data visualisation

Year of publication: 2025

In this session of the Global Mixer, we learned how local communities in Freetown are using drones and open data to map their city — building skills, opportunity, and smarter urban planning along the way.

Key takeaways

• Community-led data creation: Local residents can produce high-quality urban data when given access to tools, training, and ownership.
• Drones for inclusive planning: Low-cost drone imagery enables accurate 2D and 3D mapping to support smarter urban planning.
• Skills and economic opportunity: Building local mapping capacity creates jobs, income, and long-term technical expertise.
• Open data collaboration: Open standards and shared data strengthen cooperation between communities, city authorities, and global networks.
• Scalable urban model: The Freetown approach offers a transferable blueprint for cities with limited data infrastructure.

Local communities in Freetown, Sierra Leone, are demonstrating how collaborative data creation can transform urban planning and digital infrastructure. In this Global Mixer session, Pete Masters from the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) presented insights from the Freetown Open Drone Crew, a community-driven initiative, developed in partnership with Freetown City Council, that uses drones and open data to map the city while building local capacity and opportunity.

Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the project enabled Freetown residents to capture high-quality 2D and 3D drone imagery covering more than 80 km² of the city. The resulting datasets are accurate, affordable, and produced by the community itself, addressing critical data gaps in rapidly growing urban areas where up-to-date geospatial information is often unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

Beyond data production, the initiative places strong emphasis on skills development and economic empowerment. Local participants were trained as drone pilots and data processors, creating new income opportunities and laying the foundation for sustainable local drone and mapping services. This approach shifts data creation from external consultants to local actors, ensuring that knowledge, infrastructure, and benefits remain within the community.

The project also highlights the value of open data and global collaboration. By integrating drone imagery into open platforms such as OpenStreetMap, the data becomes accessible to city authorities, planners, NGOs, and communities alike. This shared data environment supports evidence-based urban planning, disaster preparedness, and infrastructure development, while strengthening trust and cooperation between local and international partners.

By combining community ownership, open data principles, and affordable technology, the Freetown Open Drone Crew illustrates how cities can build their own digital foundations. The initiative shows that meaningful urban digitalisation does not depend on high-cost systems, but on collaboration, capacity building, and locally grounded innovation.

This event is part of the ISCN Global Mixer, a series of events organized by the International Smart Cities Network. The presentations cover a wide range of topics related to international smart city approaches and provide exciting insights into urban digitalization worldwide - in just 30 minutes.

The Freetown Open Drone Crew demonstrates how community-driven data collaboration can deliver reliable urban data while building local capacity and economic opportunity. Municipalities interested in participatory data approaches, open geospatial infrastructures, or innovative capacity-building models are encouraged to connect with us. For insights into transferability and potential cooperation formats, please contact iscn@giz.de

The KLIPS project in Dresden demonstrates how AI and real-time environmental data can support climate adaptation in cities. Using over 250 temperature sensors and satellite imagery, the project maps and forecasts urban heat islands to inform data-driven, climate-resilient urban planning.

Key takeaways

• AI for climate adaptation: Machine learning models predict and visualise heat distribution to guide mitigation strategies.
• High-resolution data: Over 250 local sensors deliver real-time microclimatic data, enabling precise mapping of temperature patterns.
• Integration of multiple sources: Combining sensor networks, satellite imagery, and urban data layers creates a dynamic picture of heat exposure.
• Decision support for cities: The KLIPS dashboard helps planners evaluate the effects of greening, shading, and material choices before implementation.
• Community and policy relevance: The approach informs local adaptation strategies and engages citizens through open data.
• Scalable model: The Dresden prototype provides a replicable framework for other cities facing increasing urban heat stress.

In Dresden, Germany, the KLIPS project demonstrates how artificial intelligence and real-time environmental data can support climate adaptation in cities. As Dr. Hendrik Herold from the KLIPS project explained, the system combines more than 250 temperature sensors with satellite, cadastral, and weather data to map and simulate urban heat islands on a hyperlocal scale – providing urban planners with precise insights for data-driven, climate-resilient urban development.

