Local authorities are facing major challenges: In addition to the increasing pressure in terms of limited area and available living space, the planetary boundaries set a tight framework for new buildings and renovations. Cities must become climate-neutral in just a few years, even though climate-damaging actions are often fixed in their structures. This increases the demands on administrative action to implement projects in an intergenerational and sustainable manner while at the same time providing sufficient living and economic space.
The City of Wiesbaden is responding to this with a new approach: in five experimental spaces the boundaries of responsibility have been lifted and interdepartmental cooperation has been tried out. A continuous feedback process with local politicians and external stakeholders is intended to create a consensus on future sustainable urban development in Wiesbaden to develop an agile standard for implementation.
The aim of the project is to jointly revise and operationalise the "rules of sustainable urban development”. To this end, agile and cooperative cross-departmental processes are being developed with the aim of implementing a decision-making process for strategic reorientation within the administration. In five experimental spaces, the researchers are using specific projects to test the adaptation and further development of the "rules of the game" into a flexible instrument for use in new builds and refurbishments. At the same time, innovative methods will be used to try out new forms of cross-office and cross-responsibility cooperation within local governments and establish suitable ones.
The Wuppertal Institute was designing, supporting and moderating the process in close coordination with the core team in the Wiesbaden administration.