Twenty cities across Germany have joined the city of Kassel to develop and implement sensor based smart city technologies. The agreement came during a convention to review developments at the national smart city sensor lab that is based in city.

All the cities are pilot sites for development of smart city implementations under the country’s Smart City Charter. They are part of the national Modellprojekte Smart Cities (MPSC) programme run by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB).

The national AUREA sensor lab develops smart city sensing and integration technology for use in Germany’s national smart city programme.

The City of Kassel is working with the University of Kassel to develop augmented reality applications based on sensing data for smart city management. The 20 participating cities have agreed to work together with Kassel on further developments of smart city technology, both at the AUREA lab and together with the University.

Jan Wilker, Digitalization Officer for the City of Wolfsburg in Lower Saxony, home of Volkswagen AG, said “Environmental sensor technology plays an important role in Wolfsburg. Advanced sensor solutions are being used to improve the quality of life and make our city more sustainable. The visit to the AUREA sensor laboratory has showed me how important and forward‐looking the use of modern sensor technology is. I am looking forward to passing on the knowledge gained in Kassel to Wolfsburg.”

“AUREA is our test laboratory for smart city applications. Here we gain data and insights into how digital control of processes via sensors can create added value for us and the environment,“ said Dr Olaf Hornfeck, CEO of Städtische Werke AG. “What is convincing can then be adopted as a standard and transferred to other spatial areas and other contexts within Kassel. And that is also smart: the specific sensor‐based solutions ‘made in Kassel’ can and should be transferred to other municipalities and used by them, in keeping with the transfer concept of the Smart Cities model projects.”