicly available

- algorithm takes a decision completely independently, without the intervention of an employee and without interpreting the relevant context of the situation

- 'function creep' regarding data in the application of the algorithm, causing the algorithm to give a distorted picture of what is going on. This can occur because the same type of data is used when applying the algorithm, and the algorithm uses that as confirmation of what comes out as information

Impact assessment

• Utrechts Uthiek Assessment
• Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)

Operations

Data

- urban water and sewerage locations

- urban water and sewerage height measurement data