IoT trends 2026 in municipalities

More and more cities and municipalities are relying on intelligent networking to efficiently manage their infrastructure, prevent damage, reduce costs, increase security and transparency, and protect the environment

Schimberg and Berlin, 11 December 2025 – Intelligent networking, control and optimisation of infrastructure offers great potential for municipalities. With the help of their own IoT network, authorities, companies and citizens have a wide range of possible applications at their disposal: from soil moisture measurement to protect young trees, to data protection-compliant camera-based traffic management and the prevention of water and fire damage in buildings, to extensive networks for the scalable control of entire federal states. This reduces costs, saves resources, increases security, resilience and transparency – and enables climate protection to be implemented even in times of tight budgets.

Against this backdrop, the experts at IoT company Alpha-Omega Technology see three key areas of focus for 2026:

1. Data-based municipal maintenance for a resilient infrastructure and environment

2. Intelligent development of urban infrastructure

3. Efficient building management to prevent damage and increase safety

A cross-cutting trend is the increasing use of sensor-based measurements as an early warning system, both indoors and outdoors.

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IoT trends 2026 in municipalities

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Trend 1: Data-driven municipal maintenance for resilient infrastructure and environment

IoT applications for efficiency, protection and cost reduction are becoming increasingly popular with parks and public works departments, municipal utilities and local authorities. They support local authorities in the intelligent management of their resources and infrastructure. One example is the measurement of soil moisture using LoRaWAN sensors. This is already being used in many places, for example to protect green spaces and investments such as young trees. The ‘Trees Plus Act’ passed by the Berlin House of Representatives in November 2025 is Germany's first climate adaptation law. It aims to make Berlin more resistant to heat and heavy rainfall and will involve significant investment in tree planting. Jan Bose, managing director at Alpha-Omega Technology, reports noticeable demand in this area: "Monitoring soil moisture has a monetary background. If a newly planted tree dries out, for example, it can cost up to €6,000 to replace it with a new sapling. Many cities are already very active in monitoring soil moisture, such as Heidelberg or Pforzheim.“

In times of increasing extreme weather events, monitoring road temperatures is becoming increasingly important for protecting infrastructure. If the asphalt threatens to heat up to over 50 degrees in summer, the local authority can take appropriate measures in good time and prevent expensive damage caused by the summer heat. In winter, monitoring ensures reliable winter road maintenance. With a LoRaWAN network that transmits measurements over long distances, such monitoring can be used on a large scale. This application is already in use in several districts. Local authorities avoid expensive claims for damages and compensation for pain and suffering as a result of accidents caused by inadequate clearing and gritting.

To reduce energy costs, more and more cities and municipalities are turning to smart street lighting. They determine and control the brightness of the lights as needed based on the time of day or traffic. In times of rising energy prices and environmental protection requirements, this application has great potential for savings. Jan Bose emphasises: ‘The benefits here are measurable and immediately visible, while the barriers to entry are low. This is because the LoRaWAN modules that send the measured values to the municipal IoT platform can be installed in the existing masts with little effort.’ The whole thing can be implemented in practice, for example, with the ‘street lighting’ IoT solution developed by Alpha-Omega Technology itself. Actuators with IoT networking based on LoRaWAN radio technology are used. A mobile app offers map overviews and control options, among other things.

Infrastruktur in Zeiten von Extremwetterereignissen

Trend 1: Protecting infrastructure is becoming increasingly important in times of more frequent extreme weather events. More and more local authorities are using IoT solutions to monitor the condition of roads, for example (graphic: Alpha-Omega Technology).

Trend 2: Intelligent development of urban infrastructure

The trend is towards holistic urban intelligence through active control, optimisation and data-based decision-making. The stakeholders involved in local authorities are transport and urban planners, political decision-makers and mobility offices. Applications that are already becoming established in practice include camera-based traffic management and the monitoring of energy and water consumption in public buildings.

Intelligent traffic management can be implemented in compliance with the GDPR using solutions such as the Iotraffic traffic monitoring system from Iotec GmbH. The measuring system records how many road users pass through a specific area around the clock. A camera recognises different categories, such as cars or pedestrians. Iotraffic sends the data at regular intervals via LoRaWAN or NB-IoT to a central data platform, where it is evaluated and visualised. While the Iotraffic Count system counts, the Iotraffic Flow system goes one step further: it makes traffic flows visible by anonymously recording car and truck movements. Such systems provide insights into where commuter flows come from and help to distinguish them from local traffic.

