Hatch and World Council on City Data forge global partnership
Hatch and the WCCD will jointly promote the critical role that ISO-certified city data can play in developing new solutions for planning and infrastructure challenges faced by urban communities in the twenty-first century.
The two organisations will also build innovative tools to map and analyse urban trends and associated city responses. As urbanisation around the world drives new and established cities to find ways to achieve their social and economic goals more productively, understanding how cities can improve is key.
“Hatch and the WCCD will provide a combination of practical, useful data and expertise on how cities can use this to meet their goals,” says Martin Doble, Hatch’s Global Managing Director of Infrastructure.
Doble is responsible for the strategy, development and operation of Hatch’s global infrastructure businesses in transportation and supply chain logistics, economic corridors, urban development and smart cities and water.
He leads business units and regional leadership teams in developing businesses driven by outcomes for Hatch’s clients and their communities, and drawing on Hatch’s diverse and differentiated skills and technologies.
“In an era of increasing urbanisation, this partnership with the WCCD will focus on providing better solutions to some of the toughest challenges facing cities, in ways that allow cities and communities to plan for real improvements and economic prosperity,” Doble elaborates.
As a WCCD lead partner, Hatch will join the WCCD Global City Leaders Advisory Board, chaired by Senator Art Eggleton, former mayor of Toronto. The WCCD is an initiative originally established in Ontario, Canada, while Hatch is a leading Canadian firm with project experience in more than 150 countries.
“High-quality standardised data is key to understanding the complex and interconnected challenges facing cities. Once understood, it is possible to identify practical and cost-effective solutions,” Professor Patricia McCarney, President and CEO of the WCCD and Director of the Global Cities Institute at the University of Toronto, comments.
“Hatch, as one of the world’s most respected engineering and consulting firms, is a great partner to drive this data-driven solutions agenda for cities around the world,” Professor McCarney emphasises.
Hatch and the WCCD have already started working together on data analytics, opportunities to optimise infrastructure investment and growing the network of WCCD ISO-certified cities.
Metropolitan areas in Asia, Europe, North America, South Africa and Australia are initially targeted as locations where comparable data in such areas as transportation, energy, environment, water, waste and emergency response will contribute to improved city planning and decision-making.
Ends
Notes to the editor
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About Hatch Goba
Hatch Goba supplies process and business consulting, information technology, engineering, procurement and project and construction management and operational services to the mining, metallurgical, energy and infrastructure industries.
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