Throughout Germany, city centers are under great pressure to act due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, growing online retail and changing consumer behavior. One particular task is therefore to design and implement new, versatile and sustainable uses for spaces. In order to better understand the processes of change in the city center, reliable data is needed on the basis of which decisions can be made and measures initiated. As a rule, there are no central databases containing all data relevant to city centers, and this is also the case for Hamburg’s city center. The Free and Hanseatic City does have extensive, publicly accessible data in the form of the Urban Data Platform. However, this data is usually not available in the required quality (resolution and up-to-dateness), which is why it is not sufficient for the presentation of change processes.
Data from the Urban Data Platform (UDP), data from digital participation processes (DIPAS) and mobile phone frequency data purchased from private providers can be visualized and analysed in the specialist portal for city centres with the help of the Masterportal software. Combined in a central data platform, supplemented by tools for spatial analysis and an application for modeling in the 3D city model, the specialist portal is used by the inner city coordination team in the Hidden Potentials project.
For whom was the application developed?
The specialist portal for the city center was implemented as part of the funding project “Hidden potentials – for a vibrant and resilient Hamburg city center” for the city center coordination. The aim of the project, which is funded by the federal program “Sustainable inner cities”, is to test new usage concepts and operating models to revitalize Hamburg’s city centre by the end of 2025.
The web application serves the city center coordination as an information platform and analysis tool, both for the professional exchange with central city center stakeholders and with citizens. The task of this specialist portal is to provide city centre coordination with a digital data and collaboration platform that can be used to collect, integrate and visualize data relevant to the city centre. The city center portal thus provides significant support in the implementation of the “Hidden Potentials” project goals of identifying space potential for new inner city uses and giving vacant properties a new development perspective.
Exemplary areas of application
The Specialist portal for the city center can essentially be divided into the following service areas:
- DIPAS contribution analysis – Several functions for analyzing citizen contributions submitted by the public in seven digital participation processes (DIPAS) carried out in the city center.
- A dashboard for the visualization and analysis of mobile phone frequency data in the city centre. Frequency data can be analyzed at the level of grid cells (500m x 500m) within Ring 1 and HafenCity (1km x 1km).
- A tool for importing digital 3D objects into the 3D model of the city center. The tool can also be used for sketching, existing buildings can be hidden, etc.
- A curated selection of data from Hamburg’s Urban Data Platform (UDP). Specialist geodata from various sectors was selected with a focus on trade, supply, services and cultural and social offerings.
- Further web GIS functions of the master portal, which are also available in the city center portal.
Digitally supported participation in workshops – DIPAS contribution analysis
With the “DIPAS contribution analysis” function, contributions from DIPAS participation processes can be imported into the specialist portal and analyzed. As part of the “Hidden Potentials” project, DIPAS has been used to identify and record potential locations digitally and map-based in six thematic expert rounds with key players in Hamburg’s city center, which are included as a building block in the vision for the future of Hamburg’s city center. With the “DIPAS contribution analysis”, contributions from workshop participants – as well as contributions from other city centre-related participation processes – can be visualized directly on a data table, analysed with other specialist data and used for professional exchange in the workshop. The tool is integrated as a master portal add-on in the city center portal and offers four analysis functions.
- Display of posts by category
- Presentation of posts by number of ratings as a heatmap
- Presentation of posts according to positive and negative ratings
- Presentation of posts by number of comments
A look at the application: DIPAS contribution analysis
Measure visitor traffic with the frequency data dashboard
A central functional area of the city center portal is a data dashboard for analyzing visitor frequency in Hamburg’s city center. The VPI dashboard can be used to analyze visitor frequency data from 35 grid cells in the districts of Hamburg-Neustadt, Hamburg-Altstadt and HafenCity. The dashboard can be used to analyze visitor numbers, visitor types, age groups and the length of stay for the areas highlighted in red in the grid cells. It is also possible to compare locations and time periods.
The dashboard can be used to analyze visitor numbers for the Mönckebergstraße/Spitalerstraße and Jungfernstieg/Große Bleichen shopping areas over the course of the day, week and month, for example. This makes it easy to understand what effects events or special shopping events such as open Sundays have on visitor numbers in the city center.
Telecommunications data (signal data) is used for the frequency data, which previously originated from the Telefónica Deutschland GmbH network and was integrated into the specialist portal by a data service provider via a data interface.
The further development of the frequency data dashboard is planned for spring 2025. This will involve standardizing the data interface so that comparable data from other providers, such as Telekom, can also be integrated into the dashboard. In addition, it is planned to make it available as a master portal add-on and to publish it in open code, which will enable subsequent use by other local authorities that also use the master portal technology.
A look at the application: The frequency data dashboard
Technical background & requirements for subsequent use
The city center portal is based on the master portal version 2.0. The master portal add-ons for the data dashboard and the DIPAS contribution analysis were developed in 2023 as part of the “Hidden potentials” project by the State Office for Geoinformation and Surveying in cooperation with the Department for Urban Development and Housing. The further development of the frequency data dashboard in 2025 is now taking place as part of the CUT project. The development is intended to include the conversion to Masterportal version 3.0 so that the frequency data dashboard can also be used with the latest Masterportal generation.
In order to use the frequency data dashboard, a web server is required on which a Masterportal instance with the corresponding add-ons is installed. In addition, potential downstream users must purchase mobile data from Telekom or Telefónica. Neither provider offers a standardized API interface. However, the data provided in CSV format can be integrated into the data dashboard via a separate geodata service.
In future, the connection to the frequency data dashboard in Hamburg will be made via an OAF service, an OGC-compliant geodata service provided by the State Office for Geoinformation and Surveying.
The provision of the new frequency data dashboard on Open Code is planned for April 2025.