Districts’ Post

Announcing the release of our global cities study: From Future Vision to Urban Reality In mid-2022, ThoughtLab conducted a groundbreaking study of 200 cities across the globe, focusing on how urban areas planned to adapt to rapidly changing trends—many of which were accelerated by the pandemic. Our findings revealed that while cities had developed ambitious, future-ready plans to become more sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and digitally enabled, there were still questions about how they would execute these strategies. Fast forward to 2024: We've expanded our research to 250 cities to gain deeper insights into how urban leaders are now putting their plans into action. Our follow-up study, conducted in Q2 2024, uncovers the practical steps cities are taking to operationalize their future visions. 📅 Mark your calendars for November 5th! That's when we'll be releasing the full study, packed with invaluable data and insights into how cities worldwide are navigating the future. #SmartCities #UrbanInnovation #Sustainability #CityResilience #FutureOfCities #ThoughtLeadership #DigitalTransformation Axis Communications Deloitte FTI Consulting General Motors Intel Corporation Itron, Inc. ServiceNow Wireside Communications®

🌆 Urban Serendipity: Engineering Unexpected Connections In a world of algorithmic precision, can we actually design randomness that sparks innovation? 🤔 Network Science Reveals: Cities Are Living, Breathing Connection Machines The Serendipity Challenge: • 75% of humanity will live in cities by 2040 • Technology is eliminating "random" interactions • We're losing the magic of unexpected encounters How Network Science Transforms Urban Design: • Mapping human connections • Creating intentional "friction points" • Designing for spontaneous collaboration Key Insights: • Cities aren't just geography—they're complex social networks • Serendipity can be strategically engineered • The best innovations happen in "Goldilocks zones" of connection Pro Tip: Great cities aren't built, they're grown—like complex, adaptive networks. Real-World Impact: • More meaningful interactions • Enhanced innovation potential • Smarter urban ecosystems Who's reimagining city design through the lens of human connection? Join Dr Orit Gal in Connected Data London 2024 and find out! https://lnkd.in/dkuX5uUN #UrbanInnovation #NetworkScience #CityPlanning #SocialDesign #TechTalk #CDL24

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to engage in a conversation with the city you live in? This possibility is becoming a reality in Munich, thanks to the city’s digital twin, combined with artificial intelligence and the innovative efforts of a local startup. By connecting real-time data with a detailed 3D city model, this system creates a more interactive and responsive relationship between the city and its citizens. As Markus Mohl, Head of the Competence Centre Digital Twin Munich, notes, “The most important part of the digital twin is communication.” By enabling better data sharing across city departments, the digital twin has the potential to streamline services and improve urban life for all. According to Markus Mohl, Head of the Competence Centre Digital Twin Munich, Munich’s digital twin is a living experiment, part of a larger vision to make the city’s data more accessible and its infrastructure more adaptive to future needs. With a focus on collaboration, innovation, and sustainability, this example could guide the way all cities interact with their residents. Discover more about how @Munich is pushing the boundaries of urban technology in this article. 👉https://lnkd.in/e-pX9RWc

📢 Just published in Cities (CABS 2; IF: 6.7) - "How do academic smart city centres operate in complex environments? A business model perspective" 🔗 You can download the article here: https://lnkd.in/gYkGKi3E 📚The number of academic centres dedicated to #SmartCityResearch has been growing, highlighting the increasing importance of and interest in this subject area worldwide. These centres are at the forefront of #SmartCityInnovation and are characterized by complex multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder settings. They blend technological experimentation with foundational research, driving progress in #UrbanInnovation. In our latest paper, Hadi Ghanbari, Ralf-Martin Soe, Kalle Toiskallio, and I examine several new smart city centres from a business model perspective, focusing on European and North American cases. Our study offers insights into how these centres operate, create value, and align their strategies with their operations to effectively serve different communities. A special thank you to all the representatives of the centres that participated in our study! #UnityLab #UrbanInnovation #SmartCities #Research #BusinessModels #AcademicResearch #UrbanStudies #Innovation #InnovationManagement #SustainableUrbanDevelopment Unity Lab / Urban Innovation Policy Lab, Edinburgh Napier University, TalTech – Tallinn University of Technology, FinEst Centre for Smart Cities

🎤 Submit your abstract to be a speaker at the Urban Digital Twins for a Sustainable Transformation of Cities 🎤    This is your opportunity to present your work and contribute to the growing dialogue on how urban digital twins can drive the transformation of cities towards sustainability and resilience at the Urban Digital Twins for a Sustainable Transformation of Cities conference, hosted by City Science Lab, taking place April 02 & 03, 2025 in Hamburg, Germany.   📅 Submission Deadline: 17 November 2024  💻 Format: Online  ✨ Why You Should Submit:  • Engage in discussions on urban transformation from social, technical, and ecological dimensions.  • Share your insights on Smart City Governance, Modelling, Simulation & AI, Citizen Engagement, and Transformative Research Methods.  • Present your digital twin artifact and explore its transformative potential alongside other practitioners and researchers.  • Contribute to a special issue publication (double-blind peer-reviewed) scheduled for late 2025.    🌟 Who Should Apply:  • Researchers and scientists working on urban digital twins, urban transformation, and related fields.  • Practitioners with real-world applications of digital twins looking to share their success stories and challenges.  To participate, submit an extended abstract (1,000 to 2,000 words) in English by 17 November 2024. All details on the submission process and conference tracks are available on our conference website.  Let’s shape the future of cities together 🚀!    🔗 Submit your abstract to: eva.stowasser@hcu-hamburg.de  🔗 Learn more about the conference: https://lnkd.in/e4gkZUeP #UrbanDigitalTwins #SustainableCities #CityScienceLab #SmartCityGovernance #CallForSpeakers #UrbanResilience #Sustainability #Transformation #DigitalTwins #UrbanInnovation #Hamburg

