The application gives an overview of over 800,000 trees in Berlin, including information about their age and watering needs. Users can “subscribe” to the tree of their choice, and report the amounts of water they have given it.
Gieß den Kiez is not only a model of citizen participation but also demonstrates how mobilisation of users can contribute to collaborative software development. After users reported challenges with transporting water to trees, the application incorporated information about public water pumps.
“Open source and open data enable this new type of collaboration, especially when it comes to communication between authorities and the population: there is no intermediate interface. There is great potential here,” commented the Gieß den Kiez platform head Julia Zimmermann in Goethe Institut’s interview.
Gieß den Kiez’s user interface combines OpenStreetMap with the React framework. In addition to the information fetched from the city’s own databases, the app uses data from national weather services and other public sources.
The source code is available at the project repository under the MIT licence and is already being used by Leipzig.
As indications of climate change become more visible—with the summer of 2023 introducing new record-high temperatures throughout southern Europe—platforms like Gieß den Kiez can offer innovative ways to mitigate the impact while engaging with the citizens. And open source makes it possible for this solution to be copied and scaled very quickly.
CityLab Berlin is run by a non-profit foundation Technologiestiftung Berlin and is funded by Berlin Senate Chancellery. The lab conducts research, supports Berlin city administration innovation, and runs digitalisation projects.
(Photo by J. Schiemann)