CEN/TC 465 Ad Hoc Group on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Learns about Technical Standards Used in BIPED's Digital Twin

Today, BIPED participated in a meeting on standards in climate-neutral and smart cities organised by the CEN/TC 465 Ad Hoc Group. Pavel Kogut of the Digital Resilience Institute explained which standards BIPED is using to build a Local Digital Twin (LDT) for a Positive Energy District (PED) in the Brabrand area of Aarhus.

The meeting of CEN/TC 465 Ad Hoc Group on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities

The base 3D model is created in CityGML, an information model introduced by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) in 2008. CityGML serves not just visualisation purposes but also analysis and simulations, because all city objects (terrain, buildings, vegetation) are semanitcally enriched and interconnected, and can be further enhanced using sensor data.

BIPED will use multiple models (energy, mobility, enviornment) to simulate pathways for PED realisation in Brabrand. These models need to 'talk to each other' so that data can flow seamlessly between them to enable a holistic assessment of requirements for PED development. This interaction is the responsibility of the Model Coordinator, a tool in BIPED LDT's backend that uses OGC API to bring the different models together.

All datasets used in BIPED's digital twin can be found in the metadata catalogue, which uses DCAT-AP standard to facilitate data and metadata discovery. The intention is to eventually enable BIPED's data and metadata to be discovered on aggregator platforms like the European Data Portal.

CityGML, OGC API and DCAT-AP are examples of technical standards with which digital innovation in smart cities can be improved. The Group concluded that what this field now needs is more attention to standards for PEDs: how to scale the "+ energy concept from buildings to streets to the district level, and how to ensure PED templates can be replicated across borders? This is an area for future cooperation between BIPED and the Group.

About CEN/TC 465 Ad Hoc Group on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities

The Group aims to develop an outline for CEN/TC 465 work programme on climate-neutral and smart cities, by a) structuring collaboration and integrating ongoing discussion streams between the CEN/TC 465 members and interested parties, as well as related EU projects and national platforms, b) conceptualising the interface and interoperability between climate-neutral cities and relevant digital programmes and initiatives, and c) bringing relevant stakeholders together and attracting their participation in CEN/TC 465.