CITWIN

In the first week of September I attended the annual meeting of the Cycling Research Board #CRBAM for the third year in a row, this time hosted by ETH Zürich. Different from your standard academic conference, it is always a pleasure to be here. Meeting a lot of new people, but meanwhile also many familiar faces. I presented a poster on the usage of "urban digital twins" in human-centric planning practices for more livable, sustainable cities. When we move beyond the hype, start to be realistic about its potential and its shortcomings, and see human involvement in all stages of the feedback loop as an asset rather than a nuisance, can we turn this technology into a useful tool to assist urban planners and foster participatory planning? The most given answer to this question was: yes, but please don't call them "digital twins" (except for when it is needed to get your funding). Happy to receive the best poster award at the end! We keep working on this topics at Z_GIS - Department of Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg within the CITWIN project. Thanks again everyone involved, especially the Urban Cycling Institute and the local organizers, and I hope to be there again next year in Amsterdam. (Photo by Matthew Bruno, if I remember well)

Driving Urban Transition. A new publication “Mapping of 15-minute City Practices": By collecting case studies and examples from 100 cities, the report provides insights into international practical definitions, strategies, and experiences of implementation - A lire la nouvelle publication du programme européen de recherche "Driving Urban Transition" avec la carte des bonnes pratiques concernant la ville du 1/4 d'heure. "Mapping of 15-Minute City" présente 100 villes avec des analyses des stratégies, expériences & pratiques. A lire - Impulsar la transición urbana. Una nueva publicación "Mapping of 15-minute City Practices": Mediante la recopilación de estudios de casos y ejemplos de 100 ciudades, el informe ofrece una visión de las definiciones prácticas, estrategias y experiencias internacionales de aplicación - Poke Chaire ETI - IAE Paris Sorbonne School Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne École urbaine de Sciences Po Tommaso Vitale Jean-Marc Offner https://lnkd.in/eu3pPuKG

Doctoral researcher Lucas van der Meer from Z_GIS - Department of Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg presented the CITWIN project last week at the #mobilTUM2024 in Munich. This is a conference organized by the Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning at the Technical University of Munich (TUM openLAB Urban Mobility), focusing on the future of mobility and urban space. Special attention was paid to the concept of the 15-minute city, and its implementation in practice. Lucas talked about the potential and challenges of urban digital twin technology in the context of 15-minute cities. Can urban digital twins be more than just a hype? Can they be of practical use in the planning process of human-centred cities when we are aware of their limitations, and honest about them in our interpretation and communication? What questions can we actually ask them? And where do humans fit in? These are all questions that we aim to address within the project, moving towards a socio-technical perspective on urban digital twins with explicit human involvement in all phases of the feedback loop. Interested in the project? Follow this page on LinkedIn and reach out to us if you have comments, questions, ideas, or more. A big thank you to the organizing team at TU Munich for creating such an interesting and enjoyable event!

Project representatives joined the official DUT kickoff today in Brussels. Richa Maheshwari, PhD, Goran Lepen