Agreement with Bologna to develop urban digital twins
Barcelona and Bologna have signed an agreement with two of the three most powerful supercomputers in Europe, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) and the CINECA Consortium of Universities, along with the University of Bologna, to develop an evidence-based public policy model through the construction of urban digital twins. The goal is to improve public policies in both cities. The collaboration agreement is for three years, with the possibility of extending it for a further three.
Digital twins are based on modelling urban dynamics through big data. In the case of a city, the digital twin helps forecast the impact of public policies before they are applied, offering a fundamental tool for moving public institutions towards evidence-based decision-making models.
The intention of Barcelona and Bologna is to become leaders in the sphere of digital urban governance and drive the development of a European digital infrastructure for urban policies, promoting a European network of digital twins. This will also help in the search for external funding opportunities for digital twins through European programmes.
Specifically, the two cities share the goal of moving towards evidence-based decision-making in public policies and impact assessment, particularly in urban mobility, energy, urban planning and policies to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.
The process will look at how digital twins contribute to the goal set out in the mission “Climate-neutral and smart cities”. Both cities have made a commitment to work together to maximise the reduction in the energy consumption of the infrastructures needed, and to use renewable energy sources for the implementation and operation of the digital twin.
The creation of this joint working platform offers an opportunity to exchange important science and technology advances between the BSC and the CINECA, and to work together in on the standardisation of data to guarantee European interoperability.
