As part of its Smart City program “HoferLand.digital”, the district of Hof is entering into a new research collaboration with Hof University of Applied Sciences on the topic of water management. This was decided by the district committee this week.
The project aims to support the district’s municipalities in dealing with the effects of climate change, for example.
The security of the water supply is a key issue that will become increasingly important in the future, also in and for our region. There are numerous other issues relating to water that are worth taking a closer look at.”
District Administrator Dr. Oliver Bär
In a live broadcast, Professor Günter Müller-Czygan from Hof University of Applied Sciences, Head of the Institute for Sustainable Water Systems, explained the planned concept and its individual measures to the district committee.
Measures
Initially, a fundamental analysis of water-related climate resilience measures is planned to test the application of digitalization in all 27 municipalities in the district. Other planned pilot measures include a district-wide data platform to determine water requirements, deficits and surpluses, external water analyses for the municipalities, a digital survey of water-related soil characteristics, a data platform for measures to develop the Hof district sponge region, the development of an AI-based support bot to optimize infrastructure planning and maintenance work and the establishment of a consulting and contact point at the Competence and Transfer Centre for Sustainable Sponge City/Region (ktns).
The aim is to jointly develop and test application-ready solutions for water-related tasks of the municipalities in the district on the basis of the data collected. To this end, the Institute for Sustainable Water Systems (inwa) at Hof University of Applied Sciences is setting up the “Transferwerkstatt Wasser hoferLand.fdigital” as a central development and advice center as part of “hoferLand.digital” for the district of Hof at the new Competence and Transfer Center for Sustainable Sponge City/Region (ktns). This is to be set up as a development and advice center in such a way that it can be continued even after the project has been completed. Based on the studies carried out, the focus will then also be on providing practical advice to local authorities.
We are delighted that we are now able to tackle this project together with Hof University of Applied Sciences as part of our “Smart City hoferLand.digital” pilot project. The main aim is to compile, collect and process data and make it available as a basis for decision-making.”
District Administrator Dr. Oliver Bär
He continues: “We will also be working together with other authorities, such as the water management authority. In particular, the aim is to provide local authorities with a good basis and decision-making aid, for example on the way to becoming a sponge city and a sponge region.”
Funding and duration
Water management is one of the pillars defined in the “hoferLand.digital” strategy paper. The measure will run until the end of the funding period in September 2027. The costs amount to around 1,500,000 euros, 90 percent of which will be funded by the federal government as part of the Smart City model project. Hof University of Applied Sciences is contributing the remaining 10 percent of the costs itself, so that there is no burden on the district budget.