Check out the METACITIES recent publication titled 'Trends in Digital Twin Framework Architectures for Smart Cities: A Case Study in Smart Mobility' The main aim of this paper is to present an innovative approach to addressing the challenges of smart mobility exploiting digital twins within the METACITIES initiative. We have worked on this issue due to the increasing complexity of urban transportation systems, coupled with the urgent need to improve efficiency, safety, and sustainability in cities. The work presented in this paper is part of the project METACITIES, an Excellence Hub that spans a large geographical area, that of Southeastern Europe. The approach of the Greek innovation ecosystem of METACITIES involves leveraging digital twin technology to create intelligent replicas of urban mobility environments, enabling real-time monitoring, analysis, and decision making. Through use cases such as “Smart Parking”, “Environmental Behavior Analysis on Traffic Incidents”, and “Emergency Management”, we demonstrate how digital twins can optimize traffic flow, mitigate environmental impact, and enhance emergency response; these use cases will be tested on a small scale, before deciding on implementation at a larger and more expensive scale. The final outcome is the METACITIES Architecture for smart mobility, which will be part of an Open Digital Twin Framework capable of evolving a smart city into a metacity. https://lnkd.in/dUP_XcWh  #digitaltwin #smartmobility #smartcities #metacities #smartparking #urbanmobility

💫 Future-Proof Cities: The Revolution of Data 🏙️💭 Visualise a world where cities evolve thanks to the power of data, enriching the lives of its inhabitants 💫 Morrisville stands at the forefront, demonstrating the might of smart city projects and the data-driven economy 🚀 Not only are startups generating jobs, but they're also sparking innovation 🌳 Working together is essential - remarkable things occur when governments, businesses, scholarly institutions and local communities join forces ✨ It's time we reshape IT roles to stimulate smart city development across the state 🍃 Make sure you're at the Smart Cities Connect Conference in Raleigh - where tomorrow is today! 🌍 #SmartCities #DataInspired #Innovation #Teamwork #FutureProof #SmartCityRevolution #DataDrivenEconomy #UrbanInnovation #Morrisville #TechInnovation #JobCreation #CommunityCollaboration #SustainableDevelopment #SmartCitiesConnect #FutureOfIT #RaleighConference #TomorrowIsToday

Newly online paper from Smart Cities. Welcome to read and download freely: Business Models Used in Smart Cities—Theoretical Approach with Examples of Smart Cities

A few months old, but still worth sharing - hopefully: "No Longer Hype, Not Yet Mainstream? Recalibrating City Digital Twins' Expectations and Reality: A Case Study Perspective" In this open access article published in Frontiers in Big Data, I have reviewed existing literature on the (somewhat overinflated) expectations about what city digital twins can and should do (as well as how and for whom), and compared these with a qualitative exploration of three case studies in Europe (Dublin, Helsinki, Rotterdam). The analysis showed that while the concept of digital twin has made it into European municipalities' agendas (especially of big cities) as a revamp of the smart city idea, its concrete implementation is still in its infancy, concerning both its proper development as a fully integrated bi-directional (physical-digital) and real-time city modelling, as well as the broader governance enabling the digital twinning of the urban environment as an orchestrated sociotechnical process for the city/zens. On a closing note: these findings—for once—might not be bad news, insofar as a slower path might favour and signal the need for a cognizant integration of technical and non-technical factors in the development, implementation, and use of city digital twins. Article accessible here: https://lnkd.in/daFg2fXH Feel free to share

At the World Cities Summit’s Smart City plenary session, Men Leong Chew, President of ST Engineering Urban Solutions, joined fruitful discussions with urban leaders and industry experts on the key challenges and priorities for creating human-centric smart cities. Key highlights of his sharing 🔸Smart city technologies need to scale up for viable city-wide applications. 🔸Solutions must be integrative to enable synergies across various vertical applications. 🔸Every vertical application needs to prioritise the citizen to yield tangible and measurable benefits. 🔸Digital enterprise platforms are crucial for optimising energy and water efficiency to achieve net-zero outcomes. 🔸Seamless multi-modal transport systems are essential for affordable, connected and sustainable transportation. To bring all these into reality, collaboration and partnership between government agencies and industry strategic partners is necessary to ensure technologies are harnessed to improve quality of life for citizens. ➡️ More on ST Engineering's Smart City solutions: stengg.com/smart-city #SmartCities #sustainability #urbanplanning #mobility #transportation #smartbuildings #netzero #technology #SmartCity