Smart Region: What makes a region smart?

Digitization is shrinking distances and opening up new opportunities for municipalities. Will we consequently talk about the so-called "urban exodus" instead of the "rural exodus"? Our expert Willi Steincke, head of ZD.B's Smart Cities and Regions theme platform, gives his assessment in the following interview.

Willi, what makes a region smart?

Willi Steincke: A smart region is characterized by three aspects:

1. It provides its citizens with information that can be found quickly and is easy to understand. For example, website visitors know immediately where to find the nearest doctor or which public transportation they can use to get to the doctor's office.

2. In order to provide information at all, it needs data from a wide variety of fields of action, such as energy , Mobility , health , tourism , agriculture , administration. These data must be prepared in such a way that they can not only be read and processed optimally in their own field of action, but can also be combined with each other to develop simulations. Simulations are needed to answer questions such as, "How do we need to develop our county so that the mobility infrastructure adapts to the existing conditions?" In this way, we can also create exemplary model regions in Bavaria, which then take on a kind of strategic role model function.

3. This leads over to the third point: in order to make a region smart, we need to apply smart strategies that specify framework conditions. In principle, the most diverse stakeholders in a region must be involved so that they make their data available. In this context, we are currently pursuing the strategy of developing common application fields that are of interest to various stakeholders in order to create a common technological basis from them.

In summary, "Smart Region" denotes a region that is future-proof and resilient to a wide variety of external impacts, such as the Corona crisis.

You live in Munich - is that a smart city?

Willi Steincke: Yes and no. If we look at the companies in the Munich metropolitan region, we can compare ourselves to Silicon Valley in terms of scale. However, in an international comparison, Munich is roughly at level 2 to 3 on a scale with maturity level 1 to 5. We have good prerequisites, but still have a lot to do to develop considerably more networking, potential and automaticity in data transfers.

Do you describe the Bavarian Forest - your home - as smart?

Willi Steincke: The framework conditions there are different from those in Munich, because there is not as much potential in the classic sense. But due to the manageability, you know your stakeholders and their interests better. This means that joint fields of application can be developed more quickly.

One example is the "digital villages" - a research project funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs. Here, projects have been developed for five years in the villages of Spiegelau and Frauenau in cooperation with the scientific institution in Grafenau. For example, the optimal locations of on-call bus stops or digital information boards have been defined together with citizens. There is also a specific tourism project in the Freyung-Grafenau model region. In this, we are using our open data infrastructure to optimally direct the streams of visitors that have increased since Corona - especially with a focus on larger events.

Is life in the country or in the city more attractive to you?

Willi Steincke: For me personally, life in the city is more appealing. Since I grew up in the country, but I still appreciate the advantages of rural areas. Keyword creativity: Where is one more creative than in the great outdoors? Rents are also cheaper, and with the steady improvement in infrastructure and cellular connectivity, it's certainly easy to live in a small town these days.

Will Corona accelerate the trend to move to the countryside?

Willi Steincke: No, I don't think so. For one thing, I assume that life with Corona will be improved by a vaccine by summer or fall 2021. On the other hand, it depends on one's own life situation and individual ideas, for which region one decides. Even though we have seen rapid development in digitization in recent months, there will always be people who prefer an urban lifestyle. My motto is "live and let live!"

The interview was conducted by Dr. Kord Pannkoke, Head of Business Development at Bayern Innovativ GmbH.

Listen to the full interview as a podcast: