Digital Green Belt

The German Green Belt, Europe's largest nature conservation initiative, is a unique example of the inseparable relationship between ecological diversity and the historical legacy of the former Iron Curtain. As a result, the initiative brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including public authorities, research institutions, and civil society organizations from different disciplinary backgrounds across nine federal states.

Although these stakeholders address many of the same natural and historical features, there is still no shared conceptual or taxonomic framework for documenting the historical relics found along the Green Belt. Communication across disciplines and administrative boundaries remains limited, while technical standards, survey methods, and data formats differ considerably. Furthermore, information on natural and cultural heritage has not yet been integrated. This creates an urgent need for an innovative, cross-sectoral approach to data management, particularly in light of the ongoing preparation of the German Green Belt's nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

To address these challenges, the project will systematically document the interconnected biodiversity and historical border relics in three selected pilot regions of the German Green Belt. Based on this work, it will develop a common terminology, standardized categories, and a comprehensive data model. These will form the basis of a Central Data Integration Infrastructure, providing a shared methodological and technical standard for all stakeholders along the German Green Belt. The infrastructure will include interfaces to widely used Geographic Information System applications, such as QGIS, ensuring interoperability and facilitating data exchange.

The three pilot regions have been selected to represent the diversity of the German Green Belt. They include the federal states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, which contain the longest stretches of the Green Belt, as well as parts of Saxony, Lower Saxony, Hesse, and Bavaria. Together, these regions cover six of the nine federal states bordering the former Inner German border, providing a robust basis for developing transferable standards and workflows.