BIPED Leads a Narrative on Transformative Planning at AESOP Congress in Istanbul

The Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) held its Annual Congress in Istanbul this year under the theme ‘Planning as a transformative action in an age of planetary crisis’. The BIPED team was at the event where, on 8^th July 2025, it organised two interventions: a roundtable and a panel presentation.

BIPED team at AESOP 2025 in Istanbul alongside partners from other projects

The roundtable was part of the track on Emerging Technologies in Spatial Planning. It explored how Digital Twins can enable urban planners and other built environment specialists to predict and optimise energy usage, reduce emissions, and enhance the overall quality of urban life for all. Various aspects of the BIPED project were presented and explained by Dr. Razgar Ebrahimy of Danish Technological University, Dr. Martin Traunmuller and Dr. Ali Hainoun of AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Dr. Ivy Yang of Open and Agile Smart Cities, and Dr. Aoife Doyle and John Sheils of KPMG Future Analytics. Insights and lessons from two other EU projects –TIPS4PED and Twin4Resilience – were also presented at the roundtable.

Presentation on the role of co-creation in monitoring and evaluation

Presenters and organisers at the roundable on Democratising the Application of Digital Twins in Urba

Presentation on how to create an effective monitoring and evaluation framework for Local Digital Twi

The panel presentation was part of a session on Digital Transformation. William Hynes of KPMG spoke about ways to ensure Effective Monitoring and Evaluation for Digital Twins. In BIPED, co-creation principles are firmly embedded in the M&E methodology. They ensure that Digital Twin enabled planning measures are technologically robust and socially and environmentally sustainable. Using the quantitative and qualitative data collected from end-users, the M&E analysis will identify how local communities are affected in terms of health, well-being, and socio-economic development. This final assessment will be included in a roadmap where all relevant economic, social, environmental impacts will be presented. The end result will be a solid basis for the future uptake of the Digital Twin solution by other interested cities.

Presentation on Effective Monitoring and Evaluation for Digital Twins