Public transport networks play a crucial role in urban mobility, providing basic transport for people of all ages and societal groups. However, these networks present a challenge in terms of understandability—the maps and plans that describe routes and schedules are often complex and difficult to interpret; mobile transport apps focus on single-trip connections. Furthermore, these representations do not illustrate which destinations can be reached within a given time frame, or what would be alternative modes of transport. This lack of transparency and practicality not only impedes existing users, but can also detract potential future passengers from using public transport.

Here, visualization can be a tool to simplify complex transport data and make them easier to understand for citizens. By visualizing schedules and travel times in clear, accessible, and engaging representations, we can help a broader audience to gain useful information for their daily travels. In addition, visual comparisons of different modes of transport in a city can provide valuable insights and encourage citizens who are currently using one mode of transport to consider other alternatives.

Approaches to visualize public transportation systems, travel times, and the comparison of travel times across different transport modes exist within the scientific community, but, alike the majority of applications designed for end users, are presented for desktop settings in a non-engagingly technical way, for example, the representation of travel times in the form of maps. In contrast, to provide easy-to-understand and engaging representations, we want to compare their visualization potential with that of alternative platforms, including virtual reality (VR), public displays, and physical projection. Moreover, storytelling elements can guide users through the data and interaction options.

By discussing the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches, we provide new impulses for municipalities and public transport authorities to communicate and interact with citizens. While we use the city of Bamberg as an example, the discussion and results are transferable to other cities.

The global population surge has made managing public transit increasingly challenging due to inadequate services, infrastructure, delays, and limited availability. This leads to passengers preferring private vehicles over public transit, yet public transportation remains a cornerstone of urban mobility, promoting energy conservation, social equity, and reduced traffic congestion. Among public transportation modes like rail, buses, and shuttles, bus systems play a vital role, catering to both short city trips and inter-state travel with moderate passenger loads. In this study, we aim to optimize the bus schedules and its stop positions by proposing a context-aware bus route profiling system.

This work presents the idea of combining Augmented Reality (AR) with an urban Digital

Twin (DT) to visualize virtual historical content in real-world locations. Content added to

the DT can be experienced on-site using a novel manual placement method. This approach

leverages user guidance for precise alignment, bypassing technical and environmental

limitations common in computer vision methods, offering a robust and accessible solution

for urban and historical exploration.

In den kommenden Jahrzehnten wird der demografische Wandel für deutsche Städte und Gemeinden zunehmend Herausforderungen hinsichtlich der kommunalen Planung mit sich bringen. Dies wird insbesondere an den sogenannten Babyboomern deutlich: Die Jahrgänge zwischen 1955 und 1969 treten in den kommenden Jahren in den Ruhestand ein. In der Folge ergibt sich nicht nur eine Lücke auf dem Arbeitsmarkt, sondern es entstehen auch Fragen und Unsicherheiten hinsichtlich der aktuellen und zukünftigen Bedürfnisse der Babyboomer was u. a. Wohnformen, (soziale) Infrastrukturen und Versorgungsangebote betrifft. Diese Problemlage bildet den Ausgangspunkt des Projekts Ageing Smart. Im dessen Mittelpunkt steht die Entwicklung eines Decision-Support-Systems (DSS), das die Entscheidungsfindung in der kommunalen Planung hinsichtlich der Bedürfnisse der Babyboomer datenbasiert unterstützen soll.

The teaching of listening and reading skills, including abilities to adopt spatial and affective perspectives of literary figures and to reflect critically on texts with regard to one's own lifeworld, are central goals of primary school education in Germany [KM22]. However, many primary school students fail to achieve minimum standards in these skills [ML23; SS22]. To support students in developing these skills and to record their current skill levels, the LitSpatz was developed. The app is based on previous findings on children's academic, cognitive and affective-motivational development as well as on theoretical approaches and results on text-picture-comprehension [LB07; Ma21] and reading instruction [WN12; WJ12]. Within the pilot version of the app, primary school students are offered the opportunity to take part in literary walks through the city of Bamberg (Germany), either on- or off-site. Therein, a walk-in story is presented auditorily and illustrations or references to authentic locations are displayed to visualize the scenes´ settings. Furthermore, cognitively activating and further questions are asked. The presentation provides an introduction of the implementation of the app in both versions for the participation: a) in the city of Bamberg (on site) and b) for virtual literary walks (off-site) in reading classes. Moreover, it shows participation rates and selected results of previous participation. In particular, outcomes on students´ characteristics and abilities in relation to text comprehension and aspects of perspective taking (spatial and affective perspective taking, transportation, empathic text comprehension) are presented. Concerning low participation rates found for the on site version, assumed causes and impact factors are discussed. Finally, results from the previous use of the app are discussed with respect to future steps regarding the improvement of the offer as well as its enrichment by implementing further geospatial technologies.

This poster explores the impact of smart cities on digital sovereignty and the public sector's engagement in governmental open-source software (OSS) projects. A quantitative survey of OSS community members found significant correlations between higher Smart City Index (SCI) scores and greater participation in supporting tasks such as bug reporting and feature requests. Such engagement fosters innovation and strengthens collaboration within digital public infrastructure. These findings underline the need for further research on how smart cities promote openness, participation, and digital literacy among citizens and public servants.

There is a growing trend among cities around the world to integrate sustainability considerations into their strategic agendas. However, the UN Women's report from 2017-2020 points at persistent gaps in achieving the United Nations' 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 5, which aims for gender equality, and SDG 11, which focuses on creating safe, inclusive, and sustainable urban environments. Despite these objectives, the safety and inclusion requirements of women and gender-diverse individuals remain largely unmet. Contemporary urban safety strategies frequently focus on objective risks over subjective safety, thereby failing to acknowledge the substantial influence of perceived safety on individuals' behaviours and their quality of life. This study addresses this research gap by examining the relationship between environmental factors and subjective safety in a medium-sized town in Germany, Bamberg. It investigates the impact of environmental factors on perceptions of safety in the city's public spaces. The methodology will comprise a spatial analysis using virtual mapping of locations that are perceived as unsafe. The findings are intended to inform urban planning practice by identifying gender-specific safety needs and promoting more inclusive and sustainable urban development.