Future of the city: Smart cities and sustainable development in focus!

Future of the city: Smart cities and sustainable development in focus!

Today the Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) has taken a significant step in urban development planning. ProfessorSilke Weidnerwas appointed as an expert to the board of trustees of the International Building Exhibition (IBA). Weidner, who heads the Institute of Urban Planning at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning, brings extensive experience in integrated urban development planning as well as participation and co-production processes.

With a strong focus on the IBA topic “Spaces of Mobility”, Weidner emphasizes the central importance of mobility as a future topic, especially in the relationship between town and country. The newly founded board of trustees will take on an essential role in the IBA process and act as a scientific and technical support committee. It will not only advise the management on questions of content, but will also decide on the concept, thematic orientation of the IBA, project applications and their support.

Interdisciplinary expertise for the IBA

Overall, the board of trustees is made up of members from various disciplines, including urban planning, architecture, traffic technology, mobility research, environmental and climate policy and digitalization. This interdisciplinary composition enables a comprehensive view of the challenges that await the IBA Munich Metropolitan Region. The members bring different perspectives from science, practice, business and culture, as well as experiences from local, regional, national and international contexts.

One of the main goals of the board of trustees is to have a say in the quality criteria for awarding the IBA label. This ensures that only projects that meet the highest standards of quality and innovation are accredited as IBA projects. Further information about the members of the Board of Trustees is available on the IBA website.

Current challenges in urban development

The challenges that cities face, especially in connection with advancing digitalization, are becoming increasingly complex. According to the German Association of Cities, whose urban development planning commission consists of heads of urban development departments in around 30 German cities, cities are required to recognize the opportunities and risks of digitalization at an early stage. In this context, visionary planning of urban developments plays a crucial role. City Council reports that An updated position paper on integrated urban development planning underlines the need for discussion about digital implementation concepts such as “smart cities”.

The Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction (BMWSB) actively promotes the development of smart cities through various national and international initiatives. A key measure is the “National Dialogue Platform Smart Cities”, which has been discussing the opportunities and challenges of digitalization at the local level since 2016. One of the most important goals of this platform is to actively shape digitalization in the interests of sustainable urban development.

In this sense, the role of the IBA and the digitization strategies of cities is becoming increasingly important. Through the sustainable integration of digital solutions into urban development processes, politics, science and business can pull together to make communities fit for the future. Supporting model projects such as “Smart Cities Made in Germany” is a further step towards strengthening the ability of municipalities to act by 2030.