📋 Tender Overview
August 11, 2026
With the current, second heat wave, the summer of 2026 makes it clear how much climate change is challenging communities across Germany: After historically high temperatures in June and persistent drought, the state capital of Munich issued a general decree to save water in mid-July. This measure is an example of how scarce water resources can become during long periods of heat and drought and how important innovative solutions are for using it carefully.
Bavarias Digital Minister Dr. Fabian Mehring sees this as the mission of his successful program Municipal? Digital! confirmed: More than 50 municipalities are already using the digital solutions from the ten funded projects - some of them even far beyond the Bavarian borders. This was made possible by a successful twelve-month transfer phase in which the Digital Ministry carried out intensive knowledge transfer work together with seven pilot municipalities.
Digital Minister Dr. Fabian Mehring: With Municipal? Digital! We have successfully shown that the two major topics of our time - digitalization and sustainability - must be thought of together. In the future, not every municipality will have to reinvent the digital wheel. Instead, I am pleased that our ideas are becoming widespread and that Bavarias municipal digital pioneers are finding enthusiastic imitators in Germany and Europe. Its great to see that more and more municipalities are adopting our successful projects like a building block for themselves. This is how a good idea locally becomes a benefit for the whole of Germany. That was exactly our idea from the start, and it is now fully working: to consistently bring digital solutions from municipal practice into the area.
Three examples show the range of subsequent use
In Erlangen, an independent Bavarian start-up has emerged from the StadtGrunDigital project, a watering route optimization for young trees using soil moisture sensors developed scientifically with FAU Erlangen. In times of increasingly frequent heat waves and water shortages, the project is groundbreaking for targeted and resource-saving irrigation. The solution has already been transferred to 19 other municipalities, such as Ingolstadt, and is currently being tested by the city of Vienna.
In Bamberg, the city has developed a nationally unique, publicly accessible web application from its BaKIM project: municipalities upload drone images of their trees and receive them via a Kommunal? Digital! The AI model developed evaluates the type and vitality of individual trees. From Wuppertal to Dresden to Zurich, municipalities are already in discussions with Bamberg to use the application for the coming flight months of July/August. The state of Berlin, represented by Berlin TXL Management GmbH, is also preparing for the operation. The city of Lemgo was the first municipality to use BaKIM and was awarded the Co-Pioneer Prize in the Digitization in Administration category in 2025.
In Markt Ergoldsbach, the digital climate, information, warning and alarm system KliWAS has proven itself in emergencies: during the 2024 flood, it provided important situation information in a timely manner and helped the local emergency services with targeted protective measures. Following this example, 28 municipalities in the Paar River catchment area have now joined forces to form the ARGE Solidarity Flood Protection in order to establish their own digital flood early warning system based on the experiences of the project in Markt Ergoldsbach and with funding from the Digital Ministry.
These three examples show the range of our model projects: from technical innovation to economic success to a solution that can even save human lives in an emergency. This is how smart digitalization works - not as an end in itself, but as concrete added value for people, the economy and society, said Digital Minister Dr. Mehring.
About Communal? Digital!
As part of the ideas competition Municipal? Digital! Ten forward-looking projects were selected across Bavaria that contribute to sustainability in communities with innovative digital approaches. Each of these projects was funded with up to 500,000 euros and was gradually implemented between 2020 and September 2024. The Bavarian State Ministry for Digital provided a total of over 4 million euros for this. Following the implementation phase, the ministry supported the dissemination of the solutions to the municipal area in a twelve-month transfer phase and provided the pilot municipalities with up to 50,000 euros each for intensive consulting, public relations and information activities.
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