Smart Citizens for Smart Cities: A User Engagement Protocol for Citizen Participation

Smart Cities offer the promise to improve the quality of live for their inhabitants. Therefore, new concepts and technologies for citizen participation is indispensable. Not only new mobility technologies, but digital-driven interaction between citizens and planners is a key component for future smart cities. In the U_CODE Project an innovative approach has been developed and backed up by technologies to enable this level of participation in urban development. This paper presents the User Engagement Protocols (UEP) and their testing in the testing for the smart campus design at the CJD Learning Campus Sangerhausen, which function as a case study. The UEP enables the moderators of the U_CODE process to concert the variety of actions and stakeholders during a co-designed urban development process. For every stakeholder and every phase, a specific UEP can be generated from a Master Protocol which covers the entire process. The methodical steps, which lead to this comprehensive process are shown in this paper, as well as the first application in the Sagerhausen Test Case. There a new campus for children with special requirements is planned together with the school administration, the teachers, parents and children. It proves the management possibilities of the U_CODE process in massive co-design urban development scenarios in a real environment.