Context
Cities face increasing pressure to meet ambitious climate goals while managing population growth and maintaining quality of life. However, many decisions in urban planning, energy, and environmental management still rely on static, outdated, or incomplete data. The Vienna Geospace Hub was created in response to the growing need for reliable, high-quality geodata and targeted collaboration for climate action, adaptation, and sustainable urban development.
Existing large volumes of satellite imagery, mobile mapping, and surveying data are often collected individually and lack holistic integration. This limits cities’ abilities to understand urban dynamics or respond quickly to climate-related challenges. The innovation lab addresses this by combining diverse geodata sources into a standardised, scientifically validated data foundation in use cases or projects with partners, integrating relevant stakeholders and decision-makers.
This approach provides a more accurate and up-to-date picture of the city, supports monitoring of environmental changes, enhances climate-risk assessments, and enables more targeted interventions. The Vienna Geospace Hub was established to close the gap between data-driven research and practical climate solutions, ensuring the effective application of digital technologies. Its rationale is to support cities with actionable geospatial intelligence, strengthen evidence-based decision-making, and accelerate the transition towards climate neutrality, recognising concrete needs of municipal users.
Objectives
On behalf of the Chief Information Officer’s office of the City of Vienna, the innovation lab addresses urgent needs for reliable, up-to-date geospatial information to support climate-neutral urban transformation in cities. Cities rely on individually gathered, infrequent mobile mapping and fragmented geodata, which limits informed decision-making and leads to costly, uncoordinated initiatives. Although satellite data from EU space programmes is openly available, it remains underused in municipal planning, creating a significant gap between technological potential and practical application in decision-making.
The Vienna Geospace Hub closes this gap by establishing a unique service that combines high-quality satellite observations with surveying data to create a standardised, scalable data infrastructure – supporting evidence-based urban planning, improved monitoring of climate-relevant indicators such as heat islands, green space quality, or solar potential, and the development of AI models for automated analysis.
The innovation lab responds to the need for cross-sector collaboration by building a unique community of practice that connects public administrations, researchers, and companies. Through matchmaking, experimentation spaces, and targeted support, the lab transforms local challenges into concrete use cases and projects.
Ultimately, the innovation lab provides cities with affordable access to technology, expertise, and ready-to-use solutions that accelerate climate-neutral transformation and foster long-term innovation.
Implementation
The innovation lab combines interdisciplinary expertise, satellite, and survey data, and structured collaboration and exchange to support the use of geospatial information for climate-neutral urban development. Embedded within UIV Urban Innovation Vienna, it operates in alignment with the City of Vienna’s strategic goals and benefits from direct access to municipal departments and stakeholders.
A dedicated governance structure consisting of a steering committee, two advisory boards, and regular reporting lines ensures transparent decision-making and continuous strategic oversight. The project is funded equally through public support from the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (Bundesministerium für Innovation, Mobilität und Infrastruktur – BMIMI) and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft – FFG), and the City of Vienna. Budget and staff resources are organised around core work packages such as innovation processes, infrastructure development, communication, and community building. The team brings together expertise in innovation management, geoinformatics, project management, and stakeholder engagement.
Stakeholder consultation is integrated throughout the project cycle. Needs assessments, workshops, and co-creation formats with municipalities, companies, and research institutions help ensure that use cases address real challenges and lead to practical, applicable solutions. Communication activities are based on a dedicated brand, web presence, social media and events and promote visibility, knowledge exchange, and community growth.