CityScienceLab Hamburg shows how urban data makes cities smarter

Hamburg News: Urban planning impacts many people’s lives, but it often goes under the radar. What is your role therein?

Ziemer: An important part of our work is to get buy-in from multiple stakeholders. We get experts from various fields to sit down with urban authorities and simulate future urban-planning scenarios based on data. That helps us answer highly specific questions. What happens to a city, for instance, if its population were to increase? That is a very important issue for urban centres as it can affect property prices, green space planning, schools and traffic in a whole bunch of ways. Our simulations help stakeholders with decision-making and, of course, includes residents also.

Hamburg News: The CityScienceLab talks to both urban agencies and local residents. How does that work?

Ziemer: Yes, that’s right. Communicating with local citizens is indeed an important part of our work. Locals know their city really well so they can point out problems or suggest possible solutions, for instance, when a certain traffic light is causing problems, or when it comes to identifying the most appropriate modes of transport. We use civic participation events to get residents involved, and this is where we can put our data analyses and visualisations to good use. That’s how we got people involved in the Finding Places (refugee accommodation) project, the housing project in the Mitte-Altona district and the Grasbrook port.

Hamburg News: What specific digital tools do you use?

Ziemer: Our large touch-tables are very popular. They allow us to map data interactively, that is, create maps that reflect participants’ individual preferences. We are also engaged in developing online platforms, civic participation tools, data management systems as well as applications in augmented and virtual reality.

Hamburg News: Data are valuable assets, but are also subject to strict protection laws. How do you handle that? 

Ziemer: Data protection can be complicated for sure. And yet it doesn’t tend to be an issue for us because we work with open-source programs and publicly available data from the City of Hamburg. We believe that open, accessible urban data are essential in a modern, digital and democratic society. Hamburg already has a very high standard in this regard. 

Hamburg News: In what way? What is special about Hamburg?

Ziemer: The City of Hamburg provides excellent public-data infrastructure in terms of both collection and accessibility. The Hamburg State Office for Geoinformation and Surveying is responsible for collection and scans the city to gather information on buildings and surfaces. Traffic infrastructure such as traffic lights and junctions, as well as the port and smart homes also generate useful data. The City of Hamburg stores all of this on an urban data platform that is open to the public. The local "Transparency Law" makes this possible, which is unique to Hamburg. So it’s not a question of whether we have enough data, but rather a question of how to make use of such data. 

Hamburg News: Und hier kommen Sie ins Spiel …

Ziemer: Genau, im Science City Lab versuchen wir die Daten in Hinblick auf bestimmte gesellschaftspolitische Zwecke zu verknüpfen. Dabei arbeiten wir sehr nah an konkreten Anwendungsfällen. Dafür werden die Daten zunächst von unseren Datenanalysten ausgewertet. Danach werden sie modelliert und dargestellt: In sogenannten Data Stories, also datenbasierte Visualisierungen, die eine Geschichte erzählen. Das hilft enorm, um relevante Probleme zu verstehen und datenbasierte Entscheidungen zu fällen.

Hamburg News: Das Science City Lab ist eine wichtige Schnittstelle für viele Akteur*innen aus der Städteplanung. Gibt es auch längerfristige Kooperationen?

Ziemer: Wir kooperieren mit einer Bandbreite an Einrichtungen und auch mit Unternehmen. Mit Google arbeiten wir zum Beispiel gerade im Projekt „Air View“, bei dem wir Luftdaten für die Stadtplanung sammeln. Ein anderes Projekt ist unser „Connected Urban-Twin“: Ein digitales 3D-Modell von Hamburg, mit dem wir Entwicklungen im städtischen Raum abbilden und simulieren können, in Kooperation mit Leipzig und München. Hier werden wir auch mit verschiedenen Startups zusammenarbeiten, die sich unter anderem auf Virtual Reality spezialisiert haben und uns bei der Visualisierung helfen.

Hamburg News: People often talk about smart cities of the future. What trends do you think are going to be important for Hamburg in the coming years? 

Ziemer: To stress the idea of public involvement, we actually prefer the term "digital city" to "smart city". Today, innovations are not generated by new technologies alone. Instead, it is becoming more and more important to integrate innovative processes in a way that benefits society at large. Cities are producers of Big Data, and here it is key to link data sets to facilitate collaboration between different stakeholders. When looking at urban development from an international perspective, which is something I do as part of my work with the United Nations, we should always keep in mind that everyone should be enabled access to data and meaningful technologies. If only privileged individuals take part in digitisation, this will give rise to social inequality.

Hamburg News: Many thanks for the Interview, Prof. Dr. Ziemer.
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