The city administration of Bonn has developed a comprehensive data strategy and data governance to systematically manage the handling of urban data and extract the maximum value from this data.

Urban data includes all digital information collected in an urban context, such as population, infrastructure and environmental data. A cross-departmental team from the Office of Land Management and Geoinformation, the Human Resources and Organization Office and the CDO team has developed a data strategy and data governance for urban data. Data transparency and an open data first approach were two central principles. This means that the handling of data should be transparent by disclosing which data is available and which publication category it falls into. With the open data first principle, the city administration undertakes to publish all urban data that can be published in compliance with data protection regulations.

The data strategy is a public document that is also intended to serve the exchange with urban society. The data governance is an internal administrative document that regulates the working methods in detail. It contains specific guidelines and thus forms a uniform, reliable approach to urban data and ensures a reliable, high quality of urban data in the city administration in the long term.

The implementation of these strategies will enable the city administration to work more efficiently and transparently with urban data in the future. This promotes data-based decisions in the administration as well as in political consultations. In addition, processes such as data collection are clearly defined and communicated, which not only creates transparency, but also saves time and improves data quality.

A data strategy and data governance brings great added value for the city administration, which is particularly evident in the time required, clear processes and support for data-based decisions. This approach is closely linked to the further development of urban data management.

Following preliminary discussions in the Subcommittee for Digitalization and Organization, the Main Committee politically adopted the data strategy on 3.12.2024, thereby underlining the importance of implementing urban data management and the binding nature of the data strategy.