A Participatory Planning Framework using Urban Digital Twins Supporting the Co-Creation of Flexible, Positive Energy Districts

Gebetsroither-Geringer, Ernst and Padsala, Rushikesh and Hainoun, Ali and Agugiaro, Giorgio and Biernat, Stanislaw and Reber, Amando and Smetschka, Barbara and Gao, Weixiao and Horak, Daniel and Falay, Basak and Coors, Volker (2025) A Participatory Planning Framework using Urban Digital Twins Supporting the Co-Creation of Flexible, Positive Energy Districts. URBAN INNOVATION: TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO CITIES HAVE GONE BEFORE. Medium sized cities and towns as a major arena of global urbanisation. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2025, 30th Intl. Conference on Urban Development, Regional Planning and Information Society. pp. 65-76. ISSN 2521-3938

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Abstract

The urban socio-ecological transformation requires pathways for an urban energy transition, including the establishment of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs). Technical solutions and simulation tools for urban energy systems are needed for the planning, management and implementation of PEDs. In addition, the involvement of all societal stakeholders is needed to achieve the EU's ambitious target of 100 PEDs by 2025. To this end, innovative research, information and communication strategies must be developed.The transnational funded research project DigiTwins4PEDs focuses on developing an Urban Digital Twin as a dynamic digital representation of urban energy systems using advanced modelling tools. The framework facilitates the integrated energy demand-supply analysis at district scale. It enables the construction and analysis of future development scenarios to simulate the performance of PEDs.It supportsinformed decision-making by citizens and urban administration for a sustainable urban energy transition. The transnational project applies innovative methods and develops implementation strategies supported by a participatory process involving key stakeholders and citizens in co-design, co-creation and co-learning stages of research. Through the framework of living labs in four different case studies, citizens are continuously engaged throughout the project so that citizen-driven actions towards Positive Energy Districts can be considered and implemented more efficiently. New tools and methods are developed and adapted using Urban Digital Twins based on the CityGML data format to enhance public participation in advancing clean energy transition. These toolsenable citizens to actively engage in shaping the future energy transition of their communities and thus supporting informed decision-making.The developed and implemented urban digital twin framework is tested in different urban case study areas (Vienna, Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Wroclaw)within an innovative public participatory process to address the multifaceted aspects crucial for establishing PEDs together with the citizens. This paper discusses the concept and first prototype of the developedparticipatory planning framework, a shared urban data and modelling scheme,utilizing a digital twin, as well as itsimplementation.It will show how the developed frameworkenables the simulation of urban energy systems with integrated local socio-economic and demographic parameters to identify and visualise current and future energy demand, renewable potential and different energy flexibility strategies in a district. It will discuss how the developed framework can be integrated/combined with other citizens’ engagement tools, focussing on the ones used in the case study sites. Furthermore, we draw conclusions on how this framework can be used to support co-design, co-creation and co-learning of community-driven solutions for energy transformation.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Citizens Participation, Modelling and Simulation, Urban planning, Positive Energy Districts, Digital Twin
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZA Information resources > ZA4450 Databases
Depositing User:	REAL CORP Administrator
Date Deposited:	20 May 2025 09:22
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2025 09:32
URI:	http://repository.corp.at/id/eprint/1191

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