Award Winner
Virtual City Systems Wins 1st Place at the CDR Award 2024 with a Project for Climate and Resource Protection
Virtual City Systems (VCS) has been awarded the CDR-Award 2024 in the category of “Environment & Resources”!
Out of nearly 100 submissions, we stood out with our innovative project, demonstrating how digitalization can contribute to sustainable urban development. This award honors groundbreaking projects that make significant contributions to climate protection and resource conservation.
Our Award-Winning Project: Urban Climate Adaptation with Urban Digital Twins
The impacts of climate change are already being felt today – from overheated city centers to extreme weather events. Our project addresses this issue directly: The Urban Digital Twin (UDT) provides an innovative approach to making cities more resilient and livable.
What is an Urban Digital Twin?
A Digital Twin is a virtual replica of cities – from individual buildings to entire neighborhoods and their surroundings. It combines data from various sources to design sustainable, safe, and livable cities.
However, our solution goes far beyond simple visualization. The Urban Digital Twin is a modular, interdisciplinary system that links:
- 3D city models,
- Urban planning tools,
- IoT and sensor data,
- Simulation solutions, and
- Citizen participation tools.
This “System-of-Systems” allows municipalities to flexibly choose and integrate different providers and software products, as it is based on open standards and interfaces.
Why Our Project Was Awarded
In the award ceremony’s laudation, it was emphasized how crucial visual understanding is for tackling the climate crisis:
“The truth is, columns of numbers, charts, and decimals are often not enough to make the challenges visible. We need to see how urban heat islands form, how air flows work, how trees or green spaces can help. Visual understanding is the key to grasping complex connections and involving as many of us as possible. Because sustainability needs all of us.”
Bartosz Przygylek, Managing Consultant, Unit Lead Corporate Responsibility, ifok GmbH Hamburg
This is where our project comes in: It uses digital twins to link complex data, simulate scenarios, and make solutions for urban development and climate adaptation visible.
In September 2024 Dr. Stefan Trometer gave an interesting interview in Business Geomatics about the now award-winning project.
From Research to Award-Winning Practice
The Urban Digital Twin was developed within the framework of a research project led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics and tested for practical applicability in the inner-city square “Am Salzstadel” in Rosenheim.
It allows the extraction of important information and answers questions such as: Where exactly are the heat islands? What is the temperature progression during the day, the cooling at night, how does vegetation impact, and how and where do airflows that contribute to cooling occur?
The further-developed solutions, such as PALM-4U, are now being used in many municipalities.
Shaping the Future Together
We are proud to contribute to a sustainable and livable future through our work. Receiving the CDR Award 2024 is not only an honor for us but also a motivation to continue advancing with passion and innovation.
DIN Specification “Digital Twin for Cities and Municipalities”
Further details can be found in the new DIN specification “Digital Twin for Cities and Municipalities” (DIN SPEC 91607), which was developed in a consortium of over 30 partners from municipalities, industry, and science, with the participation of Virtual City Systems.
We are excited about this great recognition and thank the jury for appreciating our work!
The team of Virtual City Systems at the CDR-Award 2024 award ceremony on January 29, 2025, at the Bavarian Representation in Berlin.