Land-use planning through digital twins? Exploring emergent forms of land-use planning in the digital transformation

Over the past two decades, rapid technological developments have increasingly entered urban planning. One innovation that has spread globally is the digital twin, which is a digital model of a physical area that is promoted to allow for simulating different scenarios, monitoring in near real-time, and virtual testing of land-use changes. In Sweden, several municipalities are experimenting with digital twins as part of their planning processes, supported by innovation agencies, industry platforms, and research councils. 

Digital twins may fundamentally change conventional urban planning by introducing new forms of knowledge derived from maps and sensor data, influencing how planners interpret and use information. This raises questions about the values embedded in the technology, its impact on actor relations, and how the public interest is safeguarded when planning is carried out through digital twins.

This project positions urban planning at the center of analysis to explore emergent forms of urban planning pratctices that arise through digital twins.

This project is a PhD-project funded by the LTV-faculty strategic funding initiative for newly appointed associate professors, and is a collaboration with Lund University through Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren at the department of political science, and Neil Sang at SLU.PhD student is Sara Ringvall Sundkvist.