Around the world, cities are changing faster than ever, constantly making decisions that reshape how people live: where bike lanes should go, how new neighborhoods should develop, and which measures will bring them closer to climate neutrality. But how can planners explain their choices, evaluate and understand the potential impact, and involve citizens in the process? Answering these questions requires more than good intentions: it requires reliable data, a clear view of possible outcomes, and meaningful public engagement.
In Munich, geospatial data and the city’s urban digital twin are helping us address these challenges in practical ways. With OGC Connect iDays 2026 coming up in Munich on November 23–24, we are sharing our experiences of using data and visualization to support urban planning and public participation. We explore what has worked, what we have learned about interoperability and open standards, and why the success of a digital twin depends as much on people and communication as it does on technology.
At PlanTreff, Munich’s public-facing urban planning venue, visitors encounter an unusual view of the city. In the Data in a Box exhibition, a cloud of illuminated particles moves across a bed of white sand, forming patterns from Munich’s geospatial data. Visitors can explore different datasets and then reveal the maps beneath the moving points.
The installation, called Data Soil, offers a different way to encounter information that might otherwise remain in databases and technical applications. But its purpose goes beyond presenting data in an engaging form. The stories behind the visualizations lead visitors toward questions about mobility, climate adaptation and urban development — the challenges for which cities need reliable information and informed discussion.
The exhibition also connects data visualization with other forms of public participation. One example is a project in which students use Minecraft to plan their own neighborhood, giving younger residents a way to contribute ideas to city planning.
We see this connection between data and people as an important part of our work on Munich’s urban digital twin. Data and technology matter, but we also need to understand the challenges that colleagues and citizens face, and find ways to make the information relevant to them.
Building on what already exists
We began developing Munich’s urban digital twin around nine years ago. We did not start from scratch. The city already had a functioning geospatial data infrastructure, a geoportal and applications used by the administration. These provided a foundation on which we could develop new approaches and explore further use cases.
From the beginning, our focus has been on what we want to achieve with the data. The technology is not the objective in itself. We need to understand the problem first, identify the information that can help, and work with the people who will use the resulting tools. We refer to this strategy as a use-case driven approach.
This also means that an urban digital twin does not have to begin with a comprehensive 3D model of the entire city. Sometimes, existing geospatial infrastructure, a 2D map or a simple geo-dashboard may already provide what is needed to address a particular challenge. Starting with a smaller project can help demonstrate what is possible, build confidence among colleagues and create momentum for further work.
The challenges cities are facing are becoming more complex, from adapting to climate change to developing more resilient mobility systems. This means also discussions around necessary changes to address these challenges become more complex and intense. We need to make better use of the data we already have and find new ways to bring it into planning and decision-making and citizen participation.
Just as importantly, we need to communicate what that data means. A map or a geoportal can contain a great deal of information, but people still need a way to engage with the underlying challenge. This is one reason we have explored different forms of visualization and public engagement.
Making street-planning decisions easier to understand
One example comes from Munich’s decision to strengthen the bicycle infrastructure. Redesigning streets, particularly in the inner city, involves difficult choices about limited space. More room may need to be allocated to cyclists, pedestrians and green spaces, and this can affect how much space remains for cars and parking.
Communicating about these changes was not always easy. Discussions with residents could become emotional, especially when people were concerned about where they would park or how their street would change.
We began using visualizations based on the digital twin to show different scenarios and give people a better sense of what a proposed redesign might look like. We also used virtual reality to offer another way of immersively experiencing the planned changes.
The response from our colleagues in the mobility department was particularly encouraging. Initially, some were skeptical because producing these visualizations required additional work. They were concerned that if they offered this approach for one project, they would be expected to provide it for every project.
Less than a year later, they were asking us to use it across their projects because they had seen how it helped discussions with residents. Rather than discussing only statistics or abstract descriptions of how street space would change, people could see the proposal and better understand its implications. The conversations became more fact oriented.