As climate change intensifies, cities across Europe are experiencing longer and more frequent heatwaves. Dense urban structures, sealed surfaces, and limited green spaces exacerbate these effects, creating local heat islands that threaten health and well-being. KLIPS addresses this challenge by using AI to identify and simulate temperature variations across the urban fabric.

The system continuously collects and analyses temperature data from a dense network of sensors placed on buildings, streetlights, and public infrastructure. These measurements are complemented by high-resolution satellite imagery and cadastral information, feeding into an AI model that forecasts temperature distribution under different scenarios. This enables planners to test the potential cooling impact of trees, reflective materials, or urban design interventions before they are implemented.

A key feature of KLIPS is its interactive dashboard, which visualises the data in accessible maps and timelines. Users can explore temperature changes at the street or district level, compare day-night variations, and simulate the effects of planned interventions. This not only enhances transparency but also bridges scientific insight and municipal decision-making processes.

Supported by the European MAtchUP programme and Germany’s mFUND initiative, KLIPS illustrates how data-driven tools can make urban adaptation tangible and actionable. By linking AI technology with local expertise and open data principles, the project sets a strong 

This event is part of the ISCN Global Mixer, a series of events organized by the International Smart Cities Network. The presentations cover a wide range of topics related to international smart city approaches and provide exciting insights into urban digitalization worldwide - in just 30 minutes.

Year of publication: 2025

In this session of the ISCN Global Mixer we will look at the Citiverse in Korea, an immersive approach with which the country is advancing its Smart Cities and which puts people at the center of urban innovation. Pilot projects like Seoul’s Metaverse Government Platform test how digitalization can foster inclusive governance, new services, and richer citizen engagement.

Key takeaways

• South Korea has evolved from early smart city leadership into a new frontier of immersive, human-focused urban innovation.
• The Cityverse represents a paradigm shift – merging physical and digital environments to foster participation, trust, and social inclusion.
• National pilot projects, regulatory innovation, and R&D consortia are transforming how citizens interact with governance, services, and culture.
• The long-term vision is to build resilient, people-first cities where technology enables meaningful engagement rather than driving it.
• Addressing privacy, accessibility, and digital equity remains critical to ensuring that innovation benefits all citizens.

Korea is exploring how to take smart cities to the next level – moving beyond digital twins toward the Citiverse, an immersive approach that places people at the centre of urban innovation. Through government-led R&D projects and pilot initiatives – such as Seoul’s Metaverse Government Platform – the country is testing how digitalisation can be harnessed for more inclusive governance, new service models, and richer citizen engagement.

Ellie Lee from the Smart City Association of South Korea shared how the nation is redefining smart urbanism – from data-driven efficiency to human-centred, participatory city ecosystems designed for resilience in the digital era.

Korea’s journey toward the Citiverse builds on three decades of smart-city development. It began in 1994 with a government-led high-speed internet initiative that laid the foundation for today’s connected urban infrastructure. Early programmes such as the Ubiquitous City Project integrated ICT into city planning and operations, creating data-based governance structures that positioned Korea as a global pioneer.

The Smart City Law of 2018 formalised this progress, introducing regulatory sandboxes that allowed startups to test new technologies under real conditions and enabling integrated operation centres for unified traffic, environment, and citizen management. Pilot projects such as Sejong 5-1 District and Busan Eco-Delta City demonstrate how data-driven systems can support sustainable growth, innovation, and environmental stewardship.

Building on this foundation, the Citiverse marks a decisive shift from technological connectivity toward immersive, human-centred experiences. Instead of observing data from a distance, citizens engage directly with virtual layers of the city through digital twins, AI-based simulations, and immersive governance platforms. This transformation allows people to participate in urban planning, explore digital cultural spaces, or attend virtual consultations – bringing inclusivity and collaboration to the heart of city life.

By combining AI-driven analytics, virtual participation, and cyber-physical integration, the Citiverse strengthens both innovation and democratic engagement. Yet challenges such as privacy protection, interoperability, and equal digital access remain essential for building public trust and ensuring no one is left behind.

