Two Cities, One Goal: How Wiesbaden and Düsseldorf Are Rethinking Urban Development with Digital Twins

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Launch of New 3D City Models

Düsseldorf, Wiesbaden, VCS

14. Juli, 2025

3D City ModelDigital TwinUrban Simulation

Two Cities, One Goal: How Wiesbaden and Düsseldorf Are Rethinking Urban Development with Digital Twins

Wiesbaden and Düsseldorf are leading the way in demonstrating how digitalization can be implemented with a citizen-centric approach. With their Urban Digital Twins, they are opening up new perspectives on urban space, creating fresh opportunities for participation, sustainability, and efficiency.

What Do Wiesbaden and Düsseldorf Have in Common?
At first glance, the two cities share more than just their location along the Rhine. Both are state capitals, both are actively investing in digital future-oriented projects – and both have recently launched an Urban Digital Twin (UDT) for public use. Two platforms, two approaches – and one central goal: smarter, more transparent, and more sustainable urban development.

What Does “State Capital” Mean in the Context of Digital Urban Development?

As political and administrative centers, state capitals face unique demands in terms of urban planning and data infrastructure:

Greater complexity: A large number of state authorities, ministries, and institutions requires coordinated planning and communication. Digital Twins provide transparency and tools for alignment.
Strategic role model function: What is tested in a state capital often sends a signal to the entire federal state. A powerful UDT can serve as a model for smaller municipalities.
Expanded data resources: State capitals have extensive data assets – but must also structure and make them accessible. The Digital Twin plays a central role in this.
Higher expectations for transparency and participation: As democratic hubs, state capitals are especially under public scrutiny. A publicly accessible UDT supports a planning culture that is close to the people.

These specific conditions make the use of Urban Digital Twins in state capitals both especially meaningful and particularly challenging. Wiesbaden and Düsseldorf demonstrate impressively how such projects can be successfully implemented.

What Is an Urban Digital Twin—And Why Does a City Need One?

A UDT is far more than just a 3D city model. It connects spatial data from a wide range of sources into a digital representation of the city. This “digital self” of the city serves as a tool for planning, analysis, and communication – used by public administration, policymakers, and the public. It reveals complex interrelationships, simulates scenarios, and supports fact-based decision-making.

Whether analyzing the shadow impact of new buildings, simulating flood events, or planning new mobility services – the Digital Twin becomes a dynamic toolkit for modern urban development.

3D model of Düsseldorf’s Old Town featuring the Rhine riverfront, St. Lambertus Church, and the Castle Tower in the Urban Digital Twin.

Virtual view of Düsseldorf’s Old Town – accurately represented in the Urban Digital Twin.

Comparison view of Koblenzer Straße: left shows the actual roofscape with existing PV systems, right displays a color-coded solar potential analysis in the Urban Digital Twin.

Making the Solar Future Visible – the Digital Twin Visualizes the Potential of Koblenzer Straße in Düsseldorf

3D city model of Wiesbaden’s inner city featuring thematic layers on infrastructure, building use, and urban planning within the Urban Digital Twin.

Visualization of Wiesbaden’s inner city in the Urban Digital Twin, featuring color-coded layers for infrastructure, usage types, and planning data.

Wiesbaden: Transparency and Participation as Guiding Principles

Wiesbaden’s Urban Digital Twin was made publicly accessible at an early stage – the current version is not yet final, but already sends a clear message of openness and participation. From now on, citizens, the scientific community, and businesses have the opportunity to actively provide feedback, contribute ideas, or even support further development with their own data and applications.

The platform offers access to 2D/3D data, oblique aerial imagery, 360° analyses, shadow and flood simulations.

A particularly vivid example is the integration of mobility data: by visualizing information such as the utilization rates of car-sharing stations, public parking facilities, electric vehicle charging points, and cultural venues, potential bottlenecks can be identified early on, enabling the development of alternative planning strategies. At the same time, the UDT serves as a communication platform – allowing urban planning to be presented in a way that is accessible to the public.

The technological foundation of the Urban Digital Twin is the VC Suite by Virtual City Systems, especially the VC Publisher for data preparation and management, and the VC Planner as a planning tool. Thanks to open standards such as CityGML and GeoJSON, new data sources – such as air quality, energy consumption, or heavy rainfall – can be easily integrated.

Düsseldorf: Visualization for Climate Action and Architectural Heritage

Düsseldorf is also embracing openness in its Urban Digital Twin – combined with a clear thematic focus: urban planning, architectural heritage, energy efficiency, and climate protection are at the core. The aim is to make the impacts of urban development projects visible at an early stage, enabling better assessment and informed decision-making.

A practical example: using the UDT, the city can simulate how a planned new building would affect airflow and shading in the surrounding area. Visibility analyses of historical landmarks are also possible – making heritage conservation significantly easier.

Here, too, the VC Suite provides the technological foundation, with a particular emphasis on high-quality visualization: the integration of photorealistic textures and detailed surface models transforms the city model into a precise and powerful planning tool.

Two Approaches, One System Philosophy

Despite their different priorities, both cities rely on the same technological foundation – the VC Suite – and on us as their implementation partner. From the outset, they have placed their trust in our expertise in data integration, 3D visualization, interface design, and more, paving the way for a wide range of future applications.

Data: The Heart of the Digital Twin

Both cities use a wide array of data sources:

3D base data from aerial surveys
Geospatial data such as ALKIS and LoD2 building models
Dynamic data on traffic, weather, energy consumption, parking occupancy, locations of EV charging stations, and cultural institutions
Specialist planning data from urban development, environmental, and infrastructure sectors

These data streams are centrally consolidated, harmonized, and visualized using the VC Suite. Interoperability is a key success factor: different data sources complement each other to generate richer information with tangible added value – even for non-experts. When data from different systems can be seamlessly integrated, the result is understandable and actionable insights.

This is exactly what the VC Suite enables: it unites heterogeneous data into a meaningful whole and makes its value visible – for departments and citizens alike.

Lessons Learned: What Municipalities Can Learn from Wiesbaden and Düsseldorf

Think public from the start: Both projects show that transparency is essential for gaining acceptance of digital tools.
Plan modularly: A UDT doesn’t need to do everything at once – scalability is what matters.
Work with experienced partners: The technical and organizational complexity requires proven expertise and professional software solutions.
Establish a data strategy: The value of a Digital Twin stands and falls with the quality and timeliness of its data.

Investing in an Urban Digital Twin Is Investing in the Future

Wiesbaden and Düsseldorf are leading by example—showing how digitalization can be implemented in a practical and citizen-oriented way. Their Urban Digital Twins open new perspectives on urban space and new possibilities for participation, sustainability, and efficiency. The decision to make the twin publicly accessible from the outset—even while still under development—underscores a strong commitment to transparency and participatory evolution. Feedback from administration, civil society, and academia is continuously incorporated into its development. The digital twin is not a finished product, it is deliberately conceived as an open, evolving system.

At Virtual City Systems, we are proud to support them on this journey – with solutions built on openness, interoperability, and real-world municipal needs. The future of urban planning is digital – and it begins now.

Explore the publicly accessible Urban Digital Twins of both state capitals here.

UDZ Wiesbaden

UDZ Düsseldorf

Image sources: Publicly accessible Urban Digital Twins of Düsseldorf and Wiesbaden