Mobility: Thames Valley Berkshire Live Labs – Integrated

the common good. Digital approaches also open up opportunities for finding answers to climate change and supporting more sustainable development in line with the 2030 Agenda.

Artificial intelligence (AI) in particular has become increasingly more widespread in cities. From monitoring land use and detecting pollutants in urban environments and infrastructures through predicting household energy consumption and promoting resource efficiency, AI applications open up promising opportunities and can also be used to deal with complex social and environmental interrelationships. However, integrating and intersecting different domains in AI applications is still a challenge. Properly used, AI applications have the potential to make a significant contribution to integrated urban development in future.

For this study, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH partnered with the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) to examine promising, real-world use cases of AI-driven urban development projects in the fields of urban planning, construction, municipal finance, mobility, waste management and water/wastewater. The objective is to showcase what AI can already achieve in urban development today and to find out what lessons can be learned from pioneer projects in terms of management structure, technical requirements and cooperative implementation. For AI to make a positive contribution, it is vitally important that a) AI is used in line with local requirements; b) barriers to entry for the population as a whole as well as research and businesses are lowered; and c) datasets and algorithms are transparent and civil liberties and human rights play a central role. The German Development Cooperation is eager to promote and scale the benefits of AI technologies for good urban governance in order to drive sustainable urban development and help its partners localise Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement worldwide. To achieve this, new partnerships and new forms of cooperation and co-creation are needed. This publication is intended to initiate discourse on these partnerships and the accompanying technical and ethical challenges.

Four dimensions of the integrated urban development approach:

Integration of a variety of strategic urban sectors and services, for instance coupling municipal solid waste management with climate-friendly energy production, or applying a holistic approach to the development of solutions at the interface of energy, mobility, architecture and ICT.

Integration of relevant actors and stakeholders, i.e. supporting not only citizen participation and involvement of civil society organisations, but also bringing together different authorities, experts of different disciplines, actors from the private sector or integrating research institutions into strategic collaborations.

Integration of different spatial areas, i.e. establishing cooperation among neighbouring municipalities, strengthening linkages between urban, peri-urban and rural areas, and creating governance structures at a metropolitan level for intermunicipal coordination and joint delivery of public services such as public transport services.

Integration of different government levels for the implementation of measures to align local activities, strategies and policies with the ones at the regional and national level, to pursue t he dialogue between different government levels in both directions, and finally, to transfer experiences and good practices between government levels for replication and integration in respective policies and plans.