As part of the innovation and cooperation project ‘The New Hanse’, the Senate Chancellery and the Office for IT and Digitalisation assumes a central coordinating role of all the city’s stakeholders, with the objective of further advancing digital policy aspects. One of the key elements of this projects is the joint Urban Data Challenge.

Hamburg recognised at an early stage that digitalisation is a process that affects and changes all areas of society and the community as a whole. Against this backdrop, in 2019 the Senate established the Office for IT and Digitalisation (ITD) within the Senate Chancellery and appointed the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of the City of Hamburg, Christian Pfromm. ITD is responsible for central management of the city’s digitalisation activities and has developed the “Digital Strategy for Hamburg”. The focus of this strategy is how digital technology can be used profitably to providecitizens with a high and sustainable quality of life in the future and to create an attractive environment for business and enterprises. Almost all aspects of the city are taken into account in the process. As part of the city’s strategic orientation, Hamburg also relies on cooperative ventures with innovative companies and thus contributes to the acceleration of digitalisation.

In the context of the Urban Data Challenge, the Authority for Transport and Mobility Transition (BVM) provides its technical expertise in the field of micromobility and plays a key role in shaping the definition, planning and implementation of the Challenge.

BVM is pursuing the goal of making Hamburg even more mobile in many areas, at the same time reducing climate-damaging emissions in the transport sector through a comprehensively sustainable mobility turnaround. In doing so, BVM is making an important contribution to achieving Hamburg’s climate targets. BVM is engaged among other things in alleviating the general traffic situation and harmonising efforts towards social participation through individual mobility and enhancing the quality of life in Hamburg in tandem.

One challenge here is the increasing traffic volume with zero change in available space. This is why the mobility mix needs to be reviewed and reconsidered. Intelligent transport systems (ITS) and the smart city concept are important elements in the mobility of tomorrow, especially in terms of networked, efficient, safe and comfortable urban mobility. There are over 60 projects in Hamburg within the scope of ITS that deal with sustainably modern mobility.

In this challenge, the Urban Data Platform Hamburg (UDP_HH) is the “data hub” - enabling collaborative use of cycling and mobility data, allowing traffic flows in Hamburg to be analysed and the findings incorporated into future planning.

As a central platform for Hamburg, the UDPHH pools urban data and makes it available to users – interoperable and independent of the manufacturer. The UDPHH connects IT systems from a range of categories such as business, science, culture, environment and transport. Users can configure the data according to their individual requirements and evaluate, analyse and retrieve data in real time. Public administration, civil society, science and the business community benefit from the synergies and value added.

The UDP_HH was developed by the Agency for Geoinformation and Surveying (LGV) with the aim of making data usable for a wide variety of applications and processes, including participation processes in urban development, intelligent traffic management and social infrastructure planning. The LGV also provides and maintains urban (geo)data. Services related to integrated IT-based (geo)applications are as much a part of the product portfolio as its ministerial tasks in various areas. Thanks to its broad range of services, the LGV directly advances the digital strategy for Hamburg.