Research and analysis
Towards a digital twin for urban transport
Making real-time transport-related open data through the Urban Observatories' sensor networks to support digital twin development.
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Details
This report summarises the work undertaken by the Urban Observatories in Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle, on behalf of the Department for Transport, to improve the discoverability, accessibility and quality of transport-related data from their sensor networks.
This project included:
- a scalable shared data platform for sensor data
- an agreed standards approach
- a long list of potential use cases for sensor data
- detailed use cases on using sensors to collect and visualise black carbon, sensor-informed modelling of low-traffic neighbourhoods and artificial intelligence-based forecasting and simulation in real-time
It provides a blueprint for how this work could be taken forward in other urban areas. It is also an important step forward in the development of an urban transport digital twin to support decarbonisation, levelling up and connectivity agendas.