Public Summary Daniel Wondyifraw
Urban construction logistics generate concentrated CO₂ emissions, noise, and traffic disruption. This creates pressure on Dutch municipalities to meet climate targets and preserve healthy, livable neighborhoods. Yet many cities still lack integrated, real-time tools to monitor environmental impact and support operational decision-making.
The national LOKET consortium, involving municipal, academic, and industry partners including JADS and TU/e, was established to address these challenges and support sustainable construction logistics. In ’sHertogenbosch, this ambition connects directly to the planned Innovation Quarter Den Bosch (IKDB), a future district expected to begin development in 2026 that will explore low-carbon construction and datadriven municipal planning.
This EngD project contributes to these goals through the development of the Urban Digital Twin for ’sHertogenbosch (UDT-Den Bosch). It is a practical and modular prototype focused on environmental insight and sustainability monitoring. The system is built from the ground up to avoid the limitations of costly proprietary game-engine solutions and integrates real-time CO₂, noise, and mobility data with forecasting feeds, time-series analytics, and a WebGL-based 3D city model. It also includes ODIN (Open Digital Inquiry Node), a natural-language interface that enables municipal staff to obtain insights without technical expertise, supporting more accessible and data-driven decision processes.
The prototype was evaluated in simulation environments aligned with IKDB use cases. Tests demonstrated its ability to support tasks such as live emissions monitoring, noise and emission alerts, and exploratory analysis for planning discussions. Performance results showed low-latency data streaming (6–14 ms) and responsive natural-language queries (55–150 ms), with a high rate of valid analytical outputs. The modular architecture enabled rapid configuration during development and shows strong potential for guided municipal deployment.
A limited public demonstration is available at digitaltwindenbosch.nl. The full system runs in a secure localcloud environment to protect data privacy and institutional requirements. Future work includes integrating physical IoT sensors and deploying within municipal infrastructure to enable trusted live-data operation and real-world validation. This work moves beyond visual demonstration toward practical digital-twin capability for environmental decision-support in cities. It establishes a foundation that can expand to include emissions analysis, mobility insight, and sensor-driven monitoring. The system is designed to integrate with municipal workflows and infrastructure. The approach aligns with LOKET priorities for open, adaptable technology and contributes to Dutch sustainability goals by supporting data-driven planning and cleaner urban development.