Vienna Launches Project to Manage the City Using Satellite Data and Artificial Intelligence

Vienna's city authorities have begun rolling out ADUCAT, a project that combines satellite data, radar-based Earth observation technology and artificial intelligence to help manage the development of the Austrian capital. The initiative will run from October 2025 to March 2029 and has received roughly five million euros in funding through the EU's "EUI — Innovative Actions" programme.

At its core, the project aims to build a unified urban data space that brings together information from the European Copernicus programme, InSAR radar technology, and AI-driven analytical models. This will allow city departments to monitor temperature changes, ground movement, and the condition of green spaces and critical infrastructure in real time, using the data both for day-to-day management and long-term planning.

Under the project, Vienna will focus on three key areas: reducing urban overheating (Cool City), expanding green spaces (Green City), and ensuring infrastructure safety (Safe City). To achieve this, the city will use temperature modelling to identify heat hotspots, satellite monitoring of green areas, and radar technology to track shifts in terrain and building structures.

According to Vienna's Deputy Mayor and Digitalisation Advisor Barbara Novak, the project lays the groundwork for proactive climate risk management, enabling risks to be identified early while improving residents' quality of life — all within a framework of transparency and European cooperation.

According to the project's press office, ADUCAT is part of a broader European effort to build a shared data space covering key areas of urban development. Vienna was selected as one of 20 cities out of 110 applicants competing for a place in the EU's "EUI — Innovative Actions" programme. Udine, Zagreb, and Guimarães will also take part in testing the new tools, checking how well the developed solutions can be applied in other European cities.

Vienna plans to make part of the collected data publicly available through the Open Government Data Vienna platform and interactive maps, so residents can see how the information gathered is being used to shape concrete decisions in their city. Once the project wraps up, its results will feed into the city's Green Transition Information Factory (GTIF) platform, which will serve as a foundation for the Austrian capital's further development.

The project was initiated and is being coordinated by the innovation lab Vienna Geospace Hub, part of UIV Urban Innovation Vienna GmbH. Thirteen partners from public administration, academia, transport, business, and civil society are involved in the work.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz