The digitization of public space is advancing at a rapid pace, not only in large cities such as Berlin: in rural areas and smaller cities, too, paperless offices are emerging, citizen services are being digitalized and smartphones are intelligently navigating road users to avoid congested streets. These and other digitization processes, however, generate large amounts of data that must transmitted and stored securely and confidentially on the one hand, but on the other hand can offer real added value if analyzed correctly. 

In the Morgenstadt-Project, twelve German cities are represented are closely communicating amongst themselves and with researchers. The partner cities are at different stages in their development towards being a “Smart City”: While some partners are still in the design phase, the North Rhine-Westphalian city Solingen for example has already created and provided its own data platform. The cities are provided with scientific insight by the Fraunhofer Institutes in Lemgo (IOSB), Stuttgart (IAO) and Berlin (FOKUS).

Within the context of the regularly held digital events, the cities have the opportunity to exchange information about new developments, compare areas of application and thus transfer promising approaches. The central topics of the meetings are on the one hand data ownership, which is concerned with the security, safety, transparency, as well as responsibility for the management of citizens data. The other central topic is urban data governance, the most effective and efficient processing of the collected data.

The SQC scientists involved are responsible for the activities in the work package “Platform and Architecture”, which is concerned with the following aspects: 1) Research on the state of technology in the area of urban data platforms and architectures 2) Requirement determination for urban data platforms and the associated architecture 3) Insights into aspects of data security 4) Overview over existing urban data models.