DATA-CONTINUUM
Data Continuum is a project in collaboration with three offices of the Canton of Geneva: Office Cantonal des Bâtiments (OCBA), Office du Urbanisme (OU) and the Office Cantonal de l’Environment (OCEV) through the Service de l’air, du bruit et des rayonnement non ionisants (SABRA). These offices generate and process heterogeneous data from different sources. This data is broadly categorised into structured and unstructured types, each serving unique purposes and requiring different handling methodologies. Structured data is highly organised and easily searchable due to its fixed schema; it adheres to a predefined format, making it ideal for storage in data warehouses—an analysis-optimised data management architecture. Examples of structured data include sensor data in a monitoring system. Unstructured data lacks a predefined schema and is more complex, encompassing several formats such as text, images, videos, and audio files. This type of data is large and varied, making it a better fit for storage in a data lake—a data management architecture optimised for storing large amounts of raw data in its native format.
The Data Continuum vision is to create a data management platform capable of ingesting, handling, transforming, processing, and analysing data coming from different sources and types. Our strategy is to create a transversal digital platform that allows the treatment and exchange of information at the level of the canton.
The goal of the Data Continuum project is to:
- Draw up a current mapping of data governance within the cantonal offices, as well as the interdependencies between these offices and other institutions. This mapping could be extended to other departments/offices as part of future studies.
- Identify the business and technical requirements relating to the use cases proposed by the three offices,
- Design a generic architecture providing an overview of the system components and interfaces.
