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Workshop Report: Digital Twins of cities

This detailed event report from the session 'Digital twins for cities' aims to support and encourage further discussions related to Urban Digital Twins. The session presented the benefits of urban digital twins and heard the experience of EU cities where implementation is currently underway. Event held as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities, 13-15 October 2020.

Digital Twins of Cities, 15 October 2020

Event held as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities, 13-15 October 2020

The session presented the benefits of urban digital twins and heard the experience of EU cities where implementation is currently underway. The Commission introduced the concept of urban digital twins, for those unfamiliar with it, and highlighted its potential to help manage a city ecosystem, in particular mobility, energy, urban planning or citizen engagement. By modelling different scenarios, Urban Digital Twins will also allow cities to better manage extreme weather events, reduce pollution and improve urban planning. 

Representatives from Amsterdam (Brian de Vogel and Corentin Kuster, Geodan), Helsinki (Jarmo Suomisto, City of Helsinki), Flanders (Raf Buyle, Informatie Vlaanderen and Stefan Lefever, IMEC) and Rotterdam (Roland van der Heijen, City of Rotterdam) took part in a panel discussion on aspects of their experience of implementing Digital Twins in their cities. 

The discussion touched on how to refine the definition of urban digital twins and their maturity levels. They also considered what datasets are core for digital twins as well as how to handle personal data. While the engagement of various stakeholders is important, panelists agreed that cities themselves need to play a key role and need to understand their and governments’ role within the ecosystem, to ensure public value for their citizens. In view of the planned Digital Europe Programme funding to help cities implement digital twins, the session also highlighted re-usable tools that could facilitate replication. To discuss these topics further, join the Living-in.eu movement.

Urban digital twins

Urban digital twins are a virtual representation of a city's physical assets. They are connected to data related to those assets (real-time and historic), so that data analytics and machine learning can be used to help a city operate more efficiently, by creating simulations, models or carry out real-time monitoring. As cities have different needs and challenges, these digital twins may focus on extreme weather events, urban planning or crisis management.

More information

Recording of the event: https://euregionsweek2020-video.eu/video/digital-twins-for-cities

Downloadede filer

Digital twins - EWRC session report (.pdf)
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