Zum Inhalt Zum Hauptmenü
Häuser in verschiedenen Einfärbungen, teilweise weiß umrandet, Mann und Frau

German Version

ADUCAT – Seeing Vienna. Shaping the Future

Vienna launches digital innovation project for satellite-supported urban development

Major cities worldwide are facing increasingly complex challenges. In order to plan, maintain, and further develop infrastructures and services in a forward-looking way- and to effectively counteract the impacts of climate change in urban areas, data-driven decision-making is becoming ever more important in city administration and urban development. It forms a central foundation for resilience, efficiency, and quality of life in urban spaces.

To address this challenge, the City of Vienna is relying on the use of cutting-edge technology and is launching the pioneering European innovation project ADUCAT – Actionable Data Space for Urban Climate Adaptation and related socio-ecological, local Transformation.

Implementation and objective

By using various satellite data, value-adding analytical methods, and modern Earth observation technologies, particularly monitoring-intensive areas of the city – such as infrastructure, green spaces, and temperature development – will in future be observed efficiently and continuously.

The goal of ADUCAT is to enable modern urban monitoring and forward-looking urban planning with the help of new data sources. Satellite data will be used strategically and intelligently to ensure the safety and quality of life of Vienna’s more than 2 million residents and to further strengthen the city’s resilience to crises.

The benefits

  • Environmental risks can be detected faster and assessed more precisely.
  • Continuous monitoring of green spaces enables the collection and provision of data for targeted irrigation.
  • The data obtained can feed directly into the city administration’s planning and decision-making processes, enabling proactive action.
  • A scalable model for other European cities will be developed.
  • The safety of city infrastructures and buildings can be supported by established change detection and surface deformation monitoring systems.

Challenges and Technology

The ADUCAT project focuses on three central urban areas:

Cool City

When temperatures rise, Vienna stays cool.

Vienna is experiencing summers with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius more and more frequently. The urban heat island effect reduces quality of life. Increasing heat poses a risk especially for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children. High-resolution data shows where heat develops and how the city can take targeted countermeasures.

Green City

Nature in focus, city in balance

Satellite-supported observation and planning measure the vitality of green areas and evaluate the impact of greening measures. This makes it possible to identify suitable locations for new green zones in a targeted manner.

Safe City

Monitoring change. Safeguarding infrastructure.

Vienna is growing and becoming denser. Radar remote sensing and InSAR technologies detect ground deformation such as subsidence or uplift and structural risk at an early stage, helping to prevent damage.

Vienna as a Pioneer

ADUCAT is a groundbreaking European innovation project positioning Vienna as a European pioneer in satellite-supported urban development.

Co-funded 80 percent by the European Urban Initiative – Innovative Actions, the project runs from October 2025 to March 2029 and receives around 5 million euro in funding. It forms a key building block for Vienna’s vision of a climate-neutral, livable, and digitally sovereign city by 2040 and supports the Smart Climate City Strategy and the goals of the Digital Agenda Vienna by deploying innovative technologies responsibly and for the common good.

Data-driven decisions for future-oriented urban planning

ADUCAT generates actionable data that flows directly into municipal decision-making processes. The results will be integrated long-term into administrative structures via the Green Transition Information Factory (GTIF) and can also be used by other cities. The developed tools are scalable, compatible with Vienna’s existing technical systems, and enable transnational knowledge transfer through a European partner network.

Citizen participation and transparency

ADUCAT ensures that digital innovation reaches where it matters most: in the everyday lives of Vienna’s residents. The data collected help to design public spaces in a way that meets the needs of the population. A central element of ADUCAT is therefore the active involvement of citizens. Through open data platforms (Open Government Data Vienna) and interactive city maps, they can see how their suggestions are implemented and what impact the measures have.

Vienna Geospace Hub as an innovation engine

The project is being developed at the Vienna Geospace Hub, an innovation lab of UIV Urban Innovation Vienna GmbH established in 2023. Here, satellite data is used intelligently for urban applications – for the benefit of city administration and citizens alike.

Partnership and transfer

In addition to the City of Vienna as project initiator, the ADUCAT consortium includes 13 partner organizations from administration, research, and industry:

3 European transfer cities – Udine, Zagreb, and Guimarães – are accompanying the project.

Contact

Further project information