URBANAGE was excited to participate in the DigitALL conference on the 22nd of April as just one of a handful of European projects working on Digital Twins. A separate session dedicated to “How Local Digital Twins can contribute to the Green deal/transition?” was hosted by the Living-in.eu team along with the Covenant of Mayors, with more than 130 participants.
Breakout discussions centered around the ‘green deal’ topic took place after a keynote speech from Matthew Baldwin, Director General and Mission Manager, DG Move. Mr Baldwin explained that the European Commission see Digital Twins as a promising avenue to explore. That the technology can help mayors take crucial decisions towards climate neutrality as well as support citizen participation. Following up the break-out sessions there were discussions with two distinguished guest speakers:
Dr. Emil Boc – Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Romania Member of the Committee of the Regions, former Prime Minister of Romania and
Ms. Laia Bonet – Deputy Mayor of Barcelona for the 2030 agenda, Digital Transition and International Relations
URBANAGE led one of the intimate break-out sessions, with project coordinator, Roberto di Bernardo from Engineering, and technical coordinator, Patricia Molina from Tecnalia. They shared URBANAGE’s Digital Twins aim to make urban planning inclusive and accessible to all for more age-friendly and greener cities. Opening discussions to the rest of the group, opportunities and challenges for local digital twins from across Europe were shared, chiefly by participants from the municipality of Amersfoort and the Association of Netherlands Municipalities during their work on Digital Twins.
Feedback from the breakout discussions have been sent to the Living-in.eu team. URBANAGE looks forward to seeing the results and sharing with the wider community soon. In the meantime, as a supporter of the Living-in.eu community, we encourage others to join the discussions group - https://www.living-in.eu/groups/solutions/urban-digital-twin .