In Winnipeg, MB, grass and weed growth can be seen during the summer, up until the middle of October. Weeds such as dandelions are hazardous to human health as they can trigger allergic and asthmatic reactions to the public. Their roots can grow up to two feet long if not removed on time. During the grass growth period, the City of Winnipeg uses many mowers of different sizes and horse-powers to mow and remove the weeds in boulevards, athletic fields, parks and other city owned green spaces. Currently, mowing routes are decided manually by the foremen. This is inefficient and time consuming.

In cold regions, freezing temperatures impede construction activities or put them on hold until warmer seasons, as concreting activities under such conditions are quite challenging. This leads to considerable socioeconomic losses. This research will advance the current knowledge on cold weather concreting, which is a critical issue for Canada and other cold regions.

In the current era of big data, huge volumes of a wide variety of data are generated and collected at a rapid rate. Embedded in these big data is implicit, previously unknown and potentially useful knowledge and information. This calls for data science—which use techniques like data mining, machine learning, etc.—for social good. With popularity of the initiates of open data, more data are made openly accessible to citizens. An example of these open big data is data collected at the 311 contract centre in the City of Winnipeg for the 311 information requests.