Local Digital Twins Related Initiatives

Local Digital Twins (LDTs) are virtual replicas of physical assets, infrastructures, or urban systems, enabling simulation, monitoring, and scenario testing.
They directly support pilots by providing frameworks, tools, and standards needed for interoperable and scalable implementations.

EU LDT Toolbox – European Local Digital Twins Toolbox

Short Description:
As part of the EU strategy for digital transformation and smart cities, the EU LDT Toolbox is a comprehensive initiative designed to support the development, deployment, and scaling of Local Digital Twins (LDTs) across Europe. It provides tools, frameworks, best practices, and governance models to help cities, municipalities, and stakeholders adopt LDTs in a standardized, interoperable, and compliant manner.

The toolbox aligns with EU policies (e.g., Digital Decade 2030, Data Governance Act, AI Act) and supports cross-sector collaboration (mobility, energy, environment, urban planning), ensuring scalability, sustainability, and compliance with European regulations. It serves as a one-stop resource for public administrations, businesses, researchers, and citizens—offering guidelines, use cases, and technical resources to accelerate the adoption of LDTs in alignment with EU data spaces (e.g., Gaia-X, FIWARE, NGSI-LD).

Key role in the LDT Ecosystem:
The EU LDT Toolbox serves as a central reference framework for the safe, ethical, and interoperable deployment of LDTs in European cities and communities. It acts as a bridge between innovation and real-world deployment, ensuring that LDTs are compliant, scalable, and aligned with EU standards and policies.

Within the ecosystem, the EU LDT Toolbox plays a critical role by:
- Providing a standardized framework for LDT development and deployment.
- Ensuring interoperability with EU data spaces (Gaia-X, FIWARE, NGSI-LD).
- Supporting cities and municipalities with best practices, governance models, and compliance guidelines.
- Facilitating cross-sector collaboration with tools for mobility, energy, environment, and urban planning.
- Ensuring alignment with EU regulations (Data Governance Act, AI Act, GDPR), reducing risks for LDT projects.

Relevance to LDT4SSC:
The initiative contributes directly to LDT4SSC by:
- Catalogue of LDT Tools and Services: Offering resources for data integration, AI modelling, and visualization.
- Best Practices and Governance Models: Providing guidelines and governance frameworks in line with EU rules.
- Supporting Real-World LDT Pilots: Providing facilities for testing, validation, and scaling LDT pilots in realistic urban settings.
- Integration with EU Data Spaces: Facilitating interoperability with Gaia-X, FIWARE, NGSI-LD for scalable and replicable deployments.

Key Assets and Resources:
[EU LDT Toolbox Resources]

Webpage / Reference Link:
https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/ldttoolbox

Main contact point:
- contact@ldt-toolbox.eu

DUET – Digital Urban European Twins

Short Description:
DUET (Digital Urban European Twins) is a European innovation initiative that leverages cloud technology, sensor data, and advanced analytics to create virtual city replicas. These Digital Twins enable cities and regions to better understand the complex interactions between urban factors such as traffic, air quality, and noise. By simulating and visualizing different scenarios, DUET empowers policymakers to make more evidence-based operational decisions and long-term policy choices, ensuring that public sector decision-making is more democratic, effective, and future-proof.

DUET is developed and tested in Flanders (Belgium), Pilsen (Czechia), and Athens (Greece)—three pilots representing different levels of digital maturity. The project demonstrates how digital twins can be adapted to diverse city contexts and scaled across Europe, providing Policy-Ready Data as a Service (PRDaaS) to support sustainable urban transformation.

Key role in the LDT Ecosystem:
DUET acts as a pioneer reference project for applying Local Digital Twins in public governance. It plays a vital role in the LDT ecosystem by:
- Delivering virtual city replicas for systemic policy exploration and experimentation.
- Enabling evidence-based, real-time decision-making for urban challenges (e.g., traffic congestion, pollution, emergency response).
- Demonstrating cross-sector interoperability and data integration (IoT, GIS, mobility, environment).
- Providing cost-effective, adaptable solutions that cities can adopt according to their digital maturity and strategy.
- Embedding AI and ML functions to forecast urban dynamics and infrastructure performance.

Relevance to LDT4SSC:
DUET contributes to LDT4SSC goals by:
- Showcasing pilots in three European cities, demonstrating scalability and replicability across different governance contexts.
- Policy-Ready Data as a Service (PRDaaS): Offering cities ready-to-use data services for better policy design and implementation.
- Supporting decision-makers: Providing user-friendly dashboards for policy simulation, foresight, and emergency coordination.
- Integrating interoperability principles: Aligning with EU digital twin frameworks, standards, and cross-sector use cases.

Key Assets and Resources:
[Technology Outputs, Research Outputs, City Twin Platform Demo, Policy-Making Outputs]

Webpage / Reference Link:
https://www.digitalurbantwins.com

Main contact point:
DUET Contact Page