2023 Prato – Digital Twins for the sustainability of cities: the “Urban Intelligence” strategic project

2023 Prato – Digital Twins for the sustainability of cities: the “Urban Intelligence” strategic project

This presentation focuses on the strategic project “Urban Intelligence” (UI) carried out by the DIITET-CNR (Engineering, ICT and Technologies for Energy and Transportation Department – National Research Council of Italy), which is aimed at developing an ecosystem of integrated digital technologies joined within Urban Digital Twins (UDT) that can effectively support urban governance in achieving the sustainability objectives defined by international policy documents (e.g. the UN 2030 Agenda, the UN-Habitat Urban Agenda, the EU Urban Agenda, the EU Green Deal). To this aim, UI supports a multi-level urban innovation path pursuing the following objectives:

• enhancing a multi-disciplinary knowledge framework of the city;
• developing integrated approaches and policies for urban sustainability;
• monitoring advances, impacts and results of decisions;
• coordinating technological innovations with governance innovations;
• strengthening civic inclusion and participation.

The UDT for UI is configured as a ‘system of systems’, in which the different urban (sub)systems (e.g. mobility, environmental and air quality, built stock, cultural heritage, social realm) are modeled through Thematic Twins (TTs) characterized by specific data, simulators and services. The individual TTs are integrated within a higher-order Decision Support System (DSS) conceived for supporting multi-actor and multi-sector governance processes. Thanks to dedicated user interfaces, the DSS allows for both simple queries addressing each TTs, as well as for complex and multi-disciplinary queries based on a variety of possible analysis and optimization techniques (e.g. ML/DL, MDA/MDO, MCA/MCO). The UDT architecture is completed by data sources (e.g. sensor networks) natively complying with IoT and 5G, by a data lake based on distributed file systems and No Structured Query Language databases (NoSQL), and by a 3D model of the city based on the CityGML standard. All these modules exchange data with each other using shared service interfaces (e.g. API).

The result is an UDT which is integrated, as it enables interdependent analyses of the different urban (sub)system as well as the development and comparison of complex urban scenarios; it is connected and evolving with the city; it is modular and flexible, as it can be applied to limited parts or (sub)layers of the city, allowing for an initial, cost-effective UDT activation and for successive extensions based on local needs; it goes human, as it includes digital services aimed at boosting and systematizing citizens and stakeholders engagement. CNR is applying the UI paradigm in two Italian pilot cities, Matera and Catania, where two UDT projects are currently under development.