City of the future

Gabriela Beck: The Fraunhofer Institute developed the Morgenstadt City Index to measure a city's sustainability. What is it all about? 

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: The Morgenstadt City Index is a tool for making the complexity of cities tangible. Too much thinking and planning still takes place in individual sectors: energy systems are being developed, mobility and supply are being improved – but there is no cross-sectoral action. Cities are systems in which many processes run simultaneously and influence each other. The Morgenstadt City Index contains 28 indicators categorized into four pillars (livable, environmentally friendly, innovative, and resilient city). Their graphical representation provides an initial holistic picture of a city at a glance. The index serves as a tool to support mayors, city councils, and stakeholders in the sustainable transformation of their city.

So cities are complex adaptive systems. What are the biggest challenges when it comes to making them sustainable?

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: First and foremost, it's about quality of life, about people. However, environmental parameters will play an even greater role in the future in the context of climate change. If a city wants to be innovative, it must address the issue of value creation by local companies, especially in relation to digitalization and the use of AI. Entire industries are currently undergoing change, which raises questions such as: Should I continue to focus on traditional manufacturing, or should I attract new tech industries? Then there is also the provision of infrastructure and services for an aging society. In my opinion, however, the decisive factor is becoming capable of acting in the first place. How can a city quickly enter a mode of continuous change through the interaction of a wide variety of decision-makers?

You mean that transformation processes are too slow?

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: Exactly, cities are very sluggish systems when it comes to change. But that's not entirely the fault of cities, because they are at the lowest federal level and have to deal with numerous conflicting goals. Above them are the states, regional parliaments, the federal government, and even the EU—all of which define guidelines and laws. And yet we can and should move faster for the cities of tomorrow.

Where do you see potential here?

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: GovTech (government technology) can help us move forward, i.e., the use of modern technologies by governments and public authorities to improve government services, accelerate administrative processes, and facilitate participation and interaction with businesses and citizens. Until now, this has been thought of very much at the state level, but we have noticed that AI, for example, is also becoming increasingly important for local authorities, for example in the form of intelligent data platforms that provide all kinds of information across departments at the touch of a button. More and more cities in Germany are also turning to digital twins, i.e., virtual images based on real-time data that can be used for analysis, simulation, and prediction. This can be used, for example, to highlight interdependencies between energy and transport, or to map solutions for better water management or even social factors in a neighborhood.

How tech-savvy are Germany's cities compared to other countries?

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: Above all, the digitization of administration and smart city initiatives have only received the attention they deserve in the last few years. Other cities in Europe have been working on this for much longer and are now even experimenting with the metaverse.

What does that mean exactly?

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: The urban metaverse is the next step in the digital twin. Instead of just looking at it from the outside, we can now walk around the virtual city environment, thanks to virtual reality. Seoul was one of the pioneers. For a few years now, the city has had a virtual city hall where you can use services around the clock with an avatar, like ordering a new ID card. However, such new applications must also be designed in such a way that these future technologies strengthen the urban pillars of quality of life, environmental justice, and innovation, and do not simply enrich tech companies in the end. Those responsible must also gain a better understanding of data and cyber security.

Smart technology for more efficient control and better political decisions is one thing. But what about practical implementation?

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: In the Future District Alliance joint project, we are working with leading neighborhood developers and local authorities to research ways of accelerating urban planning. Our vision is to use AI and automation to change approval processes and construction methods so that an entire neighborhood can be built or transformed in two years instead of ten, with all the necessary processes included. We are in the process of developing a concept for a neighborhood type Z – Z for future. This is analogous to building type E, which focuses on simplification by dispensing with non-essential equipment and comfort standards in order to advance construction projects more quickly and cost-effectively. We need a similar approach at the neighborhood level. Ultimately, this will also make it easier to achieve larger goals for preserving urban living space. I'm thinking in terms of climate neutrality or public services.

Speaking of living space, how can we protect our cities, and thus the living environment of 78 percent of Germans, against heavy rainfall and prolonged heat waves?

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: We are still building too many concrete jungles and paved-over spaces. This is because we usually plan urban structures based on their intended use—residential, commercial, mobility—and only think about how the whole thing could be made more sustainable in the “in-between spaces” after the fact. I advocate a different understanding of land use, in which the interaction between green infrastructure and the built environment must be given greater importance. The potential uses of all urban surfaces should also be taken into account more. Unsealing and greening are essential when it comes to the absorption capacity of heavy rainfall or climate regulation through evaporation. And we need to think more three-dimensionally, because facades and roofs will play a key role in this context in the future.

How do you convince investors and stakeholders to accept the potential additional costs of climate adaptation measures?

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: You have to be honest in your assessment. If you factor in the potential follow-up costs of not taking action, the result usually looks very different. Then it suddenly makes economic sense to implement climate-resilient projects and try out new concepts and ideas. The willingness to do so is there. We see this in the partners we work with. The background: For a long time, the real estate industry was market-driven—prices just kept going up. As an investor, you didn't have to think too much, I would say. But that only works to a limited extent now. The market has since adjusted.

So if a city wants to be or remain attractive, it has to come up with something. What does “innovative” mean in this context?

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun: There are cities that, by chance or perhaps not, have always been the first to implement new ideas. London, for example, was the first city in the world to invent and use an underground railway—that was unique and highly innovative. At that time, no one knew what it was. The idea behind it was: we can build tunnels and we invented the railroad. Why not put them together underground? The question is: do I want to maintain the status quo or try something new? Then as now, this has a lot to do with openness to trends and technology and with close cooperation between city administration, local business, and research institutions. Copenhagen, for example, sees itself as a real-world laboratory and its urban districts as a testing ground for new solutions.