Samenvatting

In 2030, more than 80% of the Dutch population will live in urban areas. This rapid urbanization brings significant challenges, such as air pollution, a shortage of green spaces, heat stress, and other urgent issues that threaten our living environment, but it also offers opportunities: the chance to collaboratively create healthy cities that not only improve the well-being of today but also that of future generations. Healthy cities contribute directly to better physical and mental health and a higher quality of life. The question is: how do we build a future-proof, healthy living environment that simultaneously addresses the challenges of climate change and the energy transition, and how can we use Digital Twins (DTs) for this?
For the municipality of Veenendaal, this situation is particularly relevant, as a significant increase in the number of residents is expected in the coming years, along with corresponding construction plans. This PD trajectory will investigate how local digital twins (LDTs) can be responsibly designed and deployed to tackle these challenges, so that decisions can be made based on multiple data sources and citizens' trust in the government is enhanced. The knowledge gap exists at the municipality of Veenendaal in terms of sharing data from multiple sources, whether LDTs can be used for that, how this could be done, and how we simultaneously improve the relationship between government and citizens. Additionally, there is a national knowledge gap, or rather a need for knowledge development concerning how to make DTs interoperable, whether standards will assist in that, and how we share them with one another, and probably most importantly, how do we share all knowledge and experiences so that not everyone has to 'reinvent the wheel.'