Ultimately, Korea’s vision extends beyond technology: it seeks to make cities more empathetic, transparent, and participatory – where digitalisation enhances belonging and resilience, and where citizens help shape the evolving relationship between the physical and virtual worlds.

This event is part of the ISCN Global Mixer, a series of events organized by the International Smart Cities Network. The presentations cover a wide range of topics related to international smart city approaches and provide exciting insights into urban digitalization worldwide - in just 30 minutes.

In this ISCN Global Mixer looked at how the city of Ingolstadt managed to turbocharge their publication of Open Data through AI. Over 200 government datasets are now openly accessible there, thanks to an AI-driven approach that boosts transparency, resource efficiency, and compliance with the EU Directive on High-Value Datasets.

Key takeaways

• Less is more when prompting: Overly detailed AI prompts often led to worse results.
• Use AI where it adds real value – such as for generating descriptive texts, not for rule-based tasks.
• Involve data protection and IT security experts early to prevent compliance issues later.
• Visualizing the data process helps to identify automation potential more clearly.

How can artificial intelligence and automation help cities unlock the full potential of their public data? The Bavarian city of Ingolstadt has taken on this challenge – and delivered a practical, forward-looking solution that combines efficiency, compliance, and innovation. Altuna Saiti from the city of Ingolstadt explains how they achieved this boost to their Open Data practice.

Ingolstadt is setting new standards in open data by using AI and automation to publish statistical data faster, more efficiently, and in full compliance with EU regulations. A central theme was the importance of cross-departmental collaboration – involving the IT department, economic affairs office, statistics team, external service providers, and the operators of Bavaria’s official open data portal, "OpenByData."

Faced with limited resources, one of the project’s core achievements is the ability to generate clean, standardized datasets from a single, complex Excel file into almost 200 machine-readable datasets. These datasets include detailed information on population numbers by age, gender, and nationality, among others.

AI supports the process by generating metadata texts, while rule-based automation handles formatting and categorization. The project shows how smart use of AI, cross-departmental collaboration, and early involvement of legal and data protection teams can enable scalable, compliant open data publishing – even on a tight budget.

Today, Ingolstadt’s open data portal features a growing library of machine-readable datasets – easily accessible, transparently documented, and continuously expanding. The city’s experience proves that meaningful progress in open data is possible – even without large budgets – when strategic thinking, innovative tools, and collaboration come together.

Ingolstadt’s journey serves as a blueprint for digital transformation in the public sector: practical, replicable, and future-ready.

This event is part of the ISCN Global Mixer, a series of events organized by the International Smart Cities Network. The presentations cover a wide range of topics related to international smart city approaches and provide exciting insights into urban digitalization worldwide - in just 30 minutes.
 

In this session of the ISCN Global Mixer we looked at research from the SmartCity Living Lab of DFKI, the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence, that demonstrates the potential of data-driven urban solutions, highlighting benefits for municipalities and remaining hurdles.

Key takeaways

• Participation is essential: Involving stakeholders and end-users early and continuously ensures that solutions are relevant and widely accepted.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration: Bringing together experts from multiple disciplines –urban planning, technology, social sciences, and the arts – leads to more holistic and innovative solutions.
• Flexibility and adaptability: Projects must remain responsive to changing needs and contexts to stay effective.
• Technology as an enabler: Digital tools support – but do not replace – human interaction and social engagement.
• Sustainability and inclusivity: Long-term ecological, social, and infrastructural sustainability must be integrated from the outset.
• Importance of data: Data plays a central role in informing decisions, tailoring interventions, and measuring impact. However, ensuring transparency, data privacy, and ethical management is crucial to maintaining trust and effectiveness.

In this session of the ISCN Global Mixer we looked at research from the SmartCity Living Lab of DFKI, the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Martin Memmel demonstrated the potential of data-driven urban solutions, highlighting benefits for municipalities and remaining hurdles.

“Bringing data to life can already make a difference and make things happen”

Three Example-Projects:

1. ÖkoHaSie 2025 – Urban Participation and Development 

This project focuses on developing localized, climate-related risk assessments for urban areas. Using a matrix-based method, it evaluates various environmental characteristics of neighborhoods – such as surface sealing, slope, or building types – and identifies risks like heat or heavy rainfall.
AI plays a key role by automatically extracting relevant features from cadastral and earth observation data. Additionally, the concept of “climate twins” is used to identify areas that currently face the projected future climate of another region, offering practical insight into adaptation strategies.

