City Digital Twins: Projects, Models & Smart City Evidence
Explore the World's Digital Cities
A city can be modeled as individual objects and connected to data about how its systems perform.
Explore city digital twins and documented digital twin projects worldwide, from public 3D city models to connected or operational systems. Search SCD’s directory by city, country, implementation type, lifecycle, public access, and documented capabilities; individual project profiles link to their evidence and source material.
What Makes a City Digital Twin Different from Google Maps? →⌄
WHAT MAKES A CITY DIGITAL TWIN DIFFERENT FROM GOOGLE MAPS?
Google Maps and Google Earth offer remarkable ways to explore cities, including satellite imagery, 3D buildings, street-level views, geographic information, and navigation tools.
But viewing a city in three dimensions is not the same as working with an interactive digital model of its infrastructure.
The important difference is not necessarily the visual quality of the 3D environment. Modern mapping applications can already display highly realistic cities. The distinction is what the digital model allows users to inspect, analyze, simulate, and evaluate.
An object-based city model can represent buildings, transportation networks, public spaces, and infrastructure as distinct digital objects with associated information. Depending on the implementation, users can explore their properties, overlay data, examine internal structures, adjust environmental conditions, and investigate alternative development scenarios.
Each object can have its own properties: dimensions, construction materials, energy consumption, occupancy, operational status, and much more. These properties can be examined, updated, and used in engineering calculations.
More advanced digital twins can also connect their digital objects to real-world measurements, operational databases, and simulation systems.
These capabilities can turn a visual representation into a practical environment for urban planning, engineering, analysis, and potentially city operations.
FIVE EXAMPLES: BEYOND A 3D CITY MAP
The following screenshots illustrate capabilities demonstrated in Amsterdam's ZuidasDOK digital twin platform, developed by VERO Agency using Unreal Engine 5.4.
This project is distinct from Amsterdam's municipal 3D Amsterdam city model. It provides an example of how a detailed 3D urban environment can be extended with specialized visualization, exploration, and analysis tools.
Energy and heating-transition data displayed as geographic layers within Amsterdam's 3D urban model.
EXAMPLE 1 — VISUALIZING ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE DATA
A conventional 3D map shows where buildings and neighborhoods are located. A data-rich digital city model can also display information about how these areas function.
In this example, color-coded overlays represent different neighborhood energy and heating strategies, including phases of the transition away from natural gas. A timeline allows users to explore changes across different years.
Such visualization can help planners examine energy strategies geographically rather than looking at the same information only in tables or conventional maps.
Immersive exploration of the railway station environment at pedestrian level.
EXAMPLE 2 — EXPLORING INFRASTRUCTURE FROM INSIDE THE MODEL
Instead of viewing the city only from above, users can navigate within a detailed model and experience infrastructure from a human perspective.
This example shows a virtual visit to an Amsterdam Zuid railway platform, including the train, platform canopy, surrounding buildings, and architectural details.
Such immersive exploration can help engineers, planners, and stakeholders understand proposed infrastructure before construction or major modifications take place.
Time-of-day controls illustrate sunlight and shadow conditions across a three-dimensional urban environment.
EXAMPLE 3 — STUDYING SUNLIGHT AND SHADOWS
An interactive 3D city model can reproduce changes in sunlight and shadows as the sun's position changes.
The Amsterdam demonstration includes an adjustable time-of-day control, allowing users to see how illumination and shadows interact with nearby buildings and outdoor spaces.
These capabilities can support architectural visualization and preliminary examination of daylight access, shadowing, and building placement.
An interactive building cutaway reveals internal levels and architectural structure.
EXAMPLE 4 — LOOKING INSIDE BUILDINGS
A specialized 3D model can provide more than exterior building geometry.
The Amsterdam demonstration shows an interactive building cutaway with controls for selecting different floor levels. Users can reveal portions of a building's interior geometry and examine its architectural structure.
This capability can help visualize the arrangement of floors, building components, and spaces that would otherwise be hidden behind the exterior facade.
Multiple transportation modes are displayed as color-coded network layers in the same 3D city model.
EXAMPLE 5 — VISUALIZING TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
A conventional street map shows transportation infrastructure, but a specialized city model can bring multiple transportation systems together in an interactive, layered 3D environment.
This Amsterdam example uses color-coded lines to represent train, metro, tram, bus, cycling, and pedestrian connections.
The integrated view helps users understand how different transport modes relate spatially to one another and to surrounding buildings and infrastructure.
