Home#
Digitalisation meets Transformative Governance#
A collaborative data challenge at the 4th IOER Conference “Space & Transformation”
Welcome to the digital workspace of the Sustainability Transformation HaCLAthon (Format F5 of the 4th IOER Conference 2026).
Unlike traditional hackathons that require exhausting overnight coding marathons, the HaCLAthon format is designed as a collaborative, long-term, asynchronous data challenge.
This Jupyter Book serves as the central hub for the Sustainability Transformation HaCLAthon, a contribution format (F5) of the 4th IOER Conference 2026. Here, we bring together spatial data analysts, planners, coders, and domain experts to explore how Artificial Intelligence and Open Data can foster participation and sustainability.
What is a “HaCLAthon”?#
HaCLAthon = Collaborative, Long-term, Asynchronous Hackathon
You can think of this book as a digital, interactive counterpart to traditional conference proceedings. We believe this format is perfectly suited for communicating visual stories, interactive web tools, and data-centric approaches.
We invite you to participate in this asynchronous process, which starts immediately after registration and runs until the conference begins. You can develop your contributions at your own pace using our technical “Starter Kit,” which includes ready-to-use cloud environments and curated IOER datasets.
The goal is to co-create a living publication. All accepted contributions will be merged into this Jupyter Book and published as a lasting, citable data artifact with a DOI. All contributors will become co-authors of this book.
How can I participate?#
We motivate you to register to the IOER Conference 2026. However, registration to the conference is not a requirement. The Hackathon runs in parallel to the conference and following this timeline:
Fig. 1 Hackathon Timeline outlining the phases from pre-registration to final publication.#
During the collaboration period, anyone who wishes to participate is invited. We are open to anonymous Pull Requests on Github. However, in order for us to correctly include you as authors in our digital conference proceedings, it is important to forward your contact details next to your submission. Read further below at #How-it-Works.
The Challenge Topics#
We invite contributions that explore the intersection of Digitalisation and Transformative Governance. Specifically, we are looking for data-driven insights, workflows, or visualizations addressing:
Urban Climate Resilience: Heat adaptation, flood risk, and green infrastructure.
Circularity: Material flows, recycling potentials, and circular construction.
Land Use Change: Monitoring settlement dynamics and sprawl.
Material Cadastres: Mining the anthroposphere for future resources.
Why Participate?#
Create a Lasting Impact: Your code and analysis will not disappear after the conference. It becomes part of a citable Open Science product.
Low Barrier to Entry: You do not need to be a Python expert. We provide a “Starter Kit” featuring the IOER Monitor API, allowing you to pull and visualize spatial data immediately.
Interdisciplinary: We welcome contributions ranging from technical code (Python/R) to conceptual data stories and visual mapping.
Present at the Conference: Selected teams will be invited to pitch their results during a dedicated session at the main conference in Dresden (Sept 2026).
How it Works#
Quick-Start Guide.
Too much text? Go ahead and directly open the Quick-Start Guide.
Register: Sign up for the “Sustainability Transformation Hackathon” (Format F5) via the Conference Registration Tool. This step is optional.
Get the Kit: Run this book directly in your browser using the 🚀 button in the menu bar. The starter kit includes tutorials on how to access IOER data via the API and how to set up your environment.
Collaborate: Work on your idea asynchronously. You can fork this repository, add your notebook, and submit a Pull Request. We also plan to offer alternative submission options, such as email.
Publish: We will review and merge contributions to this book. We will accept the latest submissions until 10 September 2026, after which we will close the collaborative phase of the book.
Present: Join us in Dresden on September 23-24, 2026, to discuss the results. This step is optional, you do not need to visit the conference to collaborate in this book.
Share: The book will be archived as a citable digital artefact and made available using a DOI after 24 October 2026.
About the Infrastructure#
This project is powered by the IOER Research Data Centre (IOER-FDZ). We advocate for the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). By using this Jupyter Book, your research is automatically reproducible, as it runs entirely in the browser via Binder and Jupyter4NFDI. If you are interested to read more about the design and system, architecture, have a look at the Developers section.
License and citation#
The instructional material and text of this Jupyter Book are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0) license. The underlying code examples are available under the MIT license.
Recommended citation
TBD (2026). Sustainability Transformation HaCLAthon. IOER Conference 2026, JupyterBook Code and Data Materials, URL, DOI.
Publication Date: September 2026 (announced)
