Photo: ® European Union / Octavian Carare
At the European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) 2026, the City of Brussels and the Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) Joint Secretariat joined for a policy talk on how digital twins can support climate resilience in European cities.
The session gave an opportunity to present the progress of Brussels City's participation in T4R, and to exchange experiences with practitioners, policymakers and other cities interested in using data and digital technologies for climate adaptation.
Turning data into action for climate adaptation
Catalin Turlica (Brussels City, Strategy and Digital Transformation) explained how digital twins are emerging as powerful tools for climate-resilient urban planning. By combining data from sensors, satellites, weather models and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), digital twins can transform complex datasets into practical insights that support decision-making.
Climate change projections are showing rising temperatures and more frequent extreme heat events by 2050. This is why cities need better ways to understand risks and test solutions before implementing them in the real world. In Brussels, the T4R project is now in the pilot implementation phase, bringing the possibilities to do so, more in practice.
The Urban Heat Island Digital Twin under development will help identify urban heat hotspots, assess vulnerabilities across the city, and evaluate potential adaptation measures before investments are made in the real world, 'on the ground'. With this approach decision-makers can explore different scenarios and support evidence-based climate action.
Building a responsible Digital Twin
A key message throughout the presentation, and T4R as a whole, is that technology alone is not enough. Through T4R, Brussels is developing its Urban Heat Island Twin with transparency, ethics, education and citizen engagement as important elements, which is also reflected in the four Frameworks we developed in the project.
By already giving attention to these principles in (or before) the development process, the project aims to build trust, encourage informed participation, and ensure the responsible use of both data and emerging technologies. This human-centred approach is considered essential for the long-term success of digital twin initiatives.
Demonstrating the Urban Heat Island Twin
The session finished with a live demonstration video showing the current state of the Urban Heat Island Digital Twin within the project's test environment. The demonstration showed how integrated datasets can support evidence-based climate adaptation decisions, how users can interact with the platform, and which functionalities are currently being developed. While the progress is already promising, Turlica emphasised that development work is still ongoing and that there is still a lot to be done in the implementation of Brissels City's pilot.
Join the conversation
The audience was interested in keeping posted on the developments of Brussels City and the project as a whole. Turlica stressed that they were in the same position before joining T4R: looking for practical guidance, reusable methodologies and lessons learned to kick-start their own digital twin initiatives.
There are certainly lessons and products we can share, like the T4R Joint Strategy. Other deliverables will also be published on this website. By joining the active Transnational Community of Practice, local and regional authorities can stay up to date on project developments. And of course, T4R partners will be present at upcoming events. Find us for example at the Smart City Expo World Congress in November 2026.