Of course, visualization does not make disagreements disappear. Urban planning involves different needs and priorities, and people will not always agree on the outcome. But having a clearer view of the proposed changes gives everyone a more concrete basis for discussion and serves the democratic process.
This is an important part of what we want the digital twin to support: not just the presentation of data, but better communication about decisions that affect the city and its residents.
Helping residents see the future of Freiham
We have also worked with colleagues in Munich’s Department of Urban Planning on Freiham, a large developing district in the western part of the city.
As new buildings were being constructed, residents were already living among construction sites, with the associated noise, dust and disruption. It could be difficult for them to picture what the area would eventually look like.
We used the digital twin to help show the planned development, including how the buildings and park would look once completed. This gave residents a better understanding of what the construction was leading toward and helped create a more constructive atmosphere for conversations on site.
The situation is different from a street redesign, but the principle is similar. When people can see the intended outcome, it becomes easier to discuss the plans in context rather than focusing only on the disruption or changes they are experiencing at that moment.
These examples also show why we do not see the digital twin as a single application with one purpose. The same geospatial foundation can support different needs, from communicating individual projects to helping the city understand wider patterns of urban development.
Using data to support climate-neutral districts
Another area of our work is supporting Munich’s progress toward a climate-neutral city. Here, data and analytical tools help us steer and monitor how districts are developing, assess progress and identify where further action may be needed.
This work involves different levels of decision-making. Urban planners need an overview of district development, while housing organizations need more specific information on individual buildings to decide what action to take.
For example, data streams can help a social housing provider understand the refurbishment status of its buildings and identify which properties are suitable for different measures. Given the amount of work required to improve the energy performance of buildings, it is important to prioritize measures that can have the greatest impact.
Indicators, key performance measures, automated reports and geodashboards can help bring this information together and provide a basis for management decisions, including comparisons of likely impact and cost.
In this context, the digital twin supports analysis and prioritization rather than public visualization. The information needs and the tools are different, but the principle remains the same: data should help people make better-informed decisions about a defined challenge.
Building a connected data foundation
These applications depend on more than collecting information. Cities already have many systems, developed over time for different purposes. In practice, we are working with a system of systems, not one platform that solves every problem.
For the different applications to work together, we need interoperability. Without it, information can become duplicated and redundant, data may be difficult to reuse, and individual systems can become isolated from one another. Standards help us connect these systems and make information available for different purposes.
We are also developing and working with datasets that support more specific applications. One example is Munich’s city-wide lane model, which represents logical traffic rules and relationships within street space. It provides a basis for mobility-related simulations and analysis. We are also involved in efforts to establish a Germany-wide standard for building data, allowing information about buildings to be extended with details such as energy consumption.
Unique universal Identifiers for important objects in the city are another essential element. When different datasets can refer consistently to the same real-world objects, it becomes easier to connect and reuse information.
There is no universal set of datasets that every city needs for its digital twin. The selection depends on the use case. A mobility application, a building-renovation project and a climate-adaptation initiative may require different information. Standards make it possible to choose the relevant datasets from a set of reusable building blocks rather than creating a new, isolated solution for every task.
Technical standards are equally important. We do not want to develop solutions that work only in Munich. Cities often face similar challenges, even if they need to address them at different times and in different ways. Common technical and data standards make it easier to adapt solutions developed elsewhere and to make our own work useful beyond the city. Together with other cities, we start standardization frameworks that serve other cities to duplicate and reuse our results. This was done with Hamburg and Leipzig in the Connected Urban Twins (CUT) Project, where we jointly initiated a DIN Specification. The result is the DIN SPEC 91607:2024-11 Digital twins for cities and municipalities.
OGC standards are an important part of this picture. We need standards that support communication between systems as well as standards that allow the underlying data to be understood and reused. For example, we rely on standards such as the OGC Web Map Service to reuse solutions across systems and cities. Our collaboration with the Technical University of Munich also includes work related to CityGML. Effective catalogs and metadata are also necessary, helping applications discover what information is available and access it through a connected data environment.
