How do Europe's cities become smart cities? Munich is developing its own innovations as part of the EU project "Smarter Together," several of which will go into operation in 2018: Smart light poles, e-mobility stations, smart home elements, and an intelligent data platform are just a few of these Munich-based solutions. Among the innovation pioneers that will help shape the smart city of the future is the Munich-based startup Hawa Dawa. The young company emerged as the winner of an EU-wide innovation competition organized by the City of Munich.
At a press conference on 17 January 2018, the Head of the Department of Labour and Economic Affairs, Mayor Josef Schmid, a glimpse into the future of the intelligent and connected city. The CEO of Stadtwerke München SWM, Dr. Florian Bieberbach, presented smart mobility measures. The Managing Director of Portal München Betriebs GmbH, Dr. Lajos Csery, presented the new Munich SmartCity app released in January.
The state capital was selected by the EU Commission in 2015 as a Smart City flagship city in a consortium with Vienna and Lyon. The project “Smarter Together” runs from 2016 to the beginning of 2021. The solutions will be tested in the project area in the west of Munich with the redevelopment area Neuaubing-Westkreuz and the new development area Freiham.
Schmid: “2018 will be an exciting year”
Mayor Josef Schmid:
"When Munich becomes a smart city, we're not just focusing on new development areas—we're taking all of the city's citizens with us into the future. We're demonstrating what that could look like in the Neuaubing-Westkreuz and Freiham project areas."
Through citizen participation and co-creation workshops, the Smarter Together development team gathered numerous suggestions from business people and residents in the project area during the first project phase. Josef Schmid:
"Citizens' interests flow directly into the implementation of smart solutions. 2018 will be an exciting year and will show how Munich's innovations work in everyday urban life."
The entire state capital, as well as other cities in the EU and internationally, will benefit from the results.
Competition winner Hawa Dawa from Munich starts work
The opening of four e-mobility stations in the project area is planned for 2018. The CEO of Stadtwerke München SWM, Dr. Florian Bieberbach:
"The electric mobility stations are intended to make it easier for residents to enter or transition to electric mobility. We offer electric bicycles in the MVG bike fleet and electric tricycles for cargo transport, and our partner STATTAUTO will provide electric rental cars. Another innovation is neighborhood boxes, through which local businesses, among others, can sell their products. All services can be found on the new digital information points and the SmartCity app for connected services."
Another smart city measure is intelligent light poles, which can use sensors to provide important measurements of environmental and traffic data. For this purpose, the city of Munich launched an EU-wide innovation competition in autumn 2017. Two companies have now been declared winners of this competition: the Finnish company Vaisala and the Munich startup Hawa Dawa have impressed with their concepts for the sensible use of sensors in light poles. Both companies are focusing on "smart data." Collaboration with the winners will begin in spring 2018. A central data platform serves as the backbone for data processing—and ensures strict compliance with all data protection regulations applicable in the EU and Munich. The platform is already running as a prototype in the laboratory.
SmartCity app launched
This can also be used to develop digital services that are bundled in a central app. A first step towards this was the release of the Munich SmartCity app in January, developed by Portal München Betriebsgesellschaft and the Munich Transport Company (MVG) on behalf of the City of Munich.
The Managing Director of the Munich Transport Company Ingo Wortmann in addition:
"We are pleased to be making a significant contribution to leisure mobility in Munich by integrating MVG's mobility information and services into the Munich SmartCity app. This makes it easy for citizens to find out how to get from the mobility stations in the neighborhood to their destination. Through our bus and, in the future, bicycle, e-trike, and pedelec modes, we offer a variety of mobility options in the Neuaubing-Westkreuz project area."
The Managing Director of Portal Munich Operating Company, Dr. Lajos Csery:
"The further development of the popular Munich app now offers all citizens access to the Smart City. In addition to optimizations and even greater user-friendliness, new services in the areas of mobility and city administration have also been added. And we are already working on developing additional smart services, such as a central payment function or access to meter data."
The Munich SmartCity app has now been released for iOS devices, with the Android version following in spring. The innovations can be viewed digitally on the new EU-wide portal "Knowledge Carrier," including 3D visualizations.
Under www.smarter-together.eu The consortium of cities Lyon, Munich and Vienna presents the individual Smart City innovations to experts and interested laypeople and shows their location in the project areas. All news from Munich is also available online.