Such representations can support transportation planning, infrastructure coordination, and evaluation of proposed network layouts.
Images and demonstration credit: VERO Agency — Amsterdam ZuidasDOK digital twin, built using Unreal Engine 5.4. Screenshots from Amsterdam ZuidasDOK: A Digital Twin Platform Built on UE 5.4, presented at Unreal Fest 2024 and published by Unreal Engine.
These examples demonstrate how a specialized interactive 3D model can go considerably beyond conventional map viewing.
However, advanced visualization and simulation do not automatically establish that a model is a connected or operational digital twin.
A realistic 3D model may support data overlays, virtual exploration, building cutaways, or lighting simulations without maintaining a connection to the physical systems it represents.
Smart City Dispatch therefore distinguishes between:
3D City Model / Map: A spatial representation without an established operational-data connection.
Connected Digital Twin: A model with documented connections to sensor or operational data from the physical system.
Operational Digital Twin: A maintained connection demonstrably used for monitoring, analysis, simulation, or operational decisions.
Unverified Twin Claim: A project described as a digital twin without sufficient evidence to establish the required connection.
A 3D map helps us see the city. A digital twin can help us understand what is happening, evaluate what could happen, and make better decisions.
Curitiba’s municipal planning institute provides public geographic information through GeoCuritiba, including terrain, buildings, and a photorealistic 3D city model. The municipality documents the public portal and planning uses. This entry describes the existing spatial model, separately from the newer virtual twin initiative for integrated municipal maintenance.
Implementation type
3D City Model / Map
Lifecycle status
Operational
Public access
Project Website / Case Study Only
Interactive 3D VisualizationGIS and Spatial DataBuildings and InfrastructureUrban Planning
Dubai Municipality describes Dubai Here as a geospatial digital twin platform for government entities, partners, companies, and students. Its official documentation discusses 3D mapping and scenario evaluation. This listing links to the municipal explanation; access to the working platform is described for professional and institutional users rather than unrestricted visitors.
Implementation type
Connected Digital Twin
Lifecycle status
Operational
Public access
Restricted / Professional Access
Interactive 3D VisualizationGIS and Spatial DataBuildings and InfrastructureUrban Planning
Munich documents a municipal digital twin used to place planning scenarios in the context of its 3D city model. Public participation outputs include images, interactive applications, and VR experiences. This project description explains a deployed use case; it does not provide a verified, general-purpose public viewer for the entire twin.
Implementation type
Unverified Twin Claim
Lifecycle status
Operational
Public access
Project Website / Case Study Only
Interactive 3D VisualizationGIS and Spatial DataBuildings and InfrastructureUrban Planning
Pau Béarn Pyrénées uses a connected urban model to bring geospatial, engineering, and design information together. Bentley documents planning, traffic scenarios, utilities, and public consultation. This listing links to the vendor’s implementation case study; a currently accessible public interactive viewer has not been verified.
Implementation type
Unverified Twin Claim
Lifecycle status
Operational
Public access
Project Website / Case Study Only
Interactive 3D VisualizationGIS and Spatial DataBuildings and InfrastructureUrban Planning
Sendai publishes semantic 3D buildings through Japan’s PLATEAU program. Its municipal documentation describes open model data and uses in planning and analysis. The original research seed points to a public viewer, but that endpoint could not be confirmed by lightweight retrieval. The municipal source also provides a route to PLATEAU VIEW.
Implementation type
3D City Model / Map
Lifecycle status
Operational
Public access
Public Interactive Viewer
Interactive 3D VisualizationGIS and Spatial DataBuildings and InfrastructureUrban Planning
Viewer check: Temporarily inaccessible. Use the project source for context.
Virtual Singapore is a national 3D platform described by GovTech as a collaborative model for government, research, and planning. Its documented design supports simulations and spatial information. The retained source describes the initiative historically; it does not confirm current operations or provide an unrestricted public city viewer.
Implementation type
Connected Digital Twin
Lifecycle status
Operational
Public access
Restricted / Professional Access
Interactive 3D VisualizationGIS and Spatial DataBuildings and InfrastructureUrban Planning
The Boundary documents an interactive Wellington city model created with Wellington City Council and city data. The case study describes combining spatial visualization with real-time activity to support decisions. It provides images and implementation information, but a currently operational public browser viewer is not verified in this listing.
Implementation type
Connected Digital Twin
Lifecycle status
Unknown
Public access
Project Website / Case Study Only
Interactive 3D VisualizationGIS and Spatial DataBuildings and InfrastructureUrban Planning