2. Ageing Smart – Technology for an Aging Society 

Aging Smart addresses the challenges posed by the aging baby boomer generation. The project develops a data-driven decision-support system to help municipalities plan age-appropriate infrastructure and services – such as housing, healthcare access, and mobility.
Data from various domains – including geospatial data, environmental indicators, and municipal finances – are integrated into a platform that allows city planners to simulate development scenarios and assess their impacts on accessibility and livability.

3. Crafting Futures – From Knowledge to Action

Unlike many research projects that focus on generating more data, Crafting Futures emphasizes action. Based on the belief that we already know enough about climate change, the project aims to make this knowledge tangible and actionable through Augmented Reality (AR).
Using mobile devices, citizens can view real-time data about their environment – for example, local air pollution – and simulate interventions, such as planting trees or modifying street layouts. These actions and their outcomes are visualized in AR, helping to bridge the gap between data, perception, and civic participation. The project promotes co-creation and dialogue between citizens and local authorities to foster shared visions for sustainable urban transformation.

This event is part of the ISCN Global Mixer, a series of events organized by the International Smart Cities Network. The presentations cover a wide range of topics related to international smart city approaches and provide exciting insights into urban digitalization worldwide - in just 30 minutes.

In this episode of the ISCN Global Mixer the city of Halle (Saale) presented their Digital Twin project HAL-Plan. Katja Gehrmann and Albert Steinbach gave insights into the key components of the solution and the toolsets they derive from the twin in the areas of urban planning, ecology, economic development and mobility.

Urban Digital Twins are one of the most discussed topics in the current smart city context. In urban planning, they refer to digital replicas of cities where simulations are generated using real-time and existing data. Digital twins can simulate for example traffic flows, climatic conditions, and the impacts of different building types within a digital model of the city.

In this episode of the ISCN Global Mixer, Katja Gehrmann and Albert Steinbach from the City of Halle (Saale) gave an introduction to HAL-Plan, the digital twin of the City of Halle (Saale). A 3D model of the city serves as the foundation for developing all key components of the software, including an Economic Development Tool (e.g. for land management a cadastre with location data and visualization of commercial spaces and real estate offerings); a Planning Tool for creating planning scenarios; an Ecology Tool for analyzing and evaluating environmental impacts on planning areas and a Mobility Module for including transport infrastructure into the planning process.

The speakers described how their project is set up from the get go for an interoperable scaling and replication, so that their efforts can be shared with all cities interested. As a basis, it uses official geodata from upper government levels, whose provision is continuously improved in Germany like in many other countries. The modular software architecture allows for all sorts of localized adaptations and additional components, while the multi-client capability enables other municipalities to straightforwardly use the infrastructure and add its own right structure to it. Since HAL-Plan follows the public money, public code mandate of the funding programme for Model Projects Smart City from the German Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building, the solution will be made available open source towards the end of the project at the end of 2026. 

Already at present, the city has invited 11 other German municipalities to freely join in testing the solution and to share their experiences with it. This sparks an intermunicipal cooperation which can iteratively improve the development. The speakers reported how the digital twin already is inducing cultural changes in the way cross-departmental cooperation works in their city and thus welcome any follow-up and exchanges with interested parties.

For details on HAL-Plan, check out the recording (18:30 min) of the keynote above.
 

This event is part of the ISCN Global Mixer, a series of events organized by the International Smart Cities Network. The presentations cover a wide range of topics related to international smart city approaches and provide exciting insights into urban digitalization worldwide - in just 30 minutes.
 

Year of publication: 2024

In this episode of the ISCN Global Mixer, Serena Mombelli and Patricio Reyes from vCity, a platform led by the Data Analytics and Visualization Group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, shared insights on how data-driven analysis can support human-centred urban planning and policy-making. In this session they present a use case approximating in greater detail whether high-risk groups have adequate access to Barcelona's climate shelters during heatwaves.

