From reactive to proactive cities
Cities have traditionally managed problems as they arise. With urban intelligence and real-time data, City4Climate helps shift this approach towards anticipating challenges and acting proactively, especially when it comes to climate change.
The city as a platform
The project embraces the vision of the city as a platform, where digital tools connect people, services, and infrastructures. By integrating data from different domains, cities can coordinate responses more effectively and design smarter, sustainable solutions.
Why digital twins?
Digital Twins are virtual replicas of real urban systems that exchange information with their physical counterparts in real time. This means cities can:
- Monitor emissions, mobility, energy, and air quality as they happen.
- Predict how policies will play out before they are applied.
- Simulate scenarios to test different strategies for climate neutrality and resilience.
A transformative tool for climate action
Although Digital Twins have been used for years in industries like aviation and manufacturing, their application to city and territory management is more recent — and full of potential. They allow cities to see the bigger picture, integrate multiple data layers, and design policies that are smarter, faster, and more effective.
What this means for our cities
By using Digital Twins as part of City4Climate, Lisbon, Porto, and Guimarães are not only addressing today’s climate challenges but also building a replicable model that other cities can adopt. The result is a step change: cities that are better prepared, data-driven, and more resilient in the face of climate change.
