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Strategy & Sustainability

Introduction to LDT4SSC Strategy and Sustainability

Local Digital Twins (LDTs) should be developed through a purpose-driven, collaborative approach that addresses real community needs, scales beyond pilots, and remains sustainable in the long term.

Local and Regional Authorities are expected to begin their LDT development by defining clear local objectives (e.g. climate resilience, mobility, or public health goals), validating these with stakeholders, and building the digital twin around concrete use cases. Incremental expansion of services and applications, guided by a coherent strategy and supported by an interoperable technical backbone, enables communities to create and capture value throughout the ongoing development process. To ensure accountability and shared learning, the value of LDTs should be measured against well-defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) linked to the original goals, with results (both successes and setbacks) communicated across current stakeholders and potential collaborators.

As with any digital transformation journey, trust and value creation are essential. Governance should therefore engage diverse stakeholders across the quadruple helix (public sector, private sector, academia, and civil society), supported by strong leadership to align digital infrastructure and data-driven collaboration with community-wide strategies. This requires fostering public–private–people partnerships (PPPPs) under robust governance frameworks that clearly define roles, responsibilities, value distribution, and mechanisms for long-term financial sustainability.

Long-term viability also depends on maintaining an open and interoperable ecosystem for data and services. Local and Regional Authorities and their partners should establish strong data governance mechanisms and adopt open standards, modular architectures, and federated systems to avoid vendor lock-in. LDTs must also remain adaptable, evolving over time by integrating open-source toolboxes and emerging technologies such as AI. Hence, close collaboration with wider European initiatives, including the EU LDT Toolbox, Common European Data Spaces, Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEFs), European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs), and AI Factories, is essential to sustain innovation and growth.

Mission, Vision & Values

Mission:
To build a robust, scalable, and interoperable ecosystem of Local Digital Twins (LDTs) across Europe, empowering communities with digital twin capabilities and AI-driven tools to optimise urban services, foster innovation, and tackle pressing challenges such as climate change, environmental, economic and social sustainability, and digital transformation.

Vision:
The LDT4SSC contributes to the broader vision for a resilient, inclusive, and interconnected European digital landscape where interoperable local digital twins drive sustainable urban development, support the twin green and digital transitions, and strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, autonomy, and societal well-being. The initiative aims to support the Networked Local Digital Twins towards the CitiVERSE European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (LDT CitiVERSE EDICs) in developing and scaling interoperable digital infrastructure across the European Union, fostering economies of scale and enabling cross-border collaboration among the LDT ecosystem. This contributes directly to Europe’s Digital Decade Compass 2030 targets and Green Deal objectives.

Values:

  • Sustainability through innovation and openness: advancing economic, environmental, and social sustainability by fostering the adoption of open standards, boosting data-sharing, and supporting fair competition to stimulate AI and LDT-based services.
  • Inclusiveness, Collaboration & Co-creation: bridging the digital divide and ensuring accessibility for communities of all sizes and levels of maturity by making LDT services widely available, while fostering cross-border, cross-sectoral partnerships through the quadruple helix model (public, private, academia, civil society).
  • Resilience & Competitiveness: strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty and reducing reliance on foreign technologies, while enhancing citizens’ quality of life.
  • Trust & Ethics: promoting privacy, security, compliance with EU regulations, and ethical AI use that is both economically viable and societally sustainable.

Unique Value Propositions

  • Local and Regional Authorities: LDTs offer powerful decision-support tools. By simulating “what-if” scenarios, planners can optimise services and infrastructure (e.g., transportation layouts, flood defences, or energy grids) before costly real-world changes. Authorities gain evidence-based policy insights, better cross-department coordination, and a means to meet sustainability targets, ultimately improving citizens’ quality of life and urban resilience.

  • Citizens: LDTs make governance more transparent and inclusive by visualising both current urban conditions and future plans (e.g., a new park or transit system). This helps residents understand how proposed developments might affect their daily lives, encouraging feedback and co-creation. When authorities align LDTs with public values and involve communities early on, they build trust and ensure the technology serves the public good.

  • Civil Society Organisations (CSOs): NGOs and community groups gain a powerful data-driven tool for advocacy and collaboration with authorities and citizens. CSOs can monitor policy impacts (e.g., on the environment, social equity, accessibility), raise issues early, and co-develop solutions.

  • Technology Providers: Local and Regional Authorities often procure LDTs from tech firms (software developers, platform vendors, sensor manufacturers, etc.). This creates new markets, enables technology demonstration with city data, and builds stronger business cases. Providers offering open-source and interoperable solutions (e.g., via the EU LDT Toolbox) can position themselves as trustworthy vendors aligned with EU standards and principles.

  • SMEs and Industry: Small and medium enterprises, alongside sectoral industries (e.g., logistics, construction, energy), are vital for thriving LDT ecosystems. LDTs provide opportunities for efficiency and innovation. For example, utility companies may integrate data to improve maintenance, while freight operators can optimise last-mile deliveries and experiment with low-emission vehicles. Local and Regional Authorities may serve as testbeds, fostering mutual benefit.

  • Research Organisations: LDTs provide universities and think tanks with living laboratories to test hypotheses, validate models, and develop new analytics using real-world data (under governed access). Academia also drives innovation ecosystems and capacity-building, helping communities integrate research outcomes into urban policy and development.

Impact Evaluation Framework

As set out above, the overall ambition for promoting Local Digital Twins (LDTs) and working towards their federation is to drive sustainable local development, supported by digitalisation, the green transition, and thriving innovation ecosystems. To remain credible, the initiative defines and follows a robust impact assessment framework, with two main purposes:

  1. Pilot-level evaluation – providing a structured way to assess the results of 15–20 pilot initiatives across three work strands, ensuring quality and comparability.
  2. Programme-level evaluation – drawing together findings from all pilots to assess their potential for scalability, interoperability, and long-term sustainability.

While long-term impact is challenging to anticipate, the framework offers a robust methodology to assess short-term outcomes and contributions towards broader objectives. It also delivers recommendations for interoperability blueprints and ecosystem governance.

The framework sets objectives and procedures for monitoring impacts, outlining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on relevant literature and lessons learned from past initiatives, such as the DS4SSCC-DEP Impact Assessment Framework and the CitCom.ai European AI Market Report. Importantly, the framework is designed to evolve over time, adapting to stakeholder feedback and implementation experiences.

The Impact Assessment Framework is expected to be published soon.