Dr. Jürgen Heyer, President of the German Association for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning (DV), called for nothing less than a “refoundation of services of general interest” at the DV annual conference in Berlin on 6 June 2018. New concepts would have to be developed and new legal frameworks established for transport, the healthcare system, educational institutions, etc. Although the creation of equal living conditions is a goal of the Federal Republic of Germany enshrined in the Basic Law, large parts of Germany are not only geographically lagging behind. According to Heyer, around 20 percent of the German population is “underserved” in terms of infrastructure and public services.
Digitalisation and modern mobility could offer the decisive tools to improve services of general interest and people’s everyday lives despite demographic change, especially for sparsely populated, structurally weak areas, emphasised Ulrich Plate (aconium). In his presentation “Digital transformation in urban and rural areas needs efficient infrastructures and innovative services”, the head of the Digitalisation & Mobility team painted a positive picture for local authorities. They could make the provision of services of general interest for their citizens easier and more needs-oriented in the future if they took the digital transformation into their own hands today: Automated on-call buses and delivery services ensure mobility and the supply of everyday necessities in rural areas, drones bring vital medication to patients, who no longer necessarily have to make the long journey to the doctor or hospital for minor ailments thanks to remote treatment. Digital media also contribute to educational success in small communities and, with the help of e-government services, residents can be involved in public administration decision-making processes earlier and more easily than before. Citizens will also participate in the regional energy cycle, with additional decentralised energy sources and smart grids.
However, all these helpful, 5G-supported services require one thing above all: a dense, high-performance broadband network. The market will not bring this to all municipalities. However, every municipality can take its digital future into its own hands thanks to funding programmes such as the federal broadband subsidy.
According to Marco Wanderwitz, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of the Interior, municipalities will not be able to survive in the future without a digitalisation strategy. The Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI) is supporting municipalities with the continuation of the “Smart Cities” dialog platform and with the help of the “Model Municipality Open Government” project. The new federal government’s “Homeland Strategy”, for the implementation of which the BMI is currently creating the new “Homeland” department, is set to become a central building block. All participants at the DV annual conference agreed that the expansion of fiber optics must be a top priority.
Photo: The annual conference of the German Association for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning (DV) took place on June 6, 2018 at the EUREF-Campus (background left) in Berlin.
Photo credit: aconium GmbH