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With the growing availability of data and technology, digital versions of objects or systems are getting more interesting. Pairing the virtual and physical world, it is possible to continue critical physical processes while digitally experimenting and looking for improvements. The ‘digital twin’ therefore is an interesting feature, also in urban development.

In a discussion with a number of digital twin projects, we addressed opportunities and barriers. Are current projects more than 3D models? What are the key enablers and challenges in starting digital twins for urban applications? Which steps are the most difficult to implement? Do we fully trust on the system and will reality be handled by a computer? How are decisions for further development made?

Speakers:
- Wietse Balster - geo information advisor at City of Amsterdam
- Eric Jeansson - project manager at City of Gothenburg
- Paolo Pileggi - IT program developer & Walter Lohman - project lead at TNO

Moderator:
- Leonie van den Beuken - program director Amsterdam Smart City

Catch the presentations here:

De provincie Noord-Holland is twee jaar geleden in samenwerking met het RIVM, de Waag Society, Tata Steel en lokale overheden het project Hollandse Luchten gestart om de luchtkwaliteit op zwaarder belaste locaties rondom het Noordzeekanaalgebied fijnmazig in kaart te brengen. Hierbij worden inwoners begeleid en opgeleid om de sensoren in elkaar te zetten en de uitkomsten van de metingen te begrijpen. Vervolgens kan er een discussie worden gehouden over het gezamenlijk ontstane beeld van de omgevingskwaliteit.

De Volkskrant schreef een artikel over hoe het meten van de omgevingskwaliteit door inwoners met de jaren is ontwikkeld en wat voor een invloed dit heeft op de discussie rondom leefbaarheid van gebieden.

The Road to Smart City Live was a three day program that featured more than 40 sessions covering a wide variety of smart city and urban innovation topics including smart governance, data platforms, digital twins, smart mobility and living labs. The goal was to bring together and connect the Dutch and Nordic smart city ecosystems, facilitate knowledge exchange, and help establish new collaboration opportunities.

The program was held in the lead up to this year’s digital alternative to the World Smart City Expo, Smart City Live. Amsterdam Smart City contributed to the program by organizing daily recap sessions together with Amsterdam Trade & Innovate and Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).  The intention was to create a casual setting for participants to reflect on lessons learned and discuss opportunities for follow-up.

Here are six key outcomes from the recap sessions:

1. Outdated Regulations — Cities and innovators are struggling with outdated regulations.  The role of governments should be to ensure the right regulations are in place for stimulating the transition to sustainable and liveable cities.  This is much more important and effective than facilitating specific pilots, which can be left to the market when the right regulations and incentives are in place.  However, changing regulations is easier said than done.  The City of Amsterdam is collecting input on what regulatory changes need to be overcome to facilitate the energy transition.
2. Public-Private Collaboration — Despite a strong appetite for public-private collaboration, organizing it in practice remains a challenge.  City of Amsterdam has developed innovative procurement programs like Startup in Residence, Innovatie Partners and AI4Cities to enable collaboration with start-ups and scale-ups. And, the City of Amsterdam is now sharing these tools and lessons learned nationally and internationally, for example through the Startup in Residence Toolkit.
3. Post Corona Recovery — How can the corona emergency be used to implement and accelerate ambitions for circularity and sustainability?  FME hosted a session exploring best practices which can help cities recover from corona and build back better.  FME will facilitate follow-up discussion and exchange among parties interested in collaborating on post-corona recovery.
4. Digital Transition — Digital technology is increasingly part of all aspects of urban life and software innovation is key to a safe, responsible and inclusive digital transition. ITEA is currently preparing several innovative projects on topics like smart mobility and future of work which are still open for input from potential partners.
5. Digital Inclusion & Data Control — Covid-19 has deepened the digital divide and highlighted the need for building digitally inclusive cities.  In order to become a digitally inclusive city, the City of Eindhoven is working to ensure all citizens have access to digital tools and are aware of what’s happening with their data.
6. Scaling Living Labs — Netherlands and Sweden are leaders in smart city pilots and living labs, but in both countries scaling remains a challenge. While some stakeholders express “pilot fatigue”, others argue that this great diversity of pilots (including many failures) is an indicator of a healthy innovation ecosystem.  Cleantech Scandinavia and RVO are looking for ways to better capture and share lessons learned from past pilot projects, and ways to "resuscitate" and scale them when appropriate.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) collaborated with ITEA, Cleantech Scandinavia and the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven and The Hague to facilitate The Road to Smart City Live.  Video recordings from the different sessions will be made available in the upcoming weeks via the b2match platform.

