Briefing 2025/26

Our Fundamental Question

How can we make commercial waste logistics more transparent, efficient, and reliable in a dense urban environment?

The City of Vienna is exploring smart, scalable ways to better understand and manage commercial waste containers (“Mulden”) in real time. These containers are critical assets in day-to-day waste operations, but managing their exact location, movement, and accessibility can be complex—especially across multiple sites, service zones, and logistics routes.

This challenge invites makers, developers, and solution designers to explore intelligent approaches that combine IoT data, geolocation, and advanced analytics.

Context & Data Availability

Over the past six months, around 300 asset trackers have been deployed on commercial waste containers, generating a rich dataset. These sensors capture, among others, the following parameters:

  • Latitude (LAT)

  • Longitude (LON)

  • Container ID

  • Timestamp

  • Battery status

  • inTrip (movement status)

  • tripCount

  • Speed (km/h)

Currently, this data is primarily visualized on a map within an internal platform. The City of Vienna is now interested in discovering what additional insights, applications, and value can be generated from this data.

Our Goal

Rather than prescribing a single solution, this challenge is intentionally open-ended.

Participants are invited to explore and develop solutions that unlock value from the available data. Possible directions include (but are not limited to):

  • Real-time tracking and visualization of assets

  • Geofencing and automated alerts

  • Detection of anomalies or irregular usage patterns

  • Predictive insights (e.g., movement patterns, utilization, or risk detection)

  • Smart dispatching or logistics optimization

  • Decision-support tools for operational teams

  • Intuitive dashboards or user interfaces

The key objective is to transform raw tracking data into actionable insights and practical tools that improve day-to-day operations.

Technical Scope

There are no restrictions regarding:

  • Development environments

  • Programming languages

  • Frameworks or tools

Participants are free to choose the technologies that best support their ideas.

The Sweet Spot

We are looking for solutions that are:

  • Practical and applicable in real municipal operations

  • Robust and scalable

  • Insight-driven, going beyond simple visualization

  • User-centered, supporting real operational needs

Who this challenge is for


Makers and teams with experience or curiosity in:

  • IoT and sensor integration

  • GPS and geolocation

  • Data analysis and visualization

  • AI / machine learning and anomaly detection

  • Logistics and fleet/asset management

  • Smart city technologies

  • UX/UI for operational tools

  • Scalable platform development

Your contact persons

Michael Maier, MSc
IoT Expert und Business Analyst
GPC1 – Innovation Lab
Wien Digital – City of Vienna

 
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About us

City of Vienna | Wien Digital

The City of Vienna operates a wide range of municipal services. Within this context, Wien Digital acts as the central IT service provider, enabling data-driven innovation across departments.

This challenge is based on a real-world use case from municipal waste management operations, providing participants with the opportunity to work on tangible urban challenges with real data and impact.

More details about City of Vienna & Wien Digital

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