TwinBy: Aschaffenburg becomes climate-proof with the help of a digital twin

What measures make sense when redesigning cities with regard to climate change? Aschaffenburg is now finding answers to this question with the help of its own digital twin. The “TwinBy – Digital Twins for Bavaria” project from the Bavarian State Ministry for Digital Affairs has given the city in Lower Franconia the opportunity to implement a climate dashboard. This enables citizens and administrative staff to view various environmental data in real time so that potential heat islands, for example, can be identified at an early stage. In this way, the city’s quality of life can be sustainably improved/maintained in the long term. On the way to becoming a smart city, Aschaffenburg is implementing its “Dialog City” digital strategy with the climate dashboard.

The city’s digital twin consists of the publicly accessible climate dashboard “Smart Data Dashboard” (SDD) and a map application based on a master portal, the AschaffenBürger GIS. The master portal was implemented by aconium GmbH in such a way that municipal data from different, decentrally stored or generated sources is integrated into the GIS. The SDD is based on the open data version of the Münster climate dashboard. Environmental data such as air quality, temperature, precipitation and soil moisture are visualized in real time. The data comes from sensors throughout the city and is transmitted using LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) technology. This technology is particularly suitable for this purpose as it can easily and securely transmit measured values and pulses from sensors with low energy requirements. As part of Aschaffenburg’s urban climate concept, the SDD can be used to monitor microclimatic data, for example to prevent heat islands in the city or to evaluate the effectiveness of climate adaptation measures.

Aschaffenburg’s citizens can use the digital twin to find out about the climatic conditions in their city. Administrative staff can use this information for their work and thus make informed decisions. The creation of the digital twin involved interdisciplinary and cross-departmental collaboration, so that the stakeholders involved from IT and digital strategy, urban planning, climate management and structural engineering and building management were able to contribute their expertise. It was important for the project managers and the city to involve citizens right from the start. They were given the opportunity in advance to use the ABstimme participation platform to help decide which data should be made available in the dashboard. Following the climate data, mobility, energy and building data are now being integrated into the SDD. In the future, data on parking space monitoring and pedestrian frequency will be added. With its digital twin, Aschaffenburg will be able to create a sustainable and liveable urban environment in the interests of its citizens.

Background of the project

With a total funding volume of around one million euros, 17 projects from 13 individual municipalities and four municipal associations were supported, according to the Bavarian State Ministry for Digital Affairs. The participating municipalities received consulting and coaching services from selected service providers for professional and technical implementation as well as funding of up to 50,000 euros for individual municipalities and up to 75,000 euros for cross-local projects. The Bavaria-wide project also promoted exchange between the municipalities so that the stakeholders can benefit from each other’s experiences. An accompanying training program ensures that work with and on the digital twins can continue after the end of the project.