The Bonn city administration has been using spatial data in its geoinformation system for a long time. Urban Data Management is now the next step beyond a purely graphical representation: in addition to map material, statistical data is also included and real-time data collected - also by third parties - from various measurements, for example on air quality, can also be incorporated into the map information.
Another topic that CDO Friedrich Fuß discusses with André Dornbusch-Schwickerarth, acting head of the Office for Land Management and Geoinformation, and Guido Blome, head of the department for geodata, urban cartography and statistics, is the "digital twin" that is created with the help of the 3D city model.
The podcast in the wording
Friedrich Fuß: Hello everyone, a warm welcome to you. I am here with two very competent gentlemen on the subject of geodata and geodata infrastructure. My name is Friedrich Fuß. I am the Chief Digital Officer of the City of Bonn. In Bonn, I am responsible for driving forward the digital transformation and, of course, digitalization - both in the administration and in the city of Bonn. So now I'll pass the baton to Guido; we're all on a first-name basis, so I'll just pass the baton to Guido.
Guido Blome: Yes, my name is Guido Blome. I'm here at the Office for Land Management and Geoinformation and I'm head of the Urban Cartography, Geoinformation and Statistics department and we are currently working very intensively on setting up an urban data management system for the urban community.
Friedrich Fuß: That all sounds quite complicated; I think we'll go into a little more detail afterwards and then I'd also like to welcome André. André, if you could also briefly introduce yourself.
André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: Yes, of course. Hello, my name is André Dornbusch Schwickerath; I'm also from the Office for Land Management and Geoinformation, where I'm acting head of office. It's great that we're taking up this topic today and I'd like to take this opportunity to say a few words about the City of Bonn's 3D GIS or 3D city model.
Friedrich Fuß: Yes, great, I'm really excited too: Guido, can you explain what urban data actually is? What does it mean to me?
Guido Blome: That's a very broad term that is also very fashionable at the moment. As a geodesist, I would of course first of all say that it refers to all spatial data - in other words, all data that somehow describes the urban area and gives me an idea of what I can do on these areas, for example. When we think of nature conservation, nature conservation areas or urban land-use planning. But that would be far too short-sighted, because all this has been around for a very long time with geo-information systems. Urban data is a broader term. Of course, it also includes statistical data, which is also spatially related, but which also includes socio-demographic data and enriches completely different topics. Traditionally, however, the term urban data is often associated with the topic of IOT, so real-time data is also included. Sensor data - things that talk about water levels, air quality, traffic congestion, for example - in other words, all this data.
Friedrich Fuß: Well, that's quite a lot when you hear it like that, of course there are a lot of foreign words in there. IOT - Internet of things: what does that actually mean? What is so mysterious about it?
Guido Blome: The Internet of Things is very much concerned with sensor technology, in other words with measuring, and there are already very simple technologies that use very inexpensive sensors to transmit data via radio, for example, to tell me whether a particular garbage can is full or how many people are currently using the pedestrian zone. All of these things are included. The city of Bonn has also set up an initiative - a so-called Lorawan network - together with the municipal utilities. The sensors can be connected to this network.
Friedrich Fuß: And if I, as a citizen, want to use something like this or do something with it, how do I go about it? What do I have to do? Where do I have to look? Is there a website that I can go to or how does it work? What does it currently look like in practice?
Guido Blome: There is a community specifically for sensor data, as is often the case in the digital world, and there is The Things Network, which we also support as the city of Bonn with several base stations that transmit the signals from the sensors. And I can connect standard sensors there and then measure and transmit a specific situation.
Friedrich Fuß: And can I also see this on a website? I'm thinking of weather events, for example. They also measure whether it rains a lot or a little, and if it rains a lot, whether there is heavy rain. Are there any things I can get to?
Guido Blome: When it comes to heavy rainfall, I don't think we as the city of Bonn are currently a provider of a public website, but that's the point: if you think about the communities, data is collected. This data is offered via open interfaces and can in turn be used by many people. We don't think about it because you have to give the communities these opportunities. There is also the well-known Openstreetmap Foundation, especially in the cartographic environment. So, when it comes to mapping, we definitely want the community to get involved in such things and the data that is obtained or collected in the group can then be accessed via open licenses.
Friedrich Fuß: So that means this community or even the normal citizen says "Look, I have some data or a data set here that I would like to donate to you". Is that possible? Does it work? Can you do something like that?
Guido Blome: Yes, that would be the issue of data donation and we would then discuss the license conditions on an individual basis. Because in order to really make data usable again for a larger group, it is very important that the license model is clarified. There are these open licenses and then they can be distributed further via our open data portal, for example, and of course we are happy to accept that data is made available to the general public.
Friedrich Fuß: That's a good thing and you've already mentioned that the whole thing is always compliant with data protection law, so that no citizen has to worry about personal data suddenly being leaked online, but everything is always checked so that you can actually donate data with a clear conscience and without worrying.
Guido Blome: Yes, that is a very important aspect so that citizens gain confidence in such data infrastructures. In urban data management, the data protection aspect must be right at the top and we are also committed to ensuring that this is properly regulated.
