A NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS) coordinates the European project NexTCity, which is developing a Digital Twin of the Lisbon Low Emission Zone to support climate policy, through the integration and cross-linking of data on climate, environment and mobility, and the simulation of different scenarios. The platform will enable forecasting the various effects on air quality, urban heat islands and population health, supporting more informed public decision-making before the implementation of new measures, as stated in a press release.
According to the same source, the tool, through a dynamic digital twin, will allow real-time visualization of how this territory operates, create different scenarios and assess in advance the effects of different measures, reducing uncertainty and strengthening the decision-making capacity of the city management authorities.
“Cities today face increasingly complex challenges, ranging from mobility management and tourist pressure to adaptation to climate change and the improvement of citizens’ quality of life. Addressing these challenges requires new tools to support public decision-making. With NexTCity, Lisbon will have a platform capable of testing different scenarios before the implementation of urban policies, allowing more informed, efficient, and evidence-based decision-making. The knowledge and technology developed in this project could, in the future, be replicated in other Portuguese and European cities,” says Miguel de Castro Neto, Director of NOVA IMS and coordinator of the NexTCity project.
Funded by the Horizon Europe program, NexTCity brings together NOVA IMS as the coordinating entity, KU Leuven (Belgium) and Universitat Jaume I (Spain), with the collaboration of Lisboa E-Nova in the development of the pilot project. In addition to the creation of the Digital Twin of the Lisbon Low Emission Zone, the project aims to strengthen NOVA IMS’s scientific and technological excellence in the area of Urban Digital Twins and to consolidate Portugal as a European reference in the research and development of innovative solutions for smarter, more sustainable, and more resilient cities.
By providing advanced decision-support tools, the project aims to empower municipalities and public decision-makers for smarter, more sustainable, and evidence-based urban governance, contributing to the objectives of the European Green Deal, the European Digital Decade, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