For more information about any of the above lessons learned or follow-up opportunities, please connect with cornelia@amsterdamsmartcity.com.

Did you participate in (The Road to) Smart City Live?  Are there more insights or opportunities for follow-up which you would like to share with the community? Share your feedback in the comments below.

AUAS contributes to accelerated roll-out of sustainable low-temperature heating networks in HeatNet project

The international research project HeatNet is all about making heat more sustainable. Less use of natural gas and more use of sustainable heat sources such as the residual heat from data centres. The project aimed to accelerate the roll-out of heating networks in urban areas. And that has been a success! Not only have new heating networks been developed in six European cities, the participating partners have gained knowledge about operating smartly in complex urban transitions. The professors and researcher involved from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) talk about the approach and the insights gained.

The role of the AUAS in the research project involves leading evaluations. During six evaluation meetings over three years, the partners reflected on their process of learning from each other and helping each other move forward. Professor of Energy and Innovation, Renée Heller: “As an evaluator, we not only wanted to determine how it went afterwards. But in accordance with the aim of this Interreg project – transnational learning – we embarked on a continuous learning process with each other.”

ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
This helps the pilot partners gain insights and build on each other’s discoveries. Frank Suurenbroek, professor of Spatial Urban Transformation: “In such complex transition projects, there is so much to consider. This process-based evaluation approach helps you gain insight into the issues you are facing. Such transitions are not a linear process and the insights cannot always be translated directly to other projects. But this approach does make complex processes navigable. It offers pathways for innovation that you can consider.”

The researchers translated this knowledge into various publications and guides, which have been made available to parties dealing with the roll-out of a heating network. Suurenbroek: “The Stakeholder Guide is also interesting for all parties that work on complex urban transitions.” Lecturer-researcher Egbert-Jan van Dijck was responsible for the development of the Stakeholder Guide.

“The heat transition requires an innovation at system level. Therefore, we carried out an extensive stakeholder analysis at meso-level,” explains Van Dijck. “It not only provides an impression of the individuals and organisations involved at the energy sector level, but also of their role in the chain, their interests and concerns. This step towards a situational analysis has enabled us to outline a holistic picture and carry out an in-depth analysis of barriers to the development of the new generation of heating and cooling networks in terms of finance, legislation and regulations and organisation.”

INVOLVING STUDENTS
“We are further expanding this analysis for education.” Van Dijck: Besides the human elements, we also analyse non-human elements, such as buildings, technologies, infrastructure, energy sources and subsurface. These are just as important in determining the situation as the human elements. For example, the pipes for a heating network cannot be laid through a river or a railway track. You need to be aware of these barriers.” Instead of just the people or the stakeholders, students see a much more complete situation at a glance. This goes for fourth-year students as well as second-year students.

Heller: “Several students have used this project for their graduation thesis. Students have even travelled to Ireland on their own initiative to learn more about the energy and heating situation there and to interview partners.”

ROLL-OUT OF HEATING NETWORKS
“There is a lot involved in creating a heating network,” says Heller. “Considering the complexity, it is unusual and significant that all six partners have succeeded in doing so in such a short space of time. It would be a shame not to use the valuable sources of heat available in a country. Data centres, for example, have a huge amount of heat left over. The roll-out of one heating network to multiple heating networks helps us to use available heat sources to increase sustainability and reduce our CO2 emissions.”