There is still work to do, but these gaps do not undermine the value of the standards already available. Some areas remain less well served: for example, cities can become dependent on particular vendors for certain types of street-level imagery. As more cities develop urban digital twins and new applications emerge, continued work on interoperability will help build on existing standards and address these gaps.
Communication is part of the infrastructure
One of the most important lessons from our work is that developing the technical solution is only part of the challenge. We need to find the people within the administration who have problems that data and digital tools could help solve, understand their needs and bring them on board.
In a large administration such as Munich’s, with around 40,000 employees, this takes sustained effort. Some colleagues are enthusiastic about new approaches, while others are more skeptical. Communication is essential from the beginning and throughout the lifetime of the digital twin.
Our partnership with the scientific community is extremely valuable. In Munich, collaboration with the Technical University of Munich has helped us work on data, standards and innovative use cases. Other cities can benefit from similar partnerships with universities and research institutions.
We have learned that it is often better to begin with a manageable problem than to attempt to solve everything at once. A smaller project can demonstrate the value of the available geospatial infrastructure, encourage colleagues to explore further possibilities and help build support for the next steps. It is important to start, learn and develop from there.
An open digital twin as a basis for discussion
For us, the open urban digital twin is more than a tool for visualization: it can be a democratic foundation for discussion about how we live together in the city. The city administration works for its citizens, and our work is based on official urban data. This provides a common foundation for discussing what is happening in the city and what might change.
In the cycling-infrastructure projects, for example, the data used to present planning scenarios is also used by colleagues when the changes are implemented on the ground. That connection matters. Residents and decision makers can discuss proposals using the same official information, rather than relying only on competing impressions of what a change might mean. The difficult choices remain, but the discussion can be grounded in facts and data.
We are also exploring how artificial intelligence can help where there is a clear use case. We use AI approaches to extract additional information from aerial imagery, and we are working on a chatbot for the city’s geoportal to make information easier to access. Someone who is unfamiliar with web GIS should be able to find relevant information without first having to learn how to navigate a complex application.
AI also changes how data is consumed. The underlying data and metadata need to be ready for these new ways of accessing information, and standards will need to evolve accordingly. As with the digital twin itself, our starting point remains the problem we want to solve, not the technology we want to use.
Ultimately, our experience in Munich has reinforced the importance of bringing these elements together: useful data, interoperable systems, standards, practical applications and communication with the people who need to use the results. The digital twin is not an end in itself. Its value lies in how it helps us understand urban challenges, consider possible responses and make better-informed decisions.
Continue the conversation in Munich
We will continue these discussions at OGC Connect iDays 2026 in Munich on November 23–24. Join us to explore how geospatial data, interoperability, open standards and practical applications can help cities address real-world challenges.
Visitors can also explore Munich’s approach in person at the “Data in a Box. Stadtentwicklung digital, vernetzt und innovativ” exhibition at PlanTreff, Blumenstraße 31, Munich. Admission is free. The exhibition runs through March 25, 2027, and is open Tuesday through Friday, 12:00–18:00. There will be a guided tour especially for the participants of the OGC Connect iDays on Monday, November 23 10:00 am, please contact di**********@******en.de if you want to participate in the guided tour before the conference.
Register for OGC Connect iDays 2026: OGC Connect iDays 2026 registration
Exhibition details: Data in a Box exhibition information
About the Authors
Markus Mohl works for the GeodataService at the City of Munich. He is the Head of Geoservices and Digital Twin Munich. The digital replication is the digital heart of Munich’s smart city approach. It enables the city to address the challenges of a Smart City with innovative solutions since 2017.
Korbinian Kringer works for the GeodataService of the City of Munich. As head of the Urban Data Platform Team, his role is to enable decision-making and communication processes supported by geospatial data in various solutions like Munich’s Geoportal.
