Sarah Hermes: Yes, hello everyone, I'm Sarah. I work for the City of Bonn as a digital promoter in the Planning, Environment and Transport Department and we have a really interesting project on urban data management. We reported on it last year. Now I'd like to get an update from the colleagues involved and see how things are going. I've brought the three colleagues here and would now like to ask them to introduce themselves and explain their role in the project.

Friedrich Fuß: Yes, hello everyone. I am Friedrich Fuß. I am the Chief Digital Officer of the City of Bonn. If you like, I'm the person who is driving the digital transformation and I'll just pass it on.

André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: Yes, hello from me to everyone in the room today and I'm delighted to be here again. My name is André Dornbusch-Schwickerath, Acting Head of the Office for Land Management and Geoinformation. Good and I'm looking forward to the questions and the update. I'll pass it on.

Guido Blome: Exactly. My name is Guido Blome. I'm also in the Land Management Office and head the Geoinformation, Cartography and Statistics Department. We have been commissioned to set up Urban Data Management for the city of Bonn and I'm looking forward to the questions.

Sarah Hermes: Yes, very good, dear ones. Could you briefly explain to us what urban data actually is and how it differs from geodata?

André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: I'm happy to take that on, the question directly. Thanks to you. Urban data is a term that is now used everywhere, or not yet. But I would like to clarify this a little more. It actually encompasses all data from urban stakeholders and beyond. And not just this geodata, I would like to differentiate that again and also name it again. Data can be anything from any tree data, any point data, any documents that we collect and have already collected in various offices. But data is also provided to us by the state, the federal government, private institutions, etc. And then one more thing, what is the difference? Static and dynamic data. We will come to dynamic data in more detail later. We already have a lot of static data.

Sarah Hermes: You've explained that very well André, thank you very much. I'm still interested to know what role the Internet of Things, i.e. the IoT, plays in urban data?

Guido Blome: Yes, exactly, many people only think of the Internet of Things and sensor data when they think of urban data. And we are well on the way to achieving this. In the last year or so, we have already established a cooperation with our municipal utilities to set up a LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network). This is a special radio network technology that is particularly low-energy and for which there are various sensors. We have recently intensified the cooperation and also put it on a contractual basis and have actually created the opportunity to set up a test room in which the city administration can now playfully set up 700 sensors to do things, such as the recent makerspace event organized by our business development department, where there was a discussion about how sensor technology can actually be used sensibly in an urban context, or just like our parks department, which now wants to test new plant substrates and has installed moisture sensors for this purpose. There is also a follow-up video that you can watch, which explains the whole process very well.

Sarah Hermes: Guido, that sounds really interesting. Now I'm wondering, you mentioned the makerspace, where citizens can also take part, how else can citizens benefit from LoRaWAN and how exactly does it work?

Guido Blome: Yes, this LoRaWAN has a public branch, a large community project called The Things Network (TTN). And anyone can actually install sensors in this network to control and measure their own private things. Of course, sensors provide valuable information, but in a future expansion stage, they can also be used to control and regulate things. And that's where the concept of the digital twin comes in, so that you can actually model things completely digitally.

Friedrich Fuß: Yes, perhaps we need to say something about the digital twin: where does it actually come from, it's kind of like a buzzword and everyone probably understands it differently. And so I think it's really important to say where it comes from. It comes from production, where production lines and entire factories have practically been digitally mapped in order to generate control information, but above all to try things out and say, what happens if I increase the cycle speed, for example? If you now translate this to a city, what is the digital twin of a city? And let me give you a very simple example: if we have data, for example traffic data, and we combine it with data, where are the roadworks? Is work being carried out at these roadworks? Where are the lane narrowings and so on. Then you can model, for example, and say, if I now set up even more roadworks, what will happen? Or if I close a road, for example, what will happen? Or in Bonn, we are currently building a lot of cycle paths and roads are also being reduced to a certain extent, and you can also model this and say how traffic will develop. How will traffic flows develop? And what further measures can I then take to be able to intervene and control them? Ultimately, this is the digital twin of a city, using traffic as an example, and many other examples can be used in the same way. Let's think about summer, heat is also a big problem in cities, where are heat islands? If you then record and evaluate this, you can deduce, for example, where the trees and plants urgently need to be watered? And in what cycle, when will the next weather front arrive? Then maybe I don't need to do that anymore and so on. In other words, we combine data from the past with real-time data and stationary data. That's the whole model, so to speak, and the highlight is that we're also making it visible, usable and tangible for all citizens and organizations in the city of Bonn. We're at the beginning now, but that's where the journey is heading.

André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: Exactly, you're saying something Friedrich. This is the beginning, that's where we are right now. We have a 3D city model of Bonn, a first stage of this digital twin, and we are now combining it with these IoT sensors, with these real-time sensors. And as Sarah has already said or asked, you can calculate countless models and ideas and also, let's say, visualize things that come very close to the real environment and also show forecasts.

Guido Blome: Exactly, the third dimension can then produce completely new insights. It provides a completely new user experience and also helps to convey urban issues in a participatory way. And the city model is an important component of a digital twin.

Sarah Hermes: Yes, I can see that there are a few building blocks and a lot to do. Friedrich, if you now look at it from above as CDO, what's the best way to bring structure into it? What do you need to really get all this stuff on the road? Is there any kind of strategy?