INTERDISCIPLINARY AND CROSS-THEMATIC
The HeatNet project is a good example of interdisciplinary collaboration between two research groups with different specialist knowledge. Frank Suurenbroek: “While the implementation of a heating network may appear to be a technical project, it is also an urban transformation process.” Heller adds: “Urban transition involves projects in which taking the energy leap seems the obvious choice, but where there is still little attention for the heat transition, while a great opportunity exists in that respect. Through our collaboration, we have seized that opportunity.”

The UK Embassy in Bangkok has produced an awesome detailed handbook about smart city initiatives, policies and methods in Thailand.

It’s really well written and the authors worked closely with depa and Smart City Thailand Office to produce this really wonderful account. Please download and take a look!

This first annual Strategic Foresight Report outlines how foresight will inform
policies with a view to strengthening the EU’s resilience in four interrelated
dimensions: social and economic, geopolitical, green, and digital. It analyses the EU’s
resilience in response to the COVID-19 crisis in the context of the acceleration or deceleration
of relevant megatrends, long-term driving forces that will likely have a large influence on
the future. This Communication shows how policies to improve resilience, by mitigating
vulnerabilities and strengthening capacities, can open new opportunities in each of the four
dimensions. This includes reconsidering the future of wellbeing, work, labour markets and
skills, reconfiguring global value chains, supporting democracy, reforming our rules-based
trading system, building alliances in emerging technologies, and investing in the green and
digital transitions.
This new focus on resilience calls for close monitoring. This Communication proposes
to move towards resilience dashboards, which, once fully developed in cooperation with the
Member States and other key stakeholders, should be used for assessing the vulnerabilities
and capacities of the EU and its Member States in each of the four dimensions. Such analysis
can help answer the question: are we, through our policies and recovery strategy, effectively
making the EU more resilient?
The strategic foresight agenda will encompass horizontal foresight activities and
thematic forward-looking exercises. For the upcoming year, these include: open strategic
autonomy, the future of jobs and skills for and in the green transition, and deepening the
twinning of the digital and green transitions. This agenda will bring a dynamic perspective
of synergies and trade-offs among EU policy goals, thereby supporting the coherence of EU
policies.

https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/strategic_foresight_report_2020_1.pdf

The cities of Helsinki and Amsterdam have worked together to each launch a first-of-its-kind Artificial Intelligence Register.

“Together with the city of Helsinki, we are on a mission to create as much understanding about algorithms as possible and be transparent about the way we – as cities – use them,” commented Touria Meliani, Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam (Digital City).

The City of Amsterdam, Helsingin kaupunki – Helsingfors stad – City of Helsinki, in collaboration with Saidot, launched the first Public AI Register. The Algorithm Register is an overview of the artificial intelligence systems and algorithms used by the Cities of Amsterdam and Helsinki. Through the register, you can get acquainted with the quick overviews of the city's algorithmic systems or examine their more detailed information based on your own interests.

If you're interested in learning more, here's something for you. The new white paper that was co-written by Linda van de Fliert, Pasi Rautio and Meeri Haataja. They really hope this will part some conversation and most importantly, help other government organisations address #transparency and take their first steps in implementing #AI #governance.

You can also give feedback and thus participate in building human-centered algorithms in Amsterdam. The register is still under development.

How to get the most out of urban experimentation? The guidebook for urban developers sums up learnings and experiences from agile piloting in Helsinki.
The Pocket Book for Agile Piloting shares the experiences from Smart Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari Mobility Lab in Helsinki and condenses the key learnings in a pragmatic and easily digestible way. Free download via Forum Virium

Every two weeks the City of Amsterdam publishes a monitor on urban measures to deal with COVID-19. Different issues are discussed, depending on the questions we receive from within the municipal organisation. It is aimed at giving a general overview of urban measures worldwide and of other information relevant for cities. It also has an overview of EU measures and of different relevant sources. Please find the 9th version of the monitor attached.
For more information about the measures in Amsterdam, please refer to this website. Earlier versions of the monitor are available through this weblink.
For any suggestions, please mail to internationaloffice@amsterdam.nl. Please refer to the same e-mail address if you would like to subscribe to this mailing.

