Cities in Germany take various approaches to city development and citizen engagement under the umbrella term ‘smart city’. Developing strategies for such urban innovation and municipal datafication takes place across the country, with different approaches in the bigger cities like Hamburg or Berlin than in mid-sized and smaller cities. Since the launch of a national smart city strategy and already three rounds of competetion for federal funding, the following overview depicts only selected examples of data-driven urban innovation where civic purposes play a role.
The region of Geestland in the North-West of Germany established a city lab that creates a space where citizens can gather for discussion, bringing together the digital and the analogue, and to make the term ‘smart city’ more tangible. People can experience the thoughts and strategies behind the smart city of Geestland. Moreover, the lab invites all citizens to contribute to a think tank – so that future ideas can be developed with the community.
Looking further into the West, Solingen participates in the Open SmartCity Hub: As an urban data platform, the hub enables the provision of data from various sources which are then made available via the app Mensch, Solingen! as well as via displays in public spaces. Together with other municipalities, Solingen has initiated the Open SmartCity App development partnership. The initiative allows communication and cooperation among different cities and stakeholders.
Similarly, the city of Kaiserslautern provides a digital platform that can be used by citizens as an infrastructure to access existing open data or to enable their own data collection. This should accelerate the development of innovative solutions from a citizens’ perspective. Further towards the east, the small city of Barleben in Saxony-Anhalt has created a physical place where people can meet and discuss innovative ideas, called ‘Villa 147’. The building is not only a space for exchange and networking for Barleben’s citizens but also for neighbouring regions. It is furthermore a showroom and workshop for developing and experimenting with digital solutions – based on impulses from domains such as mobility and business. In addition, Barleben plans a digital platform for citizen engagement.
Finally, an example from the South-West of Germany. Freiburg follows the motto of ‘Deine Daten. Deine Stadt.’ (German for: Your data. Your city.). The city also adopts an open data approach, and wants to use and store data from a wide range of sources, bundled in an infrastructure, where data can be analysed and made available for numerous applications. The project should provide data for citizens, businesses, science, and the media. As this overview shows, there are different models that cities in Germany follow in their smart city strategies – from physical spaces for citizens to meet in rather small cities to building open databases, accessible for everyone, in the bigger cities. Smart City strategies typically set down the main goals and assemble new stakeholders to achieve common objectives. These strategies are both a requirement to receive federal funding as they are an opportunity for stakeholders to develop joint projects and solutions for a city’s specific needs and aspirations.
(FG)
Literature:
Baykurt, Burcu; Raetzsch, Christoph (2020). “What Smartness Does in the Smart City: From Visions to Policy.” Convergence 26(4): 775-789.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354856520913405Smart City Index 2023 by Bitkom e.V. https://www.bitkom.org/Smart-City-Index (in German)
Lara, Alexander Prado; Moreira Da Costa, Eduardo; Furlani, Thiago Zilinscki; Yigitcanlar, Tan (2016). “Smartness That Matters: Towards a Comprehensive and Human-Centred Characterisation of Smart Cities.” Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity 2(1).
https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40852-016-0034-z (open access)
