The idea sounds tempting: data is collected, evaluated and used for urban development. Whether it’s traffic routing, noise pollution or improving the climate – the collection and evaluation of data makes many things seem controllable and better designed.
But if you take a closer look, many unanswered questions quickly arise: How exactly does the data get into the city? Which data is relevant at all? What happens to it and how does it become a good basis for urban policy? What role do companies, administrations, civil society initiatives and, last but not least, citizens play?
Dr. Matthias Begenat talks about the opportunities and challenges of smart city projects and about the question of how they can actually be studied:
- Dr. Thomas Bartoschek (Geoinformatics, University of Münster and co-director of re:edu)
- Marlene Damerau (Area Manager of the Smart City Model Project Gelsenkirchen)
- Prof. Dr. Christoph Bieber (Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS))
The live discussion round was recorded on the nationwide Digitaltag.