DUET, short for Digital Urban European Twins, is a European project that set out to test how local digital twins can support urban decision-making. The initiative focuses on creating virtual replicas of cities that combine open data, city models, traffic information, weather, noise and other urban datasets into one environment where planners can simulate policy choices before applying them in the real world.
The project was launched in December 2019 and ran for 36 months under the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Its pilots were carried out in Flanders in Belgium, Athens in Greece and Pilsen in the Czech Republic. In these locations, DUET developed a base platform and a set of use cases to show how digital twins can help assess the effects of interventions on mobility, air quality, urban operations and other policy areas. According to project material, the platform includes 17 use cases, accessible through the public site citytwin.eu.
DUET’s method is built around data integration and simulation. The project combines inputs from different city systems with high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to create a continuously updated digital environment. The idea is not to replace planning tools, but to add a risk-free test space for comparing scenarios and reducing uncertainty in urban policy choices.
The consortium is coordinated by AIV, with Hugo Kerschot named in project materials as a key contact. DUET has also produced a Starter Kit and published material to help cities understand the concept of local digital twins and how they can be applied in practice.