Across the globe, cities are developing models of urban systems that are increasingly detailed and precise. Addressing integrated infrastructure, environment, and social systems, these models’ emphasis on verisimilitude has earned them the name “urban digital twins.” Increased data and analytic capabilities promise new tools for real-time urban management and long-term planning and policy, but urban digital twins present risks for sustaining democratic practices in urban and regional governance. In Bologna, Italy, the municipal government and its partners are taking this challenge head on by building a Civic Digital Twin (CDT) where democratic norms and processes are fundamental.
Stefania Paolazzi, Innovation Manager for City of Bologna, and Marco Pistore, PhD, Director of Modeling and Simulation of Socio-Technical Systems at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler, work as a team to integrate the social and technical sides of the Civic Digital Twin. Join us for lunchtime talk as Paolazzi and Pistore describe how Bologna is building its digital twin with a democratic ethos integrated in the practices for the use of the digital twin and its technical specifications. Their presentation and conversation provide an opportunity to learn more about the critical opportunities and challenges that cities and regions face when implementing democratic intelligence alongside and within this latest generation of digital tools.