Currently, vCity is looking for new cities to collaborate! 

If you are interested to implement a study or a use case in your municipality, feel free to reach out to vCity:

 hello@vcity-tech
www.vcity.tech

vCity works in the following areas:

• Proximity: Accessibility of facilities, for example Climate Shelters Barcelona study
• Air Quality: Democratizing the access to models for air quality forecasting (models are trained with the capabilities of the BSC, but can be used without supercomputers by cities)
• Cycling: Efficient planning and implementation of networks of bike lanes
• Mobility: Creating a multi modal model
• Sustainability: Developing indicatiors to measure the preparedness of cities for circular economy and green transition. 

The costs are covered by the current public funding of the vCity projects. Interested cities thus only need to share access to data sources and local knowledge for their use cases or studies, for example through urban planners, policy-makers or project managers, to benefit from a great cooperation and leverage expert knowledge and supercomputing resources!

Agreements can be formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), if needed, with 2-3 months preparation time.

In this episode of the ISCN Global Mixer, Serena Mombelli and Patricio Reyes, researchers at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) presented the project vCity, which provides Cities a human centric platform for urban data twins. 

The platform offers solutions for cities in different areas, and demonstrates the capabilities of digitalisation in cities. The projects so far works in the areas of proximity, air quality, cycling, mobility and sustainability.

The presentation focused on the analysis of Climate Shelter Accessibility in Barcelona, a result of a collaboration between Barcelona City Council and vCity. The study is one of the use cases in the Urban Lab for Proximity. 

Cities globally are increasingly affected by heatwaves, and many municipalities are seeking solutions to protect vulnerable groups. Barcelona has over 360 climate shelters in public spaces such as schools, libraries, and parks, providing protection during high temperatures

But do high-risk groups have adequate access to shelters during heat-waves? Serena Mombelli answered this question and gave many more valuable insights into the approach and methodology of the study in her presentation.  

For more information and an interactive map,  visit the project’s website. 

For any further questions, project ideas or matching requirements, feel also free to reach out to us, the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN), via iscn@giz.de 

Year of publication: 2024

The transformation and redevelopment of the former Berlin Tegel airport into the "Urban Tech Republic" and other districts is perhaps the closest one can get to a smart greenfield development in Germany.
In this ISCN Global Mixer, Stefan Höffken, the head of the project, gives an overview on their exciting plans and shares experiences on specific use cases they are developing.

Public money, public code: Berlin TXL is developing many interesting software solutions and provides the code in open license for replication.

The right blend: There is much software development and hardware use, but a crucial complementary to that are the "Entwicklungspartnerschaften" [development partnerships] managed through a moderated stakeholder process and carrying approaches to their full use.

AI enhancing use cases: For several use cases at Berlin TXL, artificial intelligence is a key enabler or crucial additional feature. Monitoring with drones, for example, can be done comprehensively and yet remain compliant with privacy concerns.

Be water, my friend: Water has many more utilities than we usually think of. It is not only part of sanitation and nutrition, but also a key factor and medium for cooling, energy management or damage control. This warrants particular emphasis on water management for smart developments.

The iconic hexagonal terminals of the former Berlin Tegel airport are testimony to past innovation, futuristic ambition and smart spatial planning. Now they are standing a bit isolated in an almost empty area of about 500ha. But not for long, as they witness with Berlin TXL a new big transformational smart district development comprising the “Urban Tech Republic” and the Schumacher Quartier and Cité Pasteur as new modern residential estates.

Stefan Höffken, urban planner with digital focus and head of the project, gave us a short overview on Berlin TXL’s overall plans and shared some experiences on the specific use cases they are developing in the project.

Their approach for smart district development has been to initially set up core digital infrastructures, such as a Data Platform or a 3D modelling of the area. To this are linked and further developed several use cases employing both newly developed software and hardware applications, e.g. LoRaWan sensors or drones. All is bound together by so-called “Entwicklungspartnerschaften” [development partnerships] with various actors and organizations from Berlin and steered through moderated stakeholder processes. 

