Cover image bt Julia Pierzina, K8, created with Midjourney AI, 2025
In T4R, eight pilots in Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands are exploring how the added value of Digital Twins can be integrated into their organisations. Lieven Raes and Veerle Beyaert of Digital Flanders interviewed the cities of Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Rennes, Schuttrange, Utrecht, the municipal partnership Leiedal, and the Flemish Environment Agency (VMM). They discovered significant differences and similarities in their approaches.
How Local Digital Twins are changing the way cities make decisions
Imagine walking through your city. Not just the one you see every day, but a digital version of it. A place where you can watch traffic flows in real time, see how new buildings might change sunlight in your neighbourhood, or even predict how a mobility plan affects air quality next year.
That’s the promise of Local Digital Twins (LDTs), virtual mirrors of our cities that help leaders, planners, and communities make smarter choices. They don’t just display data; they reveal how everything in a city is connected. A new bike lane, for example, might change traffic flow, which might improve air quality, which might even influence energy consumption.
But as exciting as this sounds, building these digital twins isn’t just about innovative tech. It’s also about governance: who needs to be involved when, how will this involvement be structured, what data is needed and available, how it’s used, and how everyone, from decision-makers to citizens, local business actors and organisations, gets a say.
Beyond technology: why governance matters
A digital twin is only as good as the trust behind it. If people don’t feel their data is handled fairly or transparently, the entire system falls apart. That’s why cities exploring LDTs need solid governance frameworks: clear rules, shared responsibilities, and space for open dialogue.
Like the other three Frameworks (Education, Ethics and Technology), Governance around LDTs in T4R was scrutinised using a “four stages” approach, sketching a specific situation influencing the way and level of cooperation:
Lab – A safe space to experiment with one particular problem or policy idea.
Studio – A more connected space where multiple topics come together.
Arena – A structured environment at the organisational level, shaping strategies.
Agora – The public square, where the city meets its residents, partners, and external actors.
Each of these spaces adds a layer to how cities make decisions using digital twins. It appears that an LDT governance approach doesn’t follow the four stages rectilinear, but depending on the needs and local situation jump from one stage to another. However, all pilots show that a buy-in at the arena level is crucial to make an LDT sustainable in the organisation.
