...smart, smarter, Nuremberg: Where progress is tradition

With the "Digital Nuremberg" umbrella strategy, the city is entering a new era

Overview

Germany's first railway departed from Nuremberg. Today new points are set here: The administration is developing a municipal digital strategy because major issues of our time, such as mobility, can no longer be solved otherwise. The city is networking and shaping digital Change.

© City of Nuremberg

Background

Anyone strolling through the narrow lanes of the historic city centre will easily forget that Nuremberg is an important landmark for the German information and communications industry.

Numerous high-tech companies and research institutes are based here; trade fairs, congresses and festivals revolve around networking and the digital world. Now the city has declared digital transformation to be a core focus of its own administrative activities.

Nuremberg wants to use digital technologies to make the city more innovative, sustainable, energy-efficient, economically competitive and socially inclusive. The "Digital Nuremberg" umbrella strategy is thus intended to improve the quality of life.

The digital transformation in Nuremberg will be socially anchored and actively shaped.

Objectives

With a digital umbrella strategy, opportunities of technological change are to be made available to the city and its development.

The focus is on four functions: Existing digital measures and sub-strategies are to be bundled. A new orientation framework will help to better coordinate and control the planning of digital projects. Networking with urban society will be promoted and Nuremberg's visibility as a digital city of the future will be increased.

© City of Nuremberg

Activities

The economic department has taken the lead in the development of the digital umbrella strategy. It will be implemented as an integrated urban development concept (INSEK) in which all areas of the city administration will be integrated. Proven formats of participation are applied to this functional project in spatial urban planning. A participative planning process with all stakeholders of urban society should ensure that specific needs are identified and that the integrative power of digital transformation is applied to urban development. Some core themes have been identified as important dimensions of digital transformative processes, such as data sovereignty, participation, educational equity or access to digital infrastructures.

Effects

City administration, local politics, science, economy, as well as citizens contribute with their innovative power to the design of the umbrella strategy, which at the same time is geared towards them.

A thorough inventory of digital topics in the administration has already sharpened the self-perception of Nuremberg as a digital city. Digital transformation is increasingly being recognised as an opportunity to continuously improve municipal services and service quality. The results have been encouraging.

In Nuremberg, for example, the flow of traffic is already being successfully optimised by digital means. Sensor-controlled real-time information also helps with the energy management of urban buildings and thus contributes to climate protection and cost reduction.

© City of Nuremberg

Conclusions

The development of the umbrella strategy sharpens Nuremberg's location profile for the digital economy. In doing so, the city places great value on public information work, e.g. via its own website.

Together with Erlangen, Nuremberg was honoured by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy as one of 12 "digital hubs" in Germany; start-ups, business and science have come together in the ZOLLHOF - Tech Incubator to jointly produce digital innovations.

The city administration benefits from the lively digital scene in Nuremberg. In addition to the ZOLLHOF, this also includes the Nürnberg Digital Festival, where the community of the region meets. Participation thus becomes the decisive design tool for digital change.

 

Author: Sabine Hammer

Categories: Good Urban Governance Urban management and administration Smart Cities / Digitalisation Municipal services
Regions: Europe Germany Nürnberg

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