Three excellent speakers from our member cities shared first-hand experiences on their digital twin initiatives. Their presentations were followed by an entertaining panel discussion, which explored their value as well as different approaches to how cities can get such initiatives off the ground Overall, representatives from 20 cities and local authorities participated in the round table discussion, highlighting the topic’s timelines and broader interest throughout our network.
First out of the block was Christophe Colinet from Bordeaux Metropole (FR), who shared insights from their STACOPTIM initiative, a nationally funded demonstrator project under the French Frugal AI Demonstrators for Ecological Transition initiative. Over three years, the pilot wants to renovate more than 50 public buildings and social housing residences. A digital twin of the buildings is used alongside AI algorithms to optimise energy renovation choices, with the goal of substantial energy savings and reduced carbon footprint. The pilot methodology will likely be scaled to all 22 French metropolitan areas if proven successful.
Roland van der Heijden from the City of Rotterdam (NL) shared a valuable lesson from his innovation journey on the Digital Cities programme, which has an all-encompassing Digital City twin in its core. Rotterdam’s Digital Twin is a smart 3D model of the city that, combined with real-time data, delivers a common and shareable view of the city’s current physical reality. The digital twin of Rotterdam empowers new smart city applications and services as part of its open urban platform and forms the foundation of a future CitiVerse Rotterdam is creating.
Our third presenter was Kim Lantto from the City of Gothenburg (SE). Their Digital Twin journey started by augmenting an existing GIS system and stimulating engagement among co-workers to add new layers and use it for their decision-making. Successful applications of the digital twin included assessment of flooding risks for urban planning and flood defences and citizen online services for digital inclusion. Goteverse represents their next attempt to use this digital twin to improve urban planning and create virtual experiences for citizens.
The following panel discussion explored valuable lessons learned by all parties, key challenges they faced, how to overcome them and what pitfalls to avoid when building a local digital twin. The discussion also highlighted fundamentally different approaches the cities took on their journey. For example, while Bordeaux focused their digital twin on a narrow application of building renovation, Rotterdam took a holistic approach to creating a digital twin for the entire city from the outset. While Rotterdam’s vision for the Digital Twin is expansive, it nevertheless requires small steps on the ground to make it a reality. The discussions concluded that no matter what approach a city takes, it is essential for cities to start experimenting with these technologies.
If you are a member of our OASC network and interested in learning more about the event, you can request access to the presentation slides and video recording by reaching out to: contact@oascities.org.
Our next OASC knowledge exchange event will focus on “Open Data Value Creation.” If you are a city in our network or are considering joining us, you are more than welcome to register for our upcoming event here.