An illustration thereof is the “Smart nature” monitoring of vegetation and identification of plant species in the area. Through drone flights a comprehensive recording of the area is done regularly and AI enables a detailed modelling of heat structures and growth patterns which then informs action for biodiversity preservation and management of the aerial climate. All this is done in cooperation with Grünberlin, a state-owned company focusing on green infrastructure.

Other use cases Stefan mentioned were a software that automatically blurs and anonymizes through AI sensitive objects in aerial images taken by drones, a more detailed and integrated heat and energy metering, and prediction-based water management. Watch the above recording of the session for more information.

Stefan Höffken also highlighted that their project welcomes further cooperation and exchanges, also with international actors. If you want to reach out to the project, feel free to do so also via the International Smart Cities Network at iscn@giz.de.

• More information on Berlin TXL can be found here: https://urbantechrepublic.de/en/
• A documentation and code of the solution for privacy-compliant blurring of aerial images can be found here on Open CoDE: https://software.opencode.de/project/1197#readme [German]
• The Gitlab online repository including the employed data platform can be found here: https://gitlab.com/berlintxl/futr-hub/

In this edition of the Global Mixer of the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN), Lena Plikat and Julian Kath from the TUMI project (Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative) showcased the TUMI Mobility Data Hub a platform to which municipalities the world over can link themselves to facilitate common-good oriented analysis of mobility globally.

Key takeaways

• Big Data, big gaps: Data is being amassed by many and yet it is not distributed evenly and optimally allocated for public use.
• The flexibility of Data Hubs: TUMI's ckan-based Data Hub is adjustable to various needs and capacities of municipalities with varying degrees of involvement required.
• Setting the ground and seeds, harvesting KPIs: With a data hub as a ground base, analysis and cross-comparibility on characteristics of urban mobility become possible. KPIs can be visualized and feedback into databases. Joint work can more accurately inform the road to globally sustainable mobility.

Mobility and construction are the fundamental phenomena giving cities their physical shape. Since mobility requires more frequent spatial orientation - a car, tram, bicycle needs to arrive to the endpoint of its trip - it lends itself more readily to data accumulation. And yet, as the speakers of this ISCN Global Mixer made clear, even for mobility data large data gaps prevail. According to the Worldbank report Sustainable Mobility: Policy Making for Data Sharing (2021), quoted by our speakers, still

35% of the world’s largest cities and 92% of the largest low and middle-income cities do not have complete transportation maps.

TUMI - the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative - formed by an alliance of 11 renowned international organizations (C40, ADB, CAF, BMZ, GIZ, ICLEI, ITDP, KFW, SLOCAT, UN-Habitat, World Resources Institute) is set to change this throug various projects and activities. In our ISCN Global Mixer event they focussed their presentation on their Mobility Data Hub. 

As a ckan-based one-stop platform, it makes urban mobility data accessible in an integrated manner and - depending on the database linked - allows for instant visualizations and aggregations of mobility KPIs throug its' analyzer. 

After an initial overview on the project by Lena Plikat, Julian Kath explained the approach of the Mobility Data Hub more specifically including examples from Yaoundé in Cameroun and Managua, Nicaragua. Yaoundé launched its first data hub recently together with TUMI to back a data-driven transformation of its' mobility and transport system. Managua served as an illustrative example in the presentation of the capabilities of the analyzer as we were shown visualizations of core KPIs for public transport in the city on e.g. coverage, temporal exits, waiting times, etc., all based on GTFS data. Enjoy the recording (20min) of the session above for all details!

And if you, too, want to onramp your municipality to the mobility data hub of TUMI for free, thereby co-developing an open data portal for your urban mobility, this is your opportunity! Join us in advancing the ways communities the world over visualize, analyze and link their data for global sustainability efforts. You can reach out to TUMI directly or via us, the ISCN, at iscn@giz.de.

Website of TUMI: https://transformative-mobility.org/ 

TUMI's Mobility Data Hub: https://hub.tumidata.org/ 

Quoted Worldbank report: Sustainable Mobility for All. 2021. Sustainable Mobility: Policy Making for Data Sharing. Washington DC.