Transformative Research in Digital Twins for Integrated Urban Development

Abstract

Integrated urban development can serve as a cross-sectoral planning concept to manage processes of transformation in urban systems towards sustainability and resilience. At the same time, urban digital twins are being implemented with increasing frequency in urban planning. They can be used to foster such transformations and to make improvements that are more adequate regarding the complexity of urban systems than mere efficiency boost. In this article, the authors discuss how they try to support such change by applying transformative research methods, such as conducting real-world experiments based on prototyping and testing digital tools. The article illustrates how they use the development of urban digital twins in Hamburg, Germany as a field of intervention with the aim of achieving broader usage by and representation of marginalised groups that are typically overlooked in such technology and in urban planning itself.