Amsterdam faces an enormous challenge. Beneath the city lies some 600 kilometres of quay walls, alongside hundreds of bridges, many resting on wooden pile foundations that can be over a century old and are reaching the end of their service life. At the same time, the city must keep functioning for residents, businesses, emergency services and shipping. Together with the Bridges & Quay Walls Programme (PBK) of the City of Amsterdam, we built a Digitwin: a digital cityscape that brings all the information needed for this work together on a single map.
A recurring cycle
The approach to a quay wall or bridge follows a fixed cycle. Inspectors from regular maintenance identify what is wrong. A team of specialists then examines the structural condition: how great is the risk, how long can the structure last? In urgent cases, temporary measures are taken, such as a weight restriction for traffic. The structure then enters the programme, engineers design the solution, the contractor is selected and construction begins. After completion, the structure returns to regular maintenance and the cycle closes.
In practice, each step is a world of its own, with its own people, systems and information. The steps need to connect, otherwise friction arises: a survey that is not incorporated into the planning, a design that affects a heritage tree, a road closure that falls right in the middle of a busy events week.
Fragmented information, interconnected city
The information needed to make sound decisions is spread across dozens of different sources. Hundreds of spreadsheets with the structural condition of bridges and quay walls. A planning system with all urban projects. A notification system for public works. Real-time traffic data, maps of shipping routes, registers of heritage trees, data on houseboats, berths and boarding points.
We brought these sources together in a single spatial map of the city: the Digitwin. Not as a copy of the data, but as a working environment connected directly to the sources. When something changes in the source, it changes in the Digitwin.
Five capabilities in the Digitwin
We started in the Red Light District area. Below are the five capabilities we developed for PBK.
1. Structural condition of bridges and quay walls
The city maintains the structural condition of its bridges and quay walls in a large register, with scores per component. In the Digitwin, these scores are displayed per quay segment on the map, colour-coded by risk class. A user can filter by structural component (foundation, substructure, superstructure, waterside) or by a risk threshold, and immediately see which clusters in a neighbourhood require attention. Active measures such as weight restrictions and ongoing reinforcements are layered on top, making it clear which quay walls are already under monitoring and which are not.
2. Works and events in context
Urban projects, public works, events and road closures are displayed in the Digitwin on a single map, with a time slider that can be advanced by week or by quarter. This makes it visible where works coincide in space and time: a planned quay wall replacement that falls in the same month as a sewer project in the adjacent street, or an events week in which an important route is actually unavailable. Real-time traffic data can be layered on top, bringing the actual pressure on streets into view.
3. Mobility and logistics
Closing a quay wall affects every mode of transport differently. In the Digitwin, the main and secondary networks per mode (pedestrians, cyclists, cars, freight and public transport) are available as separate map layers, together with loading/unloading zones, delivery windows and heavy traffic zones. With a built-in calculation function, you can interactively close a quay wall and immediately see which routes and facilities become unreachable, and what alternatives are available.
4. Accessibility tested against policy standards
Amsterdam applies strict standards for accessibility during works: a maximum of 150 metres walking distance to a facility and 200 metres for deliveries. In the Digitwin, these standards are applied mathematically: for every closure or detour, the system calculates walking circles around facilities and delivery points, and directly shows where the standard comes under pressure. This determines before execution whether residents and businesses can reach their pharmacy or delivery within the standard, rather than after the first complaint.
5. Public space and waterways
Quay wall work almost always affects more than just the quay wall itself. In the Digitwin, heritage trees, sinkholes and subsidence, inland and main shipping routes, boarding and disembarking points and houseboat berths are displayed in 3D on the same map as the works. Per quay segment, you can see in a single click which objects are affected; for shipping, the system checks the standing rule that no more than one main shipping route may be blocked at any time.
What this delivers
The greatest gain is not a new map layer, but a shared operational picture.
- 🗺️ One shared operational picture
Inspectors, planners, designers and area managers look at the same map in every phase, with the same data. Discussions are no longer about whose figures are most current, but about the substantive choice. This saves rounds of meetings and speeds up decision-making. - ⚠️ Conflicts visible earlier
A quay wall replacement coinciding with a sewer project, a design that inadvertently affects a heritage tree, a detour that falls just outside the 150-metre standard: these signals now surface in the initial sketch phase. Work can be bundled or rescheduled before it becomes expensive. - 📋 Explainable and accountable
Residents and businesses can see on a single map what is happening in their street. Decision-makers can visually substantiate choices in council. And the programme itself can document trade-offs over the years.
From the Red Light District to all of Amsterdam
The Digitwin is designed to scale. The integrations, map layers and workflows established in the Red Light District area are directly applicable to the rest of the city and easily transferable to other canal cities and municipalities facing similar challenges.
Want to learn more about this project or the possibilities of Digitwin for your municipality?