site.btaSofia Makes Part of City Geographic Data Public

The Sofia Municipality is opening part of the geographic data for Sofia for public use, Mayor Vassil Terziev said in a Facebook post on Monday. The data include orthophoto maps, addresses, green areas, zones for commercial sites and other spatial information.

"The more data are brought into the open, the fewer decisions are taken in the dark. When the city’s geographic data are open, cleaned and organized, this information can be clearly seen on a map accessible to citizens, journalists, researchers and entrepreneurs," Terziev said.

He noted that people too often learn about a decision only when construction machinery is already on site, which is why it is important to know how decisions are made and what those elected to govern the city are doing. According to him, this is also part of the idea of Sofia’s digital twin, an accurate digital map of the city built from data.

"When we opened data on public transport, applications showing the real-time movement of vehicles appeared within days," Terziev added.

He said the municipality would continue publishing data from other areas of governance so that the city’s digital model reflects different aspects of urban life.

The municipality is also beginning to create an electronic file for each transport facility in the city and a general register of transport infrastructure with information on their condition in real time, Terziev noted.

The mayor also welcomed the decision by caretaker Environment and Water Minister Julian Popov to open the primary data in his Ministry's systems. According to Terziev, open data should become a consistent policy at national level as well.