Luxembourg: Mobile apps are multiplying GIS usage

By bringing geographic data closer to field staff, the City of Luxembourg has transformed its GIS into a service platform at the heart of business processes.

Structured as early as the beginning of the 2000s and developed since 2009 around Esri solutions, the City of Luxembourg’s GIS has established itself as a cross-cutting digital infrastructure, used by both municipal employees and citizens. Today, nearly one thousand people, or a quarter of the workforce, use geographic data, often through business applications or dashboards. This widespread adoption is based on a strategic choice: bringing data closer to the field through the large-scale development of mobile applications.

The GIS unit is attached to the Topography and Geomatics Department. It brings together a deliberately small but highly structured team made up of complementary profiles: geomatics specialists, a developer, database and network managers, and a surveyor-drafter. “We are a small team, but with a very broad scope of action,” explains Marc Orban, head of the unit since 2020. “Our role is both to guarantee data quality, maintain the GIS infrastructure, and support departments in their day-to-day use.” This central role was built over time. As early as 2003, the City implemented a land information system, before launching a first geoportal for the municipal public in 2007. At the time, the approach was clearly pioneering, driven by the desire to share geographic information beyond a circle of experts. “Google Maps did not yet exist when the digital base maps and points of interest were provided in a Hotcity application. It supported many projects, some of which are still available in 3D on the CityMap portal.”

The City initially focused on meeting its regulatory obligations, favoring controlled use oriented toward internal needs. Today, GIS supports almost all municipal departments. Urban planning, environment, technical services, roads, public lighting, municipal asset management, and economic development rely daily on geolocated data. “Some departments use GIS to consult information, others produce data themselves, with real internal relays who act as business geomatics specialists,” notes Stefan Useldinger, head of geomatics. Among the thousand users, around one hundred are considered advanced users, capable of enriching databases or managing applications without support from the GIS team.

In recent years, the most active area has been linked to the environment and ecological transition. The solar cadastre, inventories of green roofs, emissions monitoring, and rodent control campaigns all rely on GIS applications that have become essential. “Luxembourg is the first city in the Grand Duchy to have a 3D model deployed as early as 2008 for the solar cadastre. In 2009, an initial 3D building capture based on high-resolution aerial imagery was produced for one district of the City. In 2014, the entire city territory was fully available in 3D, with regular updates ever since,” explains Stefan Useldinger. The Department of Economic and Commercial Development is also among the major users, particularly for monitoring retail activity and vacancy. “These departments need constantly up-to-date information,” explains Chrystelle Coquin, geomatics engineer. “GIS provides them with a reliable, shared, and evolving observatory, used both for operational monitoring and decision support.”

But it was truly with the rise of mobile applications, notably Field Maps, Quick Capture, and Workforce, that GIS scaled up. The first experiments date back to 2018, with an application dedicated to the commercial cadastre accessible via a mobile browser. At the time, technical constraints were still significant. “Things evolved with the growing power of smartphones and the increasing maturity of mobile GIS solutions,” recalls Marc Orban. From then on, requests from field services multiplied.

Today, the City of Luxembourg operates several dozen applications, both mobile and desktop, including around twenty dedicated to fieldwork, notably for municipal forests, hygiene services, and roads. These applications rely on configurable solutions, without heavy development, capable of working offline and adapting to varied business contexts. “Our objective is to provide agents with tools that are simple, quick to learn, and genuinely useful in the field,” insists Stefan Useldinger. Photo capture, smart forms, precise geolocation, and automatic synchronization have become standard.

Within the Hygiene Department, mobile applications are used to manage bulky waste. Reports made in the field are documented with photos, kept as evidence for several years, and integrated into dashboards accessible to the hotline. A pilot project is exploring the use of artificial intelligence to automatically analyze certain images and classify observed situations. “This saves time and also helps standardize practices.”

The Roads and Sewerage departments also rely on mobile applications to inspect excavations and maintain gutters, manholes, and sludge traps. Inspections are linked to precise geographic objects, with table relationships enabling tracking of intervention history. Automations complement the system for inspection follow-up and campaign management. “These tools help structure processes that previously depended heavily on individual practices,” summarizes Stefan Useldinger.

Most application development is carried out internally by the geomatics team. A ticketing system is in place at the City, used both to manage everyday incidents and to handle requests for new developments. “Departments express a very concrete operational need and a specific problem,” explains Chrystelle Coquin. “Projects are built in close collaboration. We analyze their needs and propose the most appropriate solution, sometimes different from their initial request.”

Even if the team does not use the term, this approach resembles an agile methodology. Projects are carried out pragmatically, with short timelines and small teams. Some applications are designed for temporary use, for the duration of a campaign or pilot project. Usage is closely monitored through consultation statistics and user feedback. “GIS must remain alive,” emphasizes Stefan Useldinger. “We need to accept evolving, or even removing, tools when needs change.” Training plays a key role in this dynamic. Two annual sessions are dedicated to fundamentals and advanced uses. “It is also a way to spark ideas and bring out new needs within departments,” adds Marc Orban.

This growth in mobile usage is part of a “historic partnership” with Esri BeLux, which supports the teams both technologically and methodologically. “With our Enterprise Agreement, we benefit from very broad access to solutions and regular support, whether for technology watch, training, or assistance,” notes Ben Zeimetz, geomatics engineer. This close relationship notably enabled the City to be recognized in 2020 with a SAG Award for its Citymap portal. Ultimately, the City of Luxembourg’s GIS has established itself as a true service platform, closely aligned with field realities. By focusing on mobile applications, the geomatics team has made geographic data accessible, useful, and actionable for a wide audience of municipal employees. “GIS is no longer a tool reserved for a few specialists,” concludes Marc Orban. “It is a common language that allows everyone to work with the same information, in the right place and at the right time.”

Xavier Fodor