Rostock on the way to becoming a Smart City

Inclusive digital solutions to make administration more tangible and transparent and thus increase the common good of the entire city population - that is the forward-looking vision of Smile City Rostock. "We provide data and platforms that citizens can use to highlight needs, put forward ideas and develop solutions. We try to relieve people in their everyday lives and thus free up personal resources. Through this, we promote the creative and cultural landscape by enabling people to take advantage of the city's various offerings," says Johannes Wolff, head of Rostock's Smart City project. "Smile City is not a digitalization project, nor is it a support program for companies. It is a project for the integrative and inclusive design of a modern and sustainable urban society that increases people's happiness in life."

The following points make up the Smile City Rostock vision:

• People-friendly city: Rostock develops strategies and projects that focus on the wishes and needs of its citizens.
• Rostock as a regiopolis: The city thinks networking with the region. There is hardly any other place where the contrast between big city and rural area is as great as here.
• Networking in the Baltic Sea region: Rostock seeks knowledge transfer and exchange of experience with the Scandinavian and Baltic partner and cooperation cities (Aarhus, Malmö, Tallin, Turku).
• Rostock as a research location with a culture of innovation: digital competencies and technology knowledge are on site. Together, solutions are found that can be exemplary.

From the Smart City funding project to Smile City

On May 20, 2020, the Smile City Rostock applied for the funding competition "Model Projects Smart Cities made in Germany" from the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland. At the time, the initial approach to digitization and urban development was titled "Digitization for Citizens and the Common Good," because the funding project was to be used to proactively address already pending challenges posed by digitization and make the city an even more livable place, says Johannes Wolff: "As a Smart City model project, we have the opportunity to think digitization and sustainable urban development together right from the start. Functioning and efficient processes make everyday life easier for citizens, increase the service quality of the administration and municipal companies, and contribute to economic activity. The quality of life in the city increases. In the medium and long term, municipalities benefit from upgrading the quality of life."

Sensors, apps and data portal

Rostock has already initiated a whole series of concrete measures to advance the smart city. Much is in the planning stage, and test phases for individual projects are ongoing:

Examples from the administration

• E-payment for online services and fines
• Online appointment arrangement
• OZG services according to the Online Access Act, e.g. child day care, marriage, driver's license, vehicle registration and deregistration
• Deficiency report klarschiff.hro

Examples from the fields of energy and environment

• Smart Poles: These lighting systems work with motion sensors and communicate with each other via their own radio interface. Remote monitoring is possible via a SIM card.
• Smart sensors that measure air quality
• Intelligent sensors that measure water quality (as part of research projects at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde
• First trials with irrigation sensors for tree trenches by Amt für Stadtgrün, Naturschutz und Friedhofswesen (Office for City Greenery, Nature Conservation and Cemeteries)
• Electric buses, bio/natural gas buses, low-emission hybrids, hydrogen bus in the city area

Examples from IT and communications

• Openly accessible data portal for citizens with 254 data sets
• Geoportal with information on construction, traffic, mobility data, environmental data

Examples from the mobility area

• Parking spaces payable via app
• Intelligent traffic lights that are networked and control traffic according to demand
• Digital signs and displays that control road traffic according to the current traffic situation
• digital traffic sign cadastre
• Car and bike sharing
• Mobile stations as a link between public transport, private transport and sharing services, for example at the main train station and Warnemünde suburban train station

Examples from the areas of education and society

• 95 % of schools have a media development concept
• 100 % of schools have a broadband connection with 1000 Mbit/s
• 100 % of teachers have a mobile device available for lessons
• Digital mentors for senior citizens are in place
• Start Up Hub and digital business incubator is located in Rostock
• 15 co-working spaces are available in the city area
• Participation advisory board of the Hanseatic and University City is installed
• Citizen Science projects exist, such as tree sponsorships or the coupling of agriculture and ecological processes

Smile City only works together

"For us, Smile City means - promoting the common good, which can only be achieved if the urban society is involved and can contribute its wishes, ideas and drive to projects. The core projects will be officially confirmed as part of a citizenship resolution," says Johannes Wolff. At the beginning of July, the Bürgerschaft officially approved the core projects, clearing the way for implementation.

"The goal of Smart Cities is to learn from others. The individual funded projects should generate added value for all municipalities in Germany. Developed solutions should be scalable and replicable and lead to high usability of the results through knowledge transfer. This knowledge transfer is a central component of the Smart Cities model projects: exchange and cooperation between the municipalities can help ensure that as many as possible benefit from the experiences of individuals, that good approaches are made usable for others, and that lessons are quickly learned together from both successes and failures.

Rostock is actively ready to transfer its experience further, just as we have learned from others. Our vision of a Smile City is very community-oriented and forward-looking," emphasizes Johannes Wolff.

End point Smile City?

Formally, the Smile City Rostock project will end with the end of the funding period in January 2027, but it will actually never be completed, because the path to a Smart City is an agile process that will constantly adapt to new insights and demands from politics, research, science, urban society and their changing needs, says Johannes Wolff.

For even more info on the Smile City Rostock and the opportunity to network and exchange, join us at the Smart Country Convention in Berlin from November 7-9, 2023.