FAQ - About us - Smart City Dresden

What is a Smart City ?

A Smart City is literally a "smart" or intelligent city that is made more liveable, efficient and sustainable through modern technologies. The aim is to make better use of resources, reduce CO₂ emissions, improve the quality of life of residents and optimize administrative processes.

What makes Dresden a Smart City ?

Sustainable solutions are being developed in the state capital Dresden that are transforming our city into a city of tomorrow. We are using digitalization to network areas such as energy, buildings, transport and water for future-oriented urban development.

The resulting smartapplications and concepts contribute to strengthening Dresden as a liveable, resource-efficient and sustainable city, creating a higher quality of life and further developing the city as an innovative business location. This change is being driven by close cooperation between citizens, administration, science and business.

To this end, we are working on a wide variety of projects in seven different fields of action at Dresden. This concerns the focus areas Smart Government, Smart Community, Smart Health, Smart Communications, Smart Energy/Environment, Smart Mobility and Smart City Research.

How were the Smart-City projects selected and by whom?

For the model project Smart City Dresden (MPSC), the projects were selected in 2021 by an internal selection committee of the city administration. From a large number of project outlines submitted by the specialist departments, the committee selected those that matched the funding conditions, the urban development policy objectives of Dresden and the financial framework of the funding program.

Will the citizens of Dresden be involved in the development and if so, how?

The participation of Dresden's citizens was and is an important concern for us. As part of the development of the Smart-City strategy, there were various opportunities to get involved, e.g. through surveys in streetcars or online surveys. More detailed information on this can be found in the strategy paper under point 2.2.

The strategy will continue to be updated and will also actively involve citizens in the future. The individual measures were presented at three district festivals in the fall of 2024, for example, and feedback was obtained from citizens. The Horizon Europe projects NeutralPath and MOBILITIES FOR EU aim to co-create sustainable solutions for Dresden. In 2024, interested parties already had the opportunity to find out more about the EU NeutralPath project at the relevant district offices in the project areas. As part of the Mobilities for EU project, the OSTRA Lab opened in the new Heinz Steyer Stadium as a place for exchange and encounters. You will be regularly informed about current participation formats and events via the NEWS section of the Smart-City website.

We strive to maximize the participation of citizens, administration, civil society and business. There is a dedicated project for this purpose: "Toolbox Smart Participation", which also includes the citizens' lab on Kreuzstrasse.

Are people without an Smartphone at a disadvantage?

People who cannot or do not want to use a Smartphone are not at a disadvantage. The digital component is often a means to an end, as the exchange of various (measurement) data, for example, takes place digitally. In future, some of the Cleema app 's content will not only be available in the app, but will also be made available online on a website. For some measures, citizens do not have to take action themselves, but can simply enjoy the end results, such as more efficient concepts for maintaining Dresden's roads. Digitalization is not the main focus of the Smart-City projects. Nor do our measures replace traditional administrative services; they complement them.

What are the concrete effects of the projects in everyday life?

As part of the MPSC, we have continued our cooperation with the Technical University Dresden (TU Dresden) and are explicitly devoting ourselves to the topic of impact analysis for the MPSC measures in order to answer precisely this question - how do our measures affect people's everyday lives? By the end of the MPSC project (December 2026) at the latest, indicators should be formulated that can be used to put the effectiveness and feasibility of the measures to the test.

How much do these projects cost and how much money is the city spending on them?

The budget for the entire pilot project Smart City amounts to 19.3 million euros. Of this, 65% is funded by the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction. The remaining 35% is firmly anchored in the state capital's own budget Dresden. The EU projects always have an individual project budget, also depending on the respective funding context, which can be found on the respective project pages.

What happens if the projects do not achieve the desired results?

The MPSC is designed in such a way that the time frame of this funding project is to be used as a "test period". If projects are successfully tested in a specific application location, they can be integrated into the relevant specialist office as a normal procedure after the funding project has been completed and transferred to other application locations. If measures prove not to be feasible within the funding period, they will not be pursued beyond the funding period. The impact of the projects will be constantly monitored and evaluated during the test phase so that measures can be taken during implementation if difficulties or hurdles arise/become apparent.

Are there any plans for a 15-minuteCity?

There are currently no plans for a 15-minute city in Dresden, in which all everyday journeys can be made in 15 minutes on foot, by bike or by public transport.

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