In the last years the IDB has been working with different municipalities, governments, academia, and allies with the vision to transform Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) into a Region of Smart Cities to respond to current and future urban challenges. Even though some LAC cities are making great progress toward this journey, among the more 17,000 in the region there are still many willing to seize the untapped opportunities and leverage technologies, people and processes for better management and delivery of public services. The journey toward Smart City together with Digital Transformation imply the generation of huge amounts of data (Big Data) that can be harnessed and, when properly analyzed, has the potential to produce valuable insights to support evidence base decisions and the formulation of public policies.

In this session we will have fruitful discussions that combine Smart Cities, Satellite Imagery, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data themes as follows: (a) the use of open data tools in urban planning, (b) the development of the tool called URSA (Urban Reporting based on Satellite Analysis) to detect urban growth and heat islands in LAC cities, and (c) the adaptation and implementation of MAIIA (Mapping of Informal Settlements with Artificial Intelligence) to detect informal settlements in Asunción, Paraguay.