The example of the city of Hagen shows how the measurements recorded by sensor-based IoT solutions can enable data-based decisions and increase transparency for citizens. Here, a smart city dashboard has been freely accessible via the internet since February 2025. Current real-time data on weather, the environment and mobility can be viewed. This includes emissions, road and car park utilisation, water levels and the energy consumption of public buildings and industry. The visualised data is publicly available. The city of Hagen also makes the raw data available via open interfaces for its own applications.

There is a state-wide, open digital data platform in Schleswig-Holstein. In 2024, the state government established a comprehensive LoRaWAN infrastructure with over 420 gateways. Since May 2025, users have had access to their own platform, the ‘IoT-Hub SH’, which allows them to use wireless technology digitally, independently, securely and with open standards. The project is being implemented in collaboration with partners nodes.sh and Dataport as well as Stadtwerke Lübeck. The new platform is intended to enable research institutions, public authorities, companies and private users to easily integrate their own sensors, use existing data and develop AI-supported applications.

Trend 2: Visualisation of data collected by the Iotraffic camera (graphic: Alpha-Omega Technology).

Trend 3: Efficient building management for damage prevention and increased safety

IoT applications offer enormous potential for savings and damage prevention in buildings through intelligent risk management. Public properties such as schools, sports facilities, administrative buildings and cultural venues represent a major cost factor for local authorities. Not only do they consume energy, heat and water, they also require investment in maintenance and repairs. The current situation is particularly problematic: most of these buildings are virtually unsecured in critical areas such as water damage detection, fire protection and energy management. Yet security could be significantly improved through the targeted use of IoT technologies – even if 100% security is, by its very nature, impossible to achieve.

Typical applications include leak monitoring to prevent water damage, IoT smoke detectors including alarm processes, energy, heat and water transparency, and the optimisation of personnel deployment. Jan Bose explains: "The need for repairs will increase significantly. This is because the building stock in Germany is getting older and older. One example: in the eastern German states, the PE pipes installed in the 1990s during the renovation phase following reunification are gradually becoming porous. In addition, large new construction projects in recent years have been under considerable cost pressure – often, the cheaper solution was implemented at the expense of quality. This is now becoming apparent in the form of damage, such as leaks."

For these reasons, IoT solutions for measuring consumption flows are increasingly in demand. This is because they are an easy-to-implement way of recording current flow rates when measuring water consumption, for example. If the measured values show an unusually high flow rate in an administrative building after office hours or in a gym during the holiday season, for example, it is very likely that water is leaking. In this case, integrated alarm systems can notify the responsible authority via an app. This allows appropriate measures to be taken quickly and major damage to be avoided. In addition to water, fire causes expensive damage to buildings. Intelligent smoke detectors can be integrated into an existing LoRaWAN IoT and associated alarm systems with little effort.

However, as Jan Bose knows, the typical German tendency to think in terms of 100 per cent often stands in the way of a decision in favour of low-cost fire protection via the building's own IoT: "A fire protection system, for example, costs between €40,000 and €50,000. That's money that many local authorities don't have. With LoRaWAN smoke detectors, a fire protection solution could be implemented for around £850. This option is often dismissed with the argument that LoRaWAN is not 100 per cent reliable. LoRaWAN is not a fire protection system that offers 100 per cent safety, that's true. But it offers 95 per cent protection for a fraction of the cost. The question is: will the local authority end up with no protection at all or 95 per cent protection for £1,000 because of its tight financial situation? In my view, there needs to be an urgent change in the way decision-makers think about this."

Intelligent radiator thermostats can also deliver significant savings in unoccupied public buildings, schools and offices. This is because every hour that the heating continues to run at weekends or overnight, the room is being heated unnecessarily. Data-based control of heating operations is therefore a key lever for cost savings – without the need for extensive technical modifications. Manufacturers now also offer radiator thermostats that no longer allow manual adjustment of the heating temperature. These devices are particularly useful for public buildings. Jan Bose says: ‘The investment in radiator thermostats pays for itself within one to two heating periods. This means that from that moment on, not only energy but also money is saved.’

Efficient building management using an IoT network in public buildings such as this nursery can help to reduce heating costs, among other things (photo: Robert Bogs, Alpha-Omega Technology).