Source: BN de Stem, Geert Nijland, 09-01-24. Photo: Joyce van Belkom/Pix4Profs
What are the consequences of a road closure? Where are the bottlenecks when all of Rotterdam heads to Breda for the celebration of the eleventh of November? A few questions that the new digital version of Breda can answer.
At the city hall, Breda is cautiously experimenting as one of the first municipalities in the Netherlands with this digital twin of the city, as the computer model is called in jargon. That ‘digital twin’ of Breda is part of the digital atlas of Brabant that was developed by researcher Joost de Kruijf, in collaboration with the company Argaleo.
According to De Kruif and Jeroen Steenbakkers of Argaleo, nearly four years have been spent on the project. “The digital atlas collects all public information available about Brabant. Think of the land registry, the Chamber of Commerce, municipal and provincial sources. I’ve really been surprised by the amount of information that is public,” says De Kruif.
All information can be accessed with one click
At the office of Logistic Community Brabant (LCB) on the Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) campus, De Kruijf demonstrates what is possible with the digital atlas. He moves the cursor across a large screen and selects a random street in the Zandberg neighborhood. “Look, every tree is plotted and you can see the energy label of all houses. You can see in the neighborhood how traffic flows and where the bottlenecks are.”
De Kruijf moves further across the screen to a business area and clicks on a random building. All kinds of information about the property and the relevant company appears in a clear frame. De Kruijf: “Policymakers in municipal offices can benefit from this atlas. For example, they can virtually visualize the effects of traffic measures.”
Infinite possibilities
According to LCB-manager ‘livable city’ Ruud Weijmans, the applications of the digital twin are infinite. “The accessibility of especially the city centers will be turbulent in the coming years with the zero-emission zones. Trucks and vans running on fossil fuels will not be allowed into city centers, including Breda’s, from 2025 onwards. That has consequences for inner-city logistics.”
“And consider the many construction projects in and around Breda’s city center: that also creates logistical problems, as Bredanians know all too well. With the digital city model, you can visualize these problems and test possible solutions.”
Over the past two years, the municipality of Breda has gained experience through pilots to learn more about the possibilities that a digital version of the city offers and what is needed for this. The pilots focused on several topics: cycling, the attractiveness and congestion in the city center, and flooding.”
With the digital city model, you can visualize problems and test possible solutions
Ruud Weijmans, Logistic Community Brabant
Gritting routes
According to the municipality’s spokesperson, the pilots have shown that the digital version of the city has added value for policy. “The digital twin provides insights that we didn’t have beforehand. For example, we now know better where cyclists ride and where cyclists have to wait long at traffic lights. With these insights, we can improve the cycling network and where possible adjust, for example, gritting routes during snow.”
The municipality has also experimented with the digital version of the city during events. “Based on, among other things, counts by laser sensors, crowding in parking garages, incident locations and the location of parked scooters, we now have a better view of congestion in the city,” says the spokesperson.
Discussion
The big question is now for whom the digital atlas becomes available. During a presentation of the ‘atlas’ at the BUas, it became clear how great the need for such an information source is among transporters. They are eager to be able to use it.
But it’s not that simple. According to Jeroen Steenbakkers and Joost de Kruijf, there needs to be a discussion about every part of the atlas regarding the usefulness and necessity of making the information available. Policymakers seem to be the only ones for now who can certainly benefit from it.
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