Friedrich Fuß: These are really great things! And now we're already there: you have to bring data like this to life somehow and that's where visualization comes into play. The star, so to speak, is a three-dimensional visualization and that's where you come in, André. Tell us a bit about the third dimension. Why is it so important? Why do we need it?
André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: I can explain that in a little more detail: In my experience, the third dimension is due to the fact that the technology is now simply so advanced; for a long time, the transmission of large amounts of data via the internet was a huge problem. But that has been solved, the games industry has helped us, they have solved the problems for us and we are simply taking advantage of it. In other words, we can use the third dimension in addition to the second and this opens up completely new perspectives, this bird's eye view that I wouldn't otherwise have. I can navigate around my objects, regardless of whether I'm standing in front of them, behind them or wherever, and that makes it much easier, especially in the administrative area.
When I come back to the administration, the process where I might have had to be on site at the time to look at the property, where perhaps a report came in from the defect reporter, for example. And then I have the opportunity to do this directly from the office and no longer have to go on site. That's a huge added value, not only because it's much quicker, but because I'm directly at the property.
Friedrich Fuß: Ultimately, of course, this also means that you need a certain degree of up-to-dateness. In other words, it's no use if the data is, let's say, several years old. How do you actually do that? How do you manage to keep the data up to date?
André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: That is precisely the huge advantage of this business, that I live from my topicality and therefore also have the information. How do we do that? It's relatively simple, so everyone is certainly familiar with the so-called aerial photos that you like to use yourself to do research, for example, everyone knows google and we also use exactly these aerial photos. Just not the ones from google, but our own.
We have ourselves flown and these flights, which take place in a certain rhythm, produce oblique aerial images. From this I am able to derive a so-called 3D mesh. This requires a huge amount of cloud-based computing power, which in turn does this once. This is a huge process that is run through and we ultimately use this finished product and integrate it in the form of a viewer. We've already done that, the whole thing has been provided by bonn3d since last year. You can already see the three-dimensionality of the city of Bonn.
Friedrich Fuß: Now I have a very spontaneous question for you Guido: You also have a lot of data in your portfolio, so to speak, such as where bus stops are or where open spaces are and so on. Do you actually combine this data from the 2D world and the 3D world?
Guido Blome: Yes, that's exactly the plan and the tools that we have nowadays know how to link the data via open interfaces so that the things that you see in the classic GIS systems or in the sensor data systems can also be transported into the third dimension. This is definitely a plan we have for the future, that the classic 2D and 3D geoinformation systems can be linked with Bonn in 3D and the city model. So that this completely new user experience comes across and you can see things vividly. This also corresponds much more to our human perception and need for information.
Friedrich Fuß: I mean, we always talk about a digital twin, where you say, okay, the cityscape is somehow digitally mapped and then when I'm standing somewhere and say "Gee, where am I here?" and want to have a look at what's behind the house wall or what's behind the house front or around the street corner? I could imagine that this is something like virtual reality or augmented reality - in one form or another - and that brings me back to the question: How can citizens use these things? What other ideas are there for how they can be used?
André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: Maybe we discussed an idea like this once, that is the planning, so if I provide new buildings, new objects as an architectural office, for example, just like the planning office, which works with the data of the city of Bonn, it is then also very easy to take exactly these models to project them into the virtual digital twin world. These are very simple principles, it only takes three clicks and I can look at my new object, my new model, in my current environment. This is an advantage for everyone, not only for the employees directly in the city, but also for the citizens, if you can visualize this citizen participation, these co-determination rights that you still have, and you can see directly what the future looks like. What can it look like or, as a consequence, maybe I need to change something in my architectural design?
Friedrich Fuß: I mean, I always have a bit of a problem when I see a two-dimensional plan in front of me and want to imagine what it looks like or what it could look like, then of course that's something you can bring in wonderfully, because many people can then imagine it much more easily, especially as you described. They can walk around it and then of course you can talk much more objectively about all the problems that you might see and you can show the other person exactly what the problem is and you don't just have to describe it in words.
André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: That's precisely the huge advantage: I'm speeding up the entire modeling phase, the entire planning process, if you want to abstract the whole thing a little in this way. And that is not only very good for the transparency of the old system. As I just said, I can do this not only for buildings. I can do it for active sensors, I can do it for the utilization of parking garages, I can display wonderful data in real time for the e-charging station and then navigate in 3D or - perhaps even thinking a little further ahead - bring the whole thing into the car.
Friedrich Fuß: But that's a great outlook for the future and then I'd like to ask you briefly in conclusion: What would you like to see in the future? Guido, when you start?
Guido Blome: What I would really like to see in the future is that we can leverage all these data treasures here in the administration or in urban society and really arrive at evidence-based decision-making. I would like to support that with our team.
Friedrich Fuß: Yes, that's wonderful. And you André?
André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: Yes, of course I would like to further develop this 3D Bonn city model so that we can combine and visualize all possible sensors and really feel the acceleration of this added value. I can well imagine that and I believe we are on the right track.
Friedrich Fuß: Thank you both very much. I can see that there are committed people who really have a vision of how they want to bring this perhaps very sober data to life. Many thanks also to our listeners and see you again soon.