Questions and Answers

What is a ‘Smart City’?

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

What makes Dresden a Smart City?

In the state capital, Dresden, sustainable solutions are being developed that are transforming our city into a city of tomorrow. Through digitalisation, we are connecting sectors such as energy, buildings, transport and water to drive forward-looking urban development.

The resulting smartapplications and concepts help to strengthen Dresden as a liveable, resource-generating and sustainable city, to create a higher quality of life, and to further develop the city as a highly innovative business location. This transformation is being driven forward through close cooperation between citizens, the local government, academia and the business community.

To this end, we are working on a wide variety of projects in Dresden across seven different areas of action. These cover the key themes of 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 panel within the city administration. From a large number of project outlines submitted by the relevant departments, this committee selected those that met the funding criteria, aligned with the urban development policy objectives of ‘ Dresden ’ and fitted within the financial framework of the funding programme.

Are Dresden’s citizens involved in the development process, and if so, how?

The involvement of Dresden’s citizens has been and remains a key priority for us. For instance, during the drafting of the Smart-City-strategy, there were already various opportunities to get involved, such as through surveys on trams or online questionnaires. More detailed information on this can be found in the strategy document under section 2.2.

The strategy will continue to be developed and is intended to actively involve the public in the future as well. The individual measures were, for example, presented at three neighbourhood festivals in autumn 2024, during which feedback was gathered from residents. The Horizon Europe projects NeutralPath and MOBILITIES FOR EU are based on the principle of co-creating sustainable solutions for Dresden. As early as 2024, interested parties had the opportunity to find out about the EU project NeutralPath 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-Stadion as a venue for exchange and interaction. You will be kept regularly informed about current participation formats and events via the NEWS section of the Smart-City-website.

We aim to achieve the highest possible level of participation from the public, the local authority, civil society and the business community. A dedicated project has been set up for this purpose: the “Toolbox Smart Participation”, which also includes the citizens’ lab on Kreuzstraße.

Are people without a Smartphone at a disadvantage?

People who cannot or do not wish to use a Smartphone will not be at a disadvantage. The digital component is often a means to an end, as, for example, the exchange of various (measurement) data takes place digitally. In future, some content from the Livi app will not only be accessible within the app, but will also be made available online via a website. For some initiatives, citizens do not need to take action themselves, but can simply enjoy the end results, such as more efficient concepts for maintaining Dresden’s roads. Digitalisation is not the main focus of the Smart City projects. Nor do our initiatives replace traditional administrative services; rather, they complement them.

What are the specific impacts of the projects on everyday life?

As part of the MPSC, we have continued our collaboration with the Technical University of Dresden (TU Dresden) and are explicitly focusing on the topic of impact analysis for the MPSC measures in order to answer precisely this question: how do our measures benefit people’s everyday lives? By the end of the MPSC project (December 2026) at the latest, indicators are to be formulated that can be used to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of the measures.

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

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

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

The MPSC is designed such that the timeframe of this funding project is to be used as a ‘trial period’. If projects are successfully trialled at a specific location, they can be integrated into the relevant specialist department as standard procedure once the funding project has concluded, and rolled out to other locations. Should measures prove unfeasible within the funding period, they will not be pursued beyond that period. The impact of the projects is continuously monitored and evaluated during the trial phase, so that measures can be taken during implementation should any difficulties or obstacles arise or become apparent.

Are there any plans for a ‘15-minute city’?

At present, there are no plans in Dresden for a ‘15-minute city’, where all everyday journeys can be completed within 15 minutes on foot, by bicycle or by public transport.