Urban planning is something for people with an overview. But even the best people with an overview are limited by the complexity of the 'cosmos of the city'. How do urban planners maintain this overview, and how do they succeed in planning sustainable spaces in growing metropolitan areas?
What if, instead of trial and error
City governments have a responsibility to provide services of general interest, and this is not getting easier in an environment of climate change, global economic crises, and major social upheaval. Clearly, 2D plans have had their day for this mammoth task. Three-dimensional planning tools are standard in the world of designers of urban living realities. But the question remains: How do planners manage to design livable cities? What tools do designers have for the city of tomorrow in order to create the best possible, livable, sustainable environment for people? Trial and error, which is still the norm in German city administrations today, is to become a thing of the past with what-if scenarios in digital twins.
Three cities develop the toolkit for all
Dr. Nora Reinecke, project manager of the smart city model project "Connected Urban Twins" (www.connectedurbantwins.de) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction, explains in the first INTERGEO TALK 2023 how this can work. Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich are working together on a modular system that will give other cities the tools they need to take their future into their own hands when the project ends in 2025. For this purpose, a modular system of analysis, simulation and visualization tools is being developed and made available to decision-makers, citizens and the urban community as open source solutions for upcoming planning tasks.
Watch the video-interview with Dr. Nora Reinecke to see how the cities of the future can take shape with Connected Urban Twins without wasting resources in trial and error.
8.42 Virtual Reality Environments
9:30 3D-Project Planner
10.20 Storytelling with data
12.24 The tool-kit system
13.12 Projects in Leipzig, Munich and Hamburg