Municipal district heating is an uprising topic for municipalities in Germany and Europe. I want to give you a quick crash course on how we plan to tackle this challenge using Digital Urban Twins. After this brief initial impulse talk, I’m looking forward to discussing the topic and the role of Urban Digital Twins with you.

Some questions I’d like to discuss:

- What are the most critical requirements and challenges to municipal heat planning for municipalities?

- Data: What information resources on city and building energy systems are available, and how can we possibly integrate them?

- Of course, all of your other questions!

What I can share:

- Building Life Cycle Assessment using 3D City Models

* Building energy demand, heating load, dimensioning of technical building installation on city scale

* Life cycle analysis for energy, emissions, and costs

- Solar potential analysis using 3D City Models

We as humans perceive almost 80% of our environment through our eyes. We think, dream, and speak in pictures. Whether it's photos on social media or short instruction videos on the web, we prefer simple, visually appealing content over long and complex texts in books or articles. Visual representation has become the most basic form of communication. Technological innovations continue to drive and accelerate this process. Parallel realities can be created through augmented (AR), virtual (VR), or mixed reality (MR). By using these technologies, we can communicate more effectively and turn information in an immersive experience.

With the help of 3D city models, detailed visualizations of the urban environment are possible. In addition to the current situation, we can present simulation results, urban planning concepts and what-if scenarios. In this Barcamp session, we want to discuss existing and potential use cases of Urban Digital Twins with VR, AR and MR technology. What are possibilities, benefits, and potential dangers?

How can we utilize Urban Digital Twins to make it easier for severely disabled citizens to live in the city and get around more easily? Accessibility (e.g. language) and urban development with heart!

New foundational AI models, advances in 3D Computer Vision as well as compute enable near real-time creation of accurate 3D digital twins. Combining large language models with such data unlocks unprecedented insights through intuitive and automated analysis of complex data with an UI leveraging natural language.

We will present a short demo of these combined technologies and discuss what drives value in twin initiatives as well as which are the most relevant use cases.

In this session we will explore the deployment of Urban Digital Twins, from the point of view of Urban Planning.

We would like to propose a simple 2-step exercise. In the first step which we will classify a variety of city "domains" (material, water, mobility, etc.). Then, in the second step, we will classify different city domains by assigning them different levels of maturity (virtual, connected, predictive and perspective).

This simple exercise can help urban planners to identify and prioritise efforts according to the needs of the city.

The session will also serve to showcase what Barcelona and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center are working on in relation to Urban Digital Twins.

What kind of Innovation and Research is most needed at the moment to advance urban (energy) digital twins?

Which solutions can be repurposed ?

How do you see replicability?

Are there already clusters (forming?)

Which facets can be best approached from a European (replication) perspective ?

What are specific EU R funding needs?

Digital evolution is still ongoing with a rapid paste. While currently cities begin to introduce and use the Urban Digital Twin new topics like City Information Modelling and Citiverse are already under discussion in various discussion groups or standardisation. What do you think if you hear citiverse and how does it fit to the needs of a city? Or - is it just another buzzword and the Urban Digital Twin is all we need?

A city is a complex system that involves many actors with different interests and information about the city's physical objects. Integrating information from distributed sources is therefore a common challenge in many smart city projects as well as in projects establishing Urban Digital Twins (UDT). In the context of distributed data infrastructures, metadata catalog systems make a significant contribution to data integration. However, neither existing catalogs for urban data management nor catalogs used in spatial data infrastructures (GDI) are tailored to manage UDTs.

We would like to discuss what kind of solutions you are using in your organization for (meta)data management. What is crucial to successfully manage resources for Urban Digital Twins? How to motivate stakeholders to participate in distributed (meta)data management?

Join us if you are ready to share your thoughts or hear experiences from experts all over the world on the topic of (meta)data management in smart cities. The BarCamp will be built on Thoams H. Kolbe's presentation on "Key Elements of Urban Digital Twins". The metadata catalog system will be demonstrated based on a UDT example Use Case followed by an interactive discussion.

We discuss the characteristics of a good strategy and how to apply these to a digital city strategy. In addition, we will examine the principles applicable in practical project work. The goal is also to openly share experiences from failed projects and learn from them. The reference target of the session are applied guidelines and experiences in Helsinki 3D+ work.

We take you into the world of Netherlands 3D! The FAIR Digital Twin for everyone. https://3d.utrecht.nl/?project=Munchen is created with open code technology and we are working to introduce the whole of the Netherlands (and preferably Europe ;)) to this game oriented platform.

In this BarCamp session, we will take a deep dive into the key question of one of the latest Horizon Europe projects “ASCEND”: clarifying the concept of digital ecosystems supporting positive clean energy districts. What are the differences for both the digital twin and a digital ecosystem in a positive clean energy district opposed to a conventional city district?

Our session aims at uncovering the key elements that constitute these digital environments. What are critical components advancing sustainability, resilience, and innovation in urban development? By the end of our discussion, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of how technology is used to shape the future of our cities and to enable citizens to live in inclusive, resilient, and smart communities.

Join us in this interactive session where we'll encourage open dialogue, knowledge transfer, and brainstorming ideas for a more sustainable and technologically advanced future to tackle the challenges of climate change. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, urban planner, or clean energy advocate, this session offers valuable insights into the exciting intersection of urban digital twins, digital ecosystems, and positive clean energy districts.

Urban digital twins are digital representations of the physical built environment that bring together many adjacent but distinct professional domains by creating relationships and streamlining workflows. Beyond the buzzword, urban digital twins, have practical application for asset management, design and engineering, spatial planning, and facility operations. This session will provide a fundamental overview of 3D data management, visualization, analysis capabilities, and practical advice for implementing your own digital twin. Remember to bring your laptop and follow along with the live demonstration.

Envision geospatial information, IoT sensor insights, and social interactions teaming up to create digital replicas that turn urban landscapes into vibrant living entities. Yet, here's our narrative's twist: we aren’t merely echoing that 'sensor data is crucial.' We're embarking on an investigative journey. Brace yourself to venture into real-world scenarios, using your own knowledge and examples, to uncover which data streams truly stand out in our regular encounters with digital twins.

We would like to discuss together with you whether or not seeing digital twins simply as 3D models is an oversight?, Why do some consider sensor data as the lifeblood of the digital twin ecosystem?, etc.

So, if you're ready to challenge your own understanding and explore the depths of data's role in urban innovation, join us, in the CUT project for a session that's bound to spark lively conversations and new insights.