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Digitalisation meets Transformative Governance#
A collaborative data challenge at the 4th IOER Conference “Space & Transformation”
Welcome to the digital workspace of the Sustainability Transformation Hackathon (Format F5 of the 4th IOER Conference 2026).
Internally, we simply call this the Conference Hack. Unlike traditional hackathons that require exhausting overnight coding marathons, this format is designed as a long-term, asynchronous collaborative data challenge.
This Jupyter Book serves as our central hub. Over the coming months, we will 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 “Conference Hack”?#
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#
Register (until April 26th): Sign up for the “Sustainability Transformation Hackathon” (Format F5) via the Conference Registration Tool. This step is optional but recommended so that we can provide you with better support.
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 and set up your environment. You can also download the material on Github.
Collaborate (until September 10th): Work on your idea asynchronously. You can fork this repository, add your notebook, and submit a Pull Request. Alternative submission options (e.g., via email) will also be provided.
Publish (September 10 to 22): We review and merge your contributions into this book.
Present: Join us in Dresden on September 23-24, 2026, to discuss the results.
Lasting impact: The Hackathon Jupyter Book will be preserved and shared as a citable digital artifact with a DOI.
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.
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 Hackathon. IOER Conference 2026, JupyterBook Code and Data Materials, URL, DOI.
Publication Date: September 2026 (announced)