Friedrich Fuß: Yes, the question you just asked is a very important one, because ultimately we have to derive our actions from somewhere and we have to set ourselves goals and say where we actually want to go. We are currently working on the topic of data strategy because it is precisely about clarifying and saying what our goals actually are. What are the short-term goals? What are the medium-term goals? What are the long-term goals? And we write this down in the data strategy, among other things. And then we derive from that, how do we want to proceed? What do we do first? What do we do afterwards? How does the whole thing work? And of course we need many elements for this. I'll mention one very important element: governance. Governance simply means what rules do we work with? Who has to do something? Who decides on something? How do we prioritize? How do we ensure data quality? In other words, there are many factors that are reflected in data governance, which must also be written down, and which will of course continue to evolve in order to achieve exactly what we outlined earlier. Ultimately, a system, a digital twin of the city with a wide range of information, and we have now only made excerpts, for example on completely different topics. We have social issues that can also be dealt with via this, which provide valuable information. All of this is initially included in this strategy and the strategy is then translated into actions and recommendations for action. We have also commissioned a study that simply looked at where we are now in Bonn. How are we currently doing? There are many indications of what we can do better, what we should focus on and these are then, for example, recommendations for action, which we then implement in concrete projects and concrete actions. That's how you can imagine it. In other words, it's a whole picture that emerges from this.

Sarah Hermes: I'll start directly with the implementation, which is always super interesting. If urban data management is fully implemented, what are the actual benefits for the administration and how does the citizen experience it? How will they benefit? How does the data make itself felt afterwards? What can you see from it? André, can you say something about this?

André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: Exactly, let me give you a small example, I'll pick up a bit where we left off. You can't see anything of this Urban Data Management (UDM) yet, perhaps that's something to start with. We have a current geodata environment, many people know our current portal, many people also know the city map and the whole thing is now being linked to this Urban Data Management at the next level. We have countless and very many data topics, data volumes that we will migrate, that will be a step. Not all of it, perhaps that's just to start with. That has to be clearly specified beforehand. But what will I get out of it? I have the opportunity to visualize certain goals that Friedrich talked about and goals that we all have, that various offices have, but that perhaps our customers, the citizens outside, have, and to present the results, for example. Let me take an example: we have climate targets that need to be implemented, we have certain road targets that need to be implemented, cycle paths, traffic light renewal, IoT sensors. And I can make the whole thing visible with dashboard technology, which is a visualization component of the new UDM, I can make successes visible, so to speak. That's a difference to now, I can even make it visible in real time. In other words, the UDM will take the data that is already there and certain data silos, which we always talk about, i.e. those that we don't yet have, we will then approach them via interfaces, which is a bit technical. But this gives me the opportunity to combine it, to visualize it and then to say, look, this and this has been created in the last few months, we have implemented this and this percentage, etc., very simple technology that will then come, that is a building block.

Friedrich Fuß: Yes, above all the important point is that the decisions to do something were made beforehand and the question is always on what basis these decisions were made. We always talk so much about data-based decisions or evidence-based decisions, and of course this platform helps us to do exactly that. We have this data with which we can then make decisions and say that the traffic density is too high, we can then reduce it with these and these measures, it's not a gut feeling, it's based on existing data, past and present.

André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: And I can make new decisions if necessary, that's another thing. I can take a look at what I have implemented and correct it if necessary. In the best-case scenario, my decision was the right one, and this visualization has proven to be correct.

Guido Blome: Exactly, and this is where the digital twin comes in again, where I can make simulations and take up what-if scenarios or make the successes of policy and administrative action visible. We are then talking about indicator values and one aim of urban data management is to make this comprehensive reporting system digitally tangible in the form of dashboards. And in this way, action can also measure success and data is not just an end in itself, but data is a means of gaining knowledge and making success visible.

Sarah Hermes: Now it's like this, implementation is approaching. The geodata that we have in the existing portal will certainly be migrated to the new UDM, you two will be happy to contradict me. If I get you together again next year to do the next update, what do you want to have achieved by then? What are your plans for next year?

André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: I'll get started. A lot, definitely. We'll see if we can achieve them all, but it's clear that I want to report next year, or rather we both definitely want to report next year, the UDM is here. You can already look at many different products, you can see what is already in the old system (I call it the old system) in the new one, but I suppose I have to be realistic and say that we won't have migrated everything by then. That would be my view of next year. Guido with you?

Guido Blome: Exactly, we are currently in the process of a redesign and Urban Data Management will completely replace the old GDI. That's why it's important for us to create a core platform now, a foundation of digital components on which we can then build these solutions. We are currently conducting intensive surveys to find out how we prioritize our migration, what are the topics that we want to and should implement first, that have the greatest demand or that have the greatest impact on administrative action? These will be the issues that we will tackle first and foremost next year.

Friedrich Fuß: Yes, and I think that, above all, we have also involved citizens much more intensively, firstly in the development, because this new platform simply allows modules to be connected very easily via dedicated interfaces and we can then, for example, organize very useful hackathons, ask certain questions and then modules can be developed there that we can actually continue to use. So that's a real highlight and, of course, this relationship to data and relationship to mapping and so on will become much more relaxed and much more clearly visible to a broad section of urban society in terms of the positive effects it can generate.

Sarah Hermes: Yes, you three, thank you very much for that. That was a very exciting presentation. I'll get you together again next year and we'll just keep at it until then. Take care.

André Dornbusch-Schwickerath: Thank you, Sarah. Take care. Bye.

Guido Blome: You're very welcome, ciao.