Mayor Partsch: "The Urban Data Platform is an important milestone for digitalization in Darmstadt, which will bring us new insights and significant added value for Darmstadt's ecology, economy and social services"

At its meeting last Wednesday (16 Septmeber), the Board of the science city of Darmstadt decided to set up a data platform, Darmstadt Digital City GmbH, by 2021. Today, Wednesday 23rd, the project was presented to the public by Mayor Jochen Partsch. The main purpose of the collected data is to support and accelerate urban planning and decision-making processes and to develop new concepts for the urban quality of life in Darmstadt.

"With the completion of the project phase and the transition to operation, we are reaching an important milestone for digitalization in Darmstadt," explains Mayor Jochen Partsch. "Our city is one of the first in Germany and Europe to provide an urban data platform in this bandwidth. It will bring us new insights that will have a positive impact on life in the city. The data platform connects data streams from various urban systems. This integration is intended to create added value, especially for new applications for local ecology, urban economy and social services."

Digital transformation is also progressing in Darmstadt. Sensors, processes and processes generate a lot of new valuable data. Whether it is supply and disposal, construction, logistics and mobility or whether it is environmental data or the wide field of administrative data processing in offices and authorities: the life streams of the science city of Darmstadt are digitized in many places – the data platform creates opportunities to make the best use of this information. The task of the urban data platform is to connect the digital infrastructures, the existing data stores and private and public services. It collects and distributes data from these sources for the development and use of new applications within the framework of new urban development concepts, which ultimately focus on the benefits of citizens: In Darmstadt, for example, the improved data management is intended to achieve an urban quality of life. Whether through a healthier environment in the high-frequency districts, through faster bureaucratic processing or through improved safety precautions, for example in road transport.

This is achieved because Darmstadt's first urban data platform enables an increase in ‘event-driven’ actions, i.e. rapid and targeted intervention in situations that are only clearly visible through the linked data. An example is the coupling of the data from Darmstadt's extensive environmental measurements with the data from the traffic calculator of the Mobility Office: If the environmental impact increases at certain traffic points, traffic can be controlled accordingly in order to optimize air quality. Energy-saving potentials are also re-identified, such as when adaptive street lighting is used. "However, the attractiveness of the urban data platform also goes beyond mere application," continues Mayor Partsch. "People from business, science and citizenship are interested in urban data and overall the science and digital city of Darmstadt as an economic and scientific location is gaining additional appeal. And since some of the information from the data platform will also be publicly available, it represents potential for many innovations."

The data platform, which was commissioned by the city of science Darmstadt in a tendering procedure, is implemented by the consortium of bidders of the service providers ekom21 – KGRZ Hessen, the  Urban Software Institute GmbH - [ui!] as well as  DARZ GmbH. The consortium is working to build the necessary technical infrastructure of the data platform and to visualize the data. Data from the Internet of Things installed in Darmstadt as well as the measurements of the extensive environmental sensor network, data from the volume of mobility including public transport and other non-personal data of everyday life in Darmstadt must be taken into account. Overall, this results in the digital image of the city in real time. "We have paid particular attention to IT security and data protection: the data platform does not process personal data and acts in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the digital city of Darmstadt," explains Mayor Partsch. "Through the visualizations of the urban data platform, users can quickly capture what is hidden behind the values, numbers and measurements in Darmstadt's urban area through engaging graphs, meters or other presentations, and they should draw their own conclusions. Our city is becoming more transparent and we can only win."

View original article in German here: https://www.darmstadt.de/presseservice/einzelansicht/news/einrichtung-einer-staedtischen-datenplattform-durch-die-digitalstadt-darmstadt