German
Initiative: “Provision of Urban Data”
Based on the infrastructure of the “WISSENsAllmende Jena” urban data platform, this initiative will implement various use cases and develop tools that enable the realization of additional, extensive tasks. This provides the city administration, municipal enterprises, and external parties with extensive opportunities to develop and implement their own use cases, even if these are not yet known or foreseeable. This measure thus forms a crucial foundation for the use of data in the other action areas (AA), which we will outline below.
- Current Status
-
- Start: September 9, 2020
- End: August 31, 2027
- Status: In progress
Use Case: IoT Datasets
This links the WISSENsAllmende to the 5G project “5G Traffic Networking” and makes the sensor, real-time, and other IoT datasets generated there available to the City of Jena. Furthermore, additional sensor networks are to be established and integrated, particularly those based on LoRaWAN. IoT data can also be used in HF 2 “Urban Development, Environment, and Transportation” for sensor-based urban green space maintenance. In HF 4 “Economy and Science” as well, the data made available within the Jena Digital Workshop can help create new business models.
- Milestones Achieved
-
- Sensors connected to LoRaWAN via The Things Network
- LoRaWAN coverage expanded in Jena
- IoT data is being visualized via Grafana during the test phase
- LoRaWAN gateway installed on the JenTower
JenOnLex Use Case
JenOnLex — The online version of the Jena Lexicon of City History is being developed with added features such as geolinking and additional multimedia content. Among other things, JenOnLex serves as the data foundation for the “Digital City Experience” initiative (see Action Area 3, “Education, Culture, and Social Affairs”), which is developing digitally supported historical city tours for mobile devices. Preliminary work, particularly the technical integration of the historical street directory, has already been completed by the city.
- Milestones Achieved
-
- Stuttgart System Implemented in Jena
- Editing tool created to display articles in JenOnLex
- Editorial tools created to edit articles for JenOnLex
- City encyclopedia online via Jena Lichtstadt | City Encyclopedia - Discover History
Use Case: Open Data Portal
The content of the existing Open Data Portal is being transferred to the WAJ to achieve greater flexibility and better automatic updating of the data offerings. In the future, all newly developed open data offerings will be integrated into the WISSENsAllmende Jena. City council information on session.net will also be linked to the UDP and equipped with improved search functions.
- Milestones Achieved
-
- Open Data Portal migrated to the “WISSENsAllmende Jena” data platform
Use Case: Asset Data
To increase the transparency of municipal activities and ensure that information is easy to find, we are creating a catalog of master data and status information for the fixed assets of the Jena City Association and making it available according to the “Open by Default” principle. The term “assets of the Jena Urban Community” refers to the entire inventory of municipal objects in public spaces, such as streets, buildings, playgrounds, and trees in green spaces. These are recorded in a geodatabase, for which a metadata structure based on standardized attributes (ownership, values and costs, geometry, or condition/age) is to be established.
Use Case: Further Development of GIS Tools
Through the creation of graphical user interfaces and partially expanded data sets, all spatial information—such as data on municipal infrastructure and IoT data—will be geographically visualized and can be integrated into further use cases. This further development enables higher-quality urban services (e.g., urban planning, construction site management, tourism promotion). In addition, the expansion of Jena’s GIS (Geographic Information System) map portal allows, among other things, Action Area 2 “Urban Development, Environment, and Transportation” to calculate the optimal route for sensor-supported urban green space maintenance or to display the areas to be watered on a map.
- Milestones Achieved
-
- Timeline, drawing tools, and routing have been implemented in the map portal
Use Case: BI System
In line with the open data approach, numerical data from controlling and statistics are to be made publicly available in the form of so-called data cubes. We are developing the open-source tool Eclipse DAANSE to enable both pre-built dashboards on specific topics and data analyses conducted by the users themselves. First, standardized data structures must be established so that data from all areas of the city network can be represented. To this end, data cubes for both controlling and statistical data have already been designed, and a technical foundation has been laid. Among other things, the BI system helps in HF 2 to achieve data-driven and knowledge-based participatory urban development.
- Milestones Achieved
-
- Test system for Eclipse DAANSE developed, shown here using population statistics as an example
- Training of Urban Data Coaches in the creation of data cubes for the data cube server
- Statistical and financial data cubes created for the city of Jena
- Ongoing discussions with various departments regarding data cubes
Data Governance
To ensure that data can be made fully usable, certain legal and administrative requirements must also be met. These are to be standardized and further developed, particularly with the goal of consistently implementing the “Open by Default” principle while complying with data protection and security requirements. To this end, the city’s statistics ordinance is being revised to clearly regulate data aggregation and statistical data protection. A uniform framework for data governance vis-à-vis the public and within the city administration—i.e., for data access and shared data use within and between the central administration, municipal enterprises, and subsidiaries—is to be established. This will be embedded in a comprehensive Data Excellence Strategy.
- Milestones Achieved
-
- First draft of the data strategy is available
- The developed data strategy is being presented step by step to political bodies
- Subproject Manager Martin Berger and Urban Data Coach Dr. Björn Walher are presenting the strategy’s contents in various administrative departments to foster transparency and gather feedback
- Data strategy adopted by the City Council on May 21, 2025
- Data management policy adopted as of January 1, 2026