WHAT MATTERS THE MOST? OPTIMAL QUICK CLASSIFICATION OF URBAN ISSUE REPORTS BY IMPORTANCE

Civic engagement platforms such as SeeClickFix and FixMyStreet have revolutionized the way citizens interact with local governments to report and resolve urban issues. However, recognizing which urban issues are important to the community in an accurate and timely manner is essential for authorities to prioritize important issues, allocate resources and maintain citizens' satisfaction with local governments. To this end, a novel formulation based on optimal stopping theory is devised to infer urban issues importance from ambiguous textual, time and location information.