Digital Tools for the Development of Climate Neutral Districts

Keywords: Digital Tools, Climate Neutral Districts, Energy Efficiency | Study published: November 2023

This report explores the role of digital tools and processes in decarbonizing urban districts, focusing on both new and existing developments. It examines workflows used in the industry, sharing findings from two workshops under the framework of Sino-German Demonstration Project on Energy Efficiency in Cities. A key challenge identified is providing useful information early in the design process and integrating data across project phases and disciplines, as current practices often result in fragmented communication and incompatible software tools. The report reviews various software solutions for different project phases and suggests an ideal process with appropriate tools. It emphasizes the importance of consistent data management and communication, highlighting the potential of urban digital twins for holistic data representation and bidirectional communication. The study, conducted from September to December 2022, underscores that there is no one-size-fits-all solution but points to further development opportunities for more integrated tools in urban planning.

By highlighting the challenges of decarbonizing urban districts, this study emphasizes the need for integrated data management and communication and suggests that urban digital twins offer a promising solution for improving planning processes and tool integration.