Interview with Philipp Staufer at the Zurich’s “Urban Observatory”

In a featured interview, Philipp Staufer of from ERZ detailed how the city is transforming vast amounts of environmental data into actionable digital services to protect the city from stormwater and pollution.

Here the project hosts the Case Study 3 focused on tackling complex pollution from emerging contaminants. Zurich serves as a critical case study for URBANM2O, focusing on the complex challenges of urban growth and climate-driven Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). As the city implements Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to manage stormwater, the project is investigating how to protect groundwater, Switzerland’s primary drinking water source, from emerging contaminants.

“We engaged in URBANM2O because we want to learn with our partners how we deal with data and increase our knowledge to make the right decisions in the future,” said Philipp Staufer. “We want to set up our own framework, learn from the best, and develop new digital services for the municipality.”

By collaborating with international leaders in Open Government Data (OGD), Zurich and the URBANM2O consortium are creating a blueprint for how cities can use digital intelligence to safeguard public health and the environment.

Watch the full interview here.