Digital twins: a tool to support the efficient management of services, networks, buildings, and neighborhoods

Digital twins applied at the urban, neighborhood, and building scales are emerging as innovative tools to support urban planning and the efficient management of infrastructure services and networks. Through a dynamic virtual representation of physical assets, processes, and systems, integrated with data from sensors and management systems, they perform multiple functions: real-time data monitoring, optimizing the efficiency of services and facilities, simulating alternative scenarios to assess the impact of interventions and anticipate critical issues, supporting strategic, tactical, and operational decisions, and testing responses to disruptions and crisis events. Furthermore, digital twins rely on the integration of data from different domains (geospatial, infrastructural, environmental, and socioeconomic), facilitating multi-sector analyses. These functions contribute to improving decision-making processes and operational efficiency, reducing costs, strengthening crisis management, and encouraging citizen participation.
The main challenges related to the adoption of digital twins at the urban scale concern the availability and interoperability of data and technological infrastructure, data governance, the ethical and social implications of using predictive models and decision-making algorithms, institutional challenges related to government capacity, and economic challenges related to the sustainability of investments and the measurement of generated value.
The workshop will address the adoption of digital twins as enabling factors for the next phase of smart city development, gathering multiple perspectives on policy, regulatory, economic, and technological issues.

The workshop will be in Italian.

Programme

10.00 Introduction
Edoardo Croci Coordinator, Smart City Observatory, GREEN - Bocconi University
Giuseppe Franco Ferrari Coordinator, Smart City Observatory, Department of Legal Studies A. Sraffa - Bocconi University

Planning urban resilience through Digital Twins
Massimo Tadi Associate Professor, Polytechnic of Milan

Experiences of municipal administrations and companies 
Angelo Massimo Deldossi Vice-presidente, ANCE
Massimiliano Ferazzini Technical director, BrianzAcque srl
Antonella Galdi Head of area, Innovation and Digital Transition, Culture and Tourism, ANCI 
Francesco Mascolo CEO, MM
Elisabetta Pedretti Grid modelling Responsible, A2A Calore e Servizi
Massimo Ronchi General Affairs director, SOGEMI

12.45 Conclusions

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Participation is free. Registration is required at the following link: https://eventi.unibocconi.it/index.php?key=ev02022026dt 

For information: osservatorio.smartcity@unibocconi.it

Photo credits: Conny Schneider, Unsplash