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06/04/2022

More than 30 organizations, including 14 communities and members of the Smart City Standards Forum of the German Institute for Standardization (Deutsches Institut für Normung) participated in the kick-off meeting of the new working group “Digital Twin for Cities and Communities” (DIN SPEC 91607). The aim is to develop a national DIN standard for digital twins. The working group was initiated by the cooperation project “Connected Urban Twins“ (CUT) of the cities Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and msg.

More and more cities and communities are looking into digital twins to use them in the future as part of integrated urban development or participation processes. Data-based urban models are important to simulate future scenarios of urban development and to plan them accordingly. In the CUT project, Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich have been expanding existing knowledge since last year and are jointly driving forward the development of applications, standards and a modular design for other cities and communities.

DIN SPEC 91607 is part of the “DIN SPEC series“ of the DIN Smart City Standards Forum. The new standard is intended to serve as guideline for planning, designing and implementing a digital twin for cities and communities and to avoid double work, manufacturer-dependence or even a technical patchwork by using available standards.

Dr. Nora Reinecke, overall project lead Connected Urban Twins: “The implementation of DIN standards is an important step in enabling cities and communities to establish digital twins in urban development. New innovations can be triggered by drawing on existing knowledge. We are very pleased that cities and communities are strongly represented in this initiative."

Joachim Schonowski, msg systems AG, manager of the DIN SPEC working group: “It is important that the national standard not only maps the technical aspect of the sustainability diamond but also integrates ecological, social and economic topics such as the United Nations' sustainable development goals, planning processes with citizen participation or operators and business models in terms of a sustainable logic and effectiveness.”

The DIN SPEC is aimed at researchers, IT experts, business and technical operators of a digital twin or municipal data platforms as well as actors in specialist fields of action.

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