Futureproof is a follow-up to the ‘Snelloket for Corona Projects’ that the Amsterdam Funds for the Arts (AFK) launched in April this year in collaboration with the municipality of Amsterdam (Art and Culture, Digital City, Event Fund). €300,000 was made available and this budget was spent in no time.

That is why AFK once again made budget available to re-open its digital ‘Snelloket’ counter. However, this is not enough and that is why AFK now appeals to the valiancy and compassion of all culture lovers and everyone with a heart for Amsterdam.

The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts is a unique city fund. It has been committed to contributing to a diverse and vibrant cultural climate in the city of Amsterdam since 1972. The AFK has never called on the public to contribute. Up until now.

Due to the emergency in which many visual and performing artists currently find themselves, we are compelled to act. We are determined to offer Amsterdam and its makers more perspective.

INVEST IN OUR FUTURE. TOGETHER WE MAKE AMSTERDAM AND ITS MAKERS FUTURE-PROOF

https://www.voordekunst.nl/futureproof

Wat zijn de gevolgen van het Nederlandse klimaatbeleid voor de energietransitie van de industriële bedrijven? In hoeverre raakt de transitie de bestaande bedrijfsprocessen en wat is de rol van de Omgevingsdienst Noordzeekanaalgebied (OD NZKG) in het ondersteunen van energie innovatie in de regio? De OD NZKG heeft de invloed van deze technologische veranderingen op hun werkzaamheden door CE Delft in kaart laten brengen.

Lees het hele onderzoek hier:
https://odnzkg.nl/gevolgen-klimaatbeleid-voor-energietransitie-industrie-onderzocht/

"We need fundamental economic reform"

Our founder and CEO Eva Gladek joined Pakhuis de Zwijger together with Raise Green's co-founder Matthew Moroney to discuss what a post-COVID-19-future could look like.

Follow the link to watch the video!

Demand for knowledge and collaboration is greater than ever as cities look for innovative solutions and best practices to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. This is why Amsterdam Smart City is adapting to the corona crisis and the "new normal" by bringing its Knowledge Exchange programs online.

Any interested party, irrespective of their location, can now book one of three standard Knowledge Exchange programs hosted online, via the Zoom platform:

• Smart City Consultation Session (45 min): This interactive session gives participants the opportunity to ask all of your questions about the Amsterdam Smart City program and projects.
• Introduction to Amsterdam Smart City (1.5hr): This session shares the development and evolution of Amsterdam Smart City with a focus on governance, key projects and lessons learned since its inception in 2009.
• Smart City Deep Dive (2.5hr): Dive deeper into one of four societal transitions central to the Amsterdam Smart City program: mobility, energy, circularity economy, or digital city. This session includes presentations and discussions with two experts and focuses on best practices and more than a decade of lessons learned from Amsterdam’s innovation ecosystem.

Launching New Program: Smart City Exchange

In response to demand for exchanging best practices, we are also launching a new “Smart City Exchange” to support cities and organizations with their urban innovation ambitions. During these sessions Amsterdam Smart City shares best practices and lessons learned from Amsterdam’s innovation ecosystem on a specific topic, for example mobility, energy of community-driven initiatives. In exchange we would like to hear from your city or organization’s experience and best practices on the same topic. In this way we create mutually beneficial Smart City Exchange!

To enquire about the Smart City Exchange or any of the other of our Knowledge Exchange programs, email cornelia@amsterdamsmartcity.com with a brief summary of the key challenges you are working and what you hope to get out of a collaboration with Amsterdam Smart City.

