Zwönitz on its way to becoming a smart city

Just under 12,000 people currently live in Zwönitz in the Ore Mountains - there is still room for improvement, says CDO Martin Benedict. With help of digital development, Zwönitz aims to become a more liveable and lovable town.

The conversion of the Zwönitz Buntspeicher into a start-up and innovation center is an important part of this. “The Buntspeicher will become a hub for knowledge transfer in the context of the Smart City for rural areas,” says Benedict. The city is thus not only creating space for innovative projects, but also a contact point for companies, citizens and anyone who wants to realize their ideas in the areas of digitalization and regional value creation. The Zwönitzer Makerspace, the hands-on workshop, which is a central element of the Buntspeicher that brings people from the town and the region together and connects them with new technologies, also ties in with this. And then there is the Bergstadtbüro in the Buntspeicher, a coworking area for commuters and start-ups alike who want to live new models of work. These are just some of the concepts that are turning Zwönitz into a “smart city”.

Smart solutions for the city and its citizens

First successes are already visible: Zwönitz has developed “ERZmobil”, an intelligent urban transport system. The mobile can be called to specified stops via an app or, in future, via a voice bot on the phone, and is fully integrated into the public transport system. The “Zwönitzer Online Anzeiger” also shows how smart city management works. This digital platform not only provides information on current issues in the town, but also allows citizens to communicate directly and receive important information from the town via push notifications.

In terms of infrastructure, Zwönitz relies on innovative technologies such as sensors and LoRaWAN. Among other things, it enables the monitoring of buildings or water levels and helps to optimize energy consumption and take timely flood protection measures.

Open source and bottom-up on the way to a smart Zwönitz

Zwönitz primarily uses open source solutions to implement its projects. Tools developed in-house, such as the software behind the ERZmobil, are also published as open source. Martin Benedict explains: “We are looking for partners who will work with us to further develop the open source solution and establish intelligent urban transportation in other rural regions as well.”

An important tip from Benedict for cities that want to become smart cities is: “It doesn't always have to be the big lighthouse projects. Bottom-up projects are just as important and generate sustainable and authentic project success.” Zwönitz focuses on tangible measures that quickly create added value for citizens. The topic of “legal framework conditions” should not be underestimated, according to Benedict: “Especially in the area of public procurement law, this should not be underestimated and time and energy should be planned accordingly.”

The focus is on people

The public's reaction to the Smart City project has been positive, which is mainly due to the concrete results such as the ERZmobil, Benedict emphasizes. At the same time, the term “smart city” seems unwieldy and is not very tangible for many citizens. “We are trying to create an understanding of the possibilities, but also the limits, through citizen-oriented communication,” says Benedict.

A particular focus is on involving older people. The CDO sees this as an important factor for success: “Older people should not be underestimated. Their knowledge is often not far from that of the younger generation.” Zwönitz relies on low-threshold offers, such as terminals to book the ERZmobil, so that all generations are included in the digital transformation. In the participation process, the older population was taken into account from the outset so as not to lose sight of their wishes.

“The journey is the destination”

The town of Zwönitz sees its Smart City initiative as an ongoing process. “A smart city is never finished,” explains Benedict. Technological and social developments require constant adaptation and further development. The “Smart Zwönitz” project is intended to lay the foundations and establish ways of acting that will also provide the city with long-term impetus towards digital solutions.

Zwönitz shows how digital transformation can also succeed in small towns and rural regions - exchange is the be-all and end-all, which is why the team around Martin Benedict is happy to be available as a contact for the exchange of knowledge: “We are particularly happy to support smaller municipalities in implementing their own projects with our experience. The Buntspeicher should also become a contact point for this. Joint workshops and conferences should make this possible.”