Mission Digital Heinerblock

We define our mission based on three overlapping areas: Communication and interaction with citizens is a central element for strengthening crisis awareness and creating acceptance for new methods and tools. The analysis of urban data creates the foundation to inform citizens and to assess the success of measures. Resilient communication technology allows to gather and process data even in times of crises.

Communication and Interaction with Citizens

Sustainable, inclusive and integrated urban design plays a decisive role in the transformation towards resilient city districts. That also includes the participation of citizens in a co-creative process, which creates acceptance and improves social resilience. We investigate which forms of communication are particularly suitable for creating awareness for crises among citizens, which forms are acceptable during crises, and how urban areas can be designed to inherently provide support during crises.

A project in this area is the further development of our projection-based city model, of which a new mobile version is created to foster the dialogue with citizens on site. It allows visualizing historical data about past urban development, but also displaying real-time data from the district. Additionally, it can be combined with augmented and virtual reality technologies to illustrate planned developments.

Another example for the communication with citizens in crises is our smart advertising pillar Litfaßsäule 4.0. As part of an industry cooperation with Ströer Media Deutschland GmbH, a prototype is constructed and will be placed on the Riegerplatz by end of 2024. Advertising pillars exist as a ubiquitous part of urban infrastructure and thus can serve as the first go-to place for information in times of crises. By integrating a battery and photovoltaics, displays in the pillar’s capital can show information, instructions and warning messages from the German modular warning system (Modulares Warnsystem, MoWaS). This is possible even during a blackout for up to 72 hours.

But communication with citizens does not stop here. Krisopolis employs state-of-the-art methods of serious gaming to create awareness for crisis preparation and prevention. The Smartphone game that was developed in collaboration with students of TU Darmstadt lets players immerge in the fictional city of Krisopolis, which is continuously haunted by crises. You can only persist if you are well prepared and interact with your neighbors. The game is planned for official release in app stores in late 2024.

Analysis of Urban Data

Data about cities exists in a variety of formats, time scales, and spatial resolutions. Cutting-edge digital methods for data gathering and processing improve our ability to analyze complex, interdependent urban processes. One goal of the mission is to explore the new plenitude of data to identify data types and sources which can help to anticipate or overcome crises. As the resources for data gathering and processing are limited during crises, focusing on and selecting the data that matters is crucial.

To address this goal, we research event-driven time series databases, which can use complex data on different timescales to identify relations. Furthermore, we investigate historical data about crises which has not been digitized and formalized yet. Not only the Ahrtal flood in 2021 has shown how historical knowledge can make important contributions to today’s crisis prevention. In our Histoblock, we therefore take a look back and investigate the Lichtenbergblock’s history.

Resilient Communication Infrastructure

Transfer of real-time information from the city as well as forwarding warning messages to the citizens requires a resilient communication infrastructure. Communication networks and data centers are particularly vulnerable to crises, as they can suffer from direct physical damage, but also depend on other infrastructure like the power grid. Their structure is also prone to complex, cascading outages. We therefore investigate the question how the urban communication infrastructure needs to be designed in order to support citizens and first responders in different crisis scenarios.

In a cooperation with the city of Darmstadt, we install a productive sensor network in the Heinerblock, which measures microclimate, particulate matter, noise, and the use of urban space with a high spatial resolution. The gathered data can directly help with urban design processes in the district, considering climate resilience and a livable environment. The data also serves the focus area of urban data analysis. Beyond measuring, the sensor boxes also serve as a wireless communication testbed. This allows us to test new wireless protocols in a realistic urban environment which can provide situational information to a mission control center or forward information to the citizens in case of an Internet outage.