Share Your Online / Virtual Program

Are you offering online or virtual lectures, master-classes, trainings, tours or demos? Share your program on the Amsterdam Smart City Visits page! Or, do you have a solution that can enable our community members to do their bring their wokshops or tours online? We would like to hear from you! Share your solution or idea below or email cornelia@amsterdamsmartcity.com

About Amsterdam Smart City Knowledge Exchange Programs

Since 2016, Amsterdam Smart City has hosted more than 250 delegations from 70 countries. Over half of those visiting delegations were governmental groups interested in learning from the Amsterdam Smart City approach to collaborative innovation. Among the most popular topics for international groups are public-private partnerships, smart mobility solutions, citizen-led or “bottom-up” innovations, and living labs.

Today I wrote a new blog that I would like to share with the community. It is about getting stakeholders and all their policies to align to make successful smart projects. The blog also references to some smart city frameworks that might be of interest for your project too.

With growing numbers of pedestrians and cyclists returning to city streets, keeping a safe distance of 1.5m can be a challenge in many urban areas due to the way public space (or lack of it) has been designed.

The Social Distancing Dashboard, a project led by scientists from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), in collaboration with the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), helps to raise awareness about constraints posed by the design of public space and contributes to decision making for COVID-19 related interventions in urban planning.

The Dashboard creates city maps that show on a street and neighborhood level if social distance rules can be respected when moving in public space. It offers an overview of different factors – such as the width of the footpath and location of bus stops – affecting our ability to respect social distancing rules.

The dynamic and color-coded maps are open access and available for use by e.g. policymakers, charged with making decisions on public health and city planners, tasked with making COVID-19 related interventions in the urban space. The dashboard is also intended to raise awareness amongst city residents – especially those in risk groups – who want to navigate the city streets as safely as possible.

Read the full article here: https://www.ams-institute.org/news/social-distancing-dashboard-provides-roadmap-city-dwellers/

Or go straight to the Social Distancing Dasboard: https://covid19.social-glass.tudelft.nl/#14/52.3722/4.88072

Society is slowly opening up for business again. More people are going outside. And many businesses and government institutions are redesigning their spaces to give people enough room to keep 1.5m distance. While keeping distance seems like a simple rule, in practice many people find it difficult to stick to them.

That is why I wrote a short blog about the main crowd management principles that are useful to design public spaces for the 1.5m society. These principles are key to optimize the use of our public spaces and make it easier for people to keep their distance (blog is in Dutch).

Bas Boorsma explores what can we learn from the accelerated digital transition triggered by COVID-19.

The European Green Deal is the European Commission's strategy for a more sustainable, cleaner and healthier European economy. Research and innovation are of course key to make this happen. RVO (the Dutch agency for subsidies) announces several calls in the coming months of 2020 with a total budget of € 1 billion.

First one on the planning is a special EIC accelerator call for SMEs that need some help to develop a green idea and scale it up internationally. Support will be a subsidy up to € 2,5 million and there is an option for receiving equity up to € 15 million. Projects need to contribute substantially to the European goals for fighting climate change.

Please note that this information is preliminary, more info in Dutch on the website of RVO and we expect that the EU will publish this call in the coming weeks. The RVO-site will update the links to the EC call info, which is not online yet.

Op 6 maart was de feestelijke lancering van de Routekaart Amsterdam Klimaatneutraal in 2050. En ik was hierbij aanwezig! Met de Routekaart laat de gemeente zien hoe zij op weg is naar een Nieuw Amsterdams Klimaat.

Op 6 maart was de feestelijke lancering van de Routekaart Amsterdam Klimaatneutraal in 2050. En ik was hierbij aanwezig! Met de Routekaart laat de gemeente zien hoe zij op weg is naar een Nieuw Amsterdams Klimaat. Het is een ambitiedocument met een lange termijn visie op de Amsterdamse energietransitie en acties voor de korte termijn. De gemeente gaat samen met bewoners, bedrijven en instellingen intensief samenwerken om de verandering naar duurzame energie in beweging te zetten. Hier kijk ik met veel enthousiasme en bewondering naar. Voor mij is het open en transparant delen van kennis hét sleutelwoord in de transitie. Met elkaar leren door te doen, aan de slag te gaan. Zo gaan we samen op weg naar betere straten, buurten en steden voor iedereen!

