To kick off Smart Cities Week, which linked federal, state, and local officials with technology innovators to drive the advancement of smart cities, the White House announced more than $80 million in new investments and the doubling of participating communities in the smart cities initiative. With the announcement, the cities included will expand to more than 70 and investments will focus on innovation in the key areas of climate change, transportation, public safety, and the transformation of city services.

The White House also hosted its first-ever Open Data Innovation Summit this week, which highlighted the Obama administration’s work in opening government data, focused on a number of successful data sharing initiatives, and spurred discussion about how to advance open data progress in the future. Read coverage of the inaugural event that brought together government leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs on GovTech.

The Association for Neighborhoods and Housing Development (ANHD) in New York City released its Housing Data Project, which maps locations where tenants may be facing the most displacement pressures and where affordable housing is most at risk. Read about the release and the details of the map on Next City.

In the wake of severe flooding this summer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the city partnered with GIS mapping firm Esri to launch a series of apps designed to help cities track flooding through nearly real-time mapping of flood zones, a catalog of open businesses for residents to navigate, and a visualizer of before and after scenes. Read about the details and how the apps can be applied to other cities on GovTech.

The General Services Administration (GSA) has launched the U.S. Data Federation, which will support government-wide data standardization and other efforts across federal agencies and local governments. GSA said the Federation is designed to build on efforts like data.gov. Read more about it on CivSource.

The Louisville Metro Government announced the hiring of its first Chief Data Officer to further drive the use of data-driven decision making in the city. Michael Schnuerle, co-founder of Civic Data Alliance, Louisville’s chapter of Code for America, will now work out of the city’s Office of Performance Improvement and Innovation, focusing on improving the use of data to drive transparency and overall improvement of city government.

The city of Syracuse announced this week a partnership with AT&T and Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies (iSchool) to drive innovation in tackling infrastructure problems in the city. With the opening up of city data on road conditions, the city hopes to engage developers interested in solving the city’s road problems.