# Award, Sponsors, and History
# Award
Awarding of the Sponsorship Prize at the Annual Conference of the German Land Culture Society 2024 (opens new window) at the Annual Conference of the German Land Culture Society 2024.
The German Land Culture Society (DLKG) awarded this year's Sponsorship Prize at its 44th Annual Conference from June 12 to 14, 2024, in Dresden to the development team Falko Krügel, Manfred Klaus, Paul Hindorf, and Erik Buthmann (Chair of Geoinformatics – Technische Universität Dresden) for the project "Multicriteria Spatial Online Decision Support System for Planning Public Services" – which is part of the DVA.
# Sponsors
The research project for the Public Services Atlas Niedersachsen was initiated by the State of Niedersachsen with the support of the Nds. Ministry of the Interior and Sports and the Nds. Ministry for Federal and European Affairs and Regional Development, and supported by the State Office for Geoinformation and Land Surveying Niedersachsen.
# History
# 2015–2019
The origin of the project lies in the innovation group UrbanRuralSOLUTIONS funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In this phase, fundamental approaches and concepts were developed, which later contributed to the Public Services Atlas. Upon completion of the UrbanRuralSOLUTIONS project, work on the Public Services Atlas Niedersachsen began.
# 2017–2019
Within the framework of the innovation groups for sustainable land management, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, inter-municipal solutions and tools such as the Digital Public Services Atlas were developed to make service gaps visible. Case studies in the regions of Göttingen-Osterode, Hannover, and Cologne were used to test and further develop these approaches. The Institute for Technology and Innovation Management of the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH) provided a key contribution during this phase. This period was characterized by intense collaboration and a clear focus on regional requirements.
# 2019–2024
During this phase, the further development of the Public Services Atlas Niedersachsen (DVAN) was advanced by Technische Universität Dresden in cooperation with the State of Niedersachsen. The insights gained formed the basis for the modernization of the platform: user guidance and tools were optimized, and technology and system architecture were expanded.
# Since 2024
The Chair of Geoinformatics at Technische Universität Dresden has been working on the further development and prototype deployment of the Public Services Atlas (DVA) for nationwide use. The goal is to scale the previous results and experiences and make them accessible to a broader audience, particularly to planners.