De Routekaart is inhoudelijk opgedeeld langs 4 transitiepaden: gebouwde omgeving, verkeer & vervoer, elektriciteit en haven & industrie. Enerzijds neemt de gemeente Amsterdam top-down initiatief en werkt planmatig aan het behalen van doelen. Anderzijds is de basis van duizenden kleinere initiatieven net zo hard nodig: via een bottom-up benadering. Amsterdammers die zelf aan de slag willen, bewoners, bedrijven en instellingen, alleen of samen, kunnen op steun rekenen.

Gebouwde Omgeving

In 2050 moeten alle gebouwen in de stad op een duurzame manier worden verwarmd. Vervanging van aardgas door alternatieve warmtebronnen én energiebesparing staan daarom centraal. Dit betekent dat er achter elke voordeur, achter elke gevel en in iedere straat iets staat te gebeuren. De pijlers zijn:

- Opschalen van de wijk-voor-wijk aanpak aardgasvrij

- Ontwikkelen van duurzame bronnen voor het warmtenet

- Doorgroeien naar een stadsbrede warmte-infrastructuur

- Energiezuinig maken van woningen

- Energiezuinig maken van zakelijke markt

- Energiezuinig maken van maatschappelijke gebouwen

- Energieneutraal bouwen

Verkeer & Vervoer

In 2030 is al het verkeer op de Amsterdamse wegen en over het water uitstootvrij. Er is ruimte in de stad voor voetgangers, fietsers en spelende kinderen en er zijn minder autoritten. De pijlers binnen transitiepad Mobiliteit zijn:

- Beperken vervuilende verkeerbewegingen

- Verschonen van alle vervuilende voer- en vaartuigen

Elektriciteit

In 2030 is 80% van de elektriciteit die huishoudens gebruiken opgewekt uit zonne- en windenergie. Elektriciteit speelt een sleutelrol in de energietransitie. Door de overgang naar een aardgasvrije stad en de groei van het aantal elektrische voertuigen is er veel meer elektriciteit nodig. De pijlers zijn:

- Maximaal opwekken van zonne-energie op daken

- Optimaal benutten potentie windenergie

- Werken aan een toekomstbestendige elektriciteitsinfrastructuur

Haven & Industrie

In 2050 is de industrie volledig overgestapt op duurzame energiebronnen. In 2030 behoort de haven van Amsterdam tot de duurzaamste havens van Europa en zijn steenkolen volledig uit te faseren. Daarnaast zal de haven fungeren als duurzame batterij voor de stad, regio en Europa. De pijlers zijn:

- Transformeren van de haven naar duurzame batterij

- Ontwikkelen groene waterstofeconomie

- CO2-uitstoot afvangen, opslaan en hergebruiken

- Energie besparen in de industrie

Voor de transitie van fossiele naar duurzame energie moeten we ons niet alleen richten op CO2. Randvoorwaarden zoals draagvlak en samenwerking zijn net zo belangrijk. De vraagstukken zijn groot en vaak met elkaar verweven. Wij, bij Amsterdam Smart City, geloven dat innoveren op deze grote vraagstukken samen moet. Binnen Amsterdam Smart City brengen we deze partijen dan ook samen. Als onafhankelijk platform, ieder vanuit zijn eigen rol. Vanuit gedeelde waarden en doelen. Ik werk met veel plezier, samen met onze partners, aan het verwezenlijken van deze mooie plannen voor de stad!

Verder lezen over de Routekaart Amsterdam Klimaatneutraal 2050? Neem een kijkje op de website van de gemeente: <https://www.amsterdam.nl/bestuur-organisatie/volg-beleid/ambities/gezonde-duurzame-stad/klimaatneutraal/#hc2e477b3-ad38-4b31-94ce-27b325c542e7>