Hanover starts AI project for sustainable city greening!

Hanover starts AI project for sustainable city greening!

In Hanover, a new chapter in the sustainable city greening is due! With the Bluegreencity-KI project, artificial intelligence (AI) will in future be used for intelligent care and irrigation of city trees. The aim of the initiative is to develop methods for planning and automated forecasts for individual irrigation needs. This project is in the context of the growing challenges, which are placed on the urban green areas by climate change. The importance of green spaces for climate protection and air quality comes to the fore in large cities.

initiated on July 16, 2025, the project will be funded by the end of November 2027 with almost 1.9 million euros by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Security and Consumer Protection. In addition to the state capital of Hanover, project partners are also the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and several institutions that bring expertise in landscape architecture and water management. The coordination of the project is in the hands of Prof. Dr. Antje Backhaus and Manuel Wesemann, who are active by the Institute for Landscape Architecture at Leibniz Universität Hanover. This concentrated specialist knowledge enables an interdisciplinary approach to the challenges that urban green space management brings with it, how Archland reports

The goal: sustainable urban development

The core task of the project is to prioritize green maintenance measures in a targeted manner. This includes, among other things, the development of a AI tool that analyzes sensor data, urban climate cards and care boxes. This technology should be able to identify new locations for city trees and to generate recommendations for their care and irrigation. The use of alternative water sources, such as rainwater or prepared waste water, also plays a central role. This could not only significantly reduce drinking water consumption, but also increase the CO₂ storage capacity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, so municipality 21.

An innovative digital twin of the water storage incructure is also developed to enable automated prediction of the irrigation quantities. This digital technology is potentially not only available Hanover. The solutions are also to be applied to other cities and their green space management. This ensures a breath of fresh air in urban development and could have a model character for other urban green space projects in Germany.

The need for AI in urban development

But what exactly is it about using AI in urban development? So far, the use of such technologies is limited in this area, and there is still a lot of research, according to the BBSR. The need to update large amounts of data and to link intelligently is becoming increasingly pressing. With corresponding digital infrastructures, AI methods could quickly enable more efficient analyzes and thus improve the quality of life in urban rooms. Projects such as Bluegreencity-KI show that the path to innovative city greening has already been taken.

It remains exciting to see how the development will work in the coming months. The initiatives are promising and could rely new standards for the integration of artificial intelligence into urban landscape maintenance. All those who participate in this future -oriented project!