Bitkom Ranking 2023: Dresden remains in the top group of smartest cities
Pilot projects contribute to the smart city of the future
In this year's ranking by the digital association Bitkom, Dresden is once again in the top ten of the smartesten cities in Germany. The state capital is starting to implement the pilot project Smart City Dresden and the NeutralPath project.
State capital makes it back into the top 10 in the Smart City index of German cities
In the shortlist of the Smart City Index 2023 published today, Friday, October 6, 2023, Dresden once again ranks among the ten best German cities. Last year, the state capital was awarded 3rd place for the first time in the renowned ranking of the ICT industry association Bitkom Research for its progress in terms of digitalization. The exact place that Dresden occupies this year will be published on October 12, 2023. As a city of culture, science and high technology, Dresden offers an increasingly visible and outstanding ecosystem for creating pioneering and exemplary solutions for the public welfare-oriented (digital) city of the future.
Jan Pratzka, Councillor for Economic and Digital Affairs in the state capital: "Dresden once again underlines its claim to be one of the leading high-tech locations in Europe. We are using digital technologies for urban development in a forward-looking way. We are using intelligent solutions to effectively tackle challenges such as climate protection and demographic change. The good interaction between administration, business, research and politics not only leads to top rankings, but also demonstrably increases the quality of life of citizens and the competitiveness of the local economy."
The digital association Bitkom is collecting the data within the Smart City Index 2023 for the fourth time. All 81 cities with a population of 100,000 or more were analyzed and evaluated in the five areas of administration, IT and communication, energy and environment, mobility, education and society. The areas are divided into 157 parameters with a total of 12,717 data points examined - from online citizen services to sharing offers and environmental sensors to broadband availability. The Office for Economic Development of the state capital is responsible for the municipality's annual application. For months, projects and measures are compiled to make Dresden a sustainable, intelligent and liveable city.
Smart pilot projects for a better future
One project that made an important contribution to Dresdens good performance in previous years was the European flagship project MAtchUP for sustainable urban development (duration 2017 - 2022). Energy-related measures were implemented in the Johannstadt project district in particular: from photovoltaic systems and the combination of storage and intelligent control in electromobility to billing models that give tenants transparency and control over their energy consumption. The pilot development of a central building control centre for the state capital Dresden, which will record the energy consumption of all municipal buildings in Dresden (schools, daycare facilities, etc.) in future and intervene to optimize them, is just as much a part of this as a study on the future integration of renewable energies into Dresden's district heating network. Measures in the area of mobility included the installation of over 60 MOBI points. The AI-supported detection of heat islands is also one of the projects. 21 million euros were invested in the project.
The new "NeutralPath" project by the city administration, the Technical University Dresden, SachsenEnergie, Wohnen in Dresden and Vonovia follows on seamlessly from the MAtchUP activities. The European Commission is supporting the consortium with around 7.5 million euros on its way to becoming a climate-neutral city. With funding from the federal and state governments, up to 46 million euros could be invested in sustainable and future-proof building and energy concepts by the end of 2027. Specifically, the five partners want to test innovative ideas for more climate protection in housing construction, energy supply and e-mobility in pilot projects and research their effectiveness. They could later be implemented on a larger scale. Together with the Spanish city of Zaragoza, Dresden aims to become a pioneer in Europe when it comes to climate neutrality.
Model project Smart City focuses on smart districts
The model project Smart City Dresden (MPSC), led by the city's IT services department, is also one of the components of the application. The co-initiator of the model project is the Technical University Dresden (TUD). The funding project is one of 73 model projects selected by the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction and its measures are making a significant contribution to the innovative and intelligent development of Dresden. The WISSENSARCHITEKTUR - Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture at TUD has been the scientific lead of the pilot project since the beginning and worked with the state capital to develop the Smart-City strategy for Dresden, which was confirmed by the city council in June 2023. The MPSC has been in the implementation phase since July 1, 2023. Nine experimental and innovative formats for urban development and citizen participation will be investigated and implemented in the pilot districts of Johannstadt, Friedrichstadt and Dresden-Ost/Prohlis by the end of 2026. In terms of content, the measures range from the environment, transport and energy to sport and specific citizen participation formats, right through to working with open data. Among other things, an energy self-sufficient residential district is to be created, whereby a new energy supply and refurbishment concept will be implemented to establish a 100 percent emission-free heating and cooling supply and to reduce operating costs. During the project period, the selected model districts are representative of all districts of Dresden. Following the successful test phase, the strategy and its projects will be rolled out across the entire city.