Narrowing the Implementation Gap

Abstract

Developing new digital tools to fit the needs of communicative urban and green area planning requires understanding of the various prospective user groups, the different contexts of use, the planning tasks, and the communicative activities at hand. However, it is not self-evident that user research can be applied in research and innovation projects with limited human and time resources. In this article, a user-centered design (UCD) approach is applied in the development of new collaborative 3D tools for urban and green area planning in a multidisciplinary research team in the GreenTwins project. This research shows how essential it is to select easy-to-learn user research methods, identify the knowledge needs for tool development, and ensure that user insight is transmitted to development. In the GreenTwins project, this was achieved by applying a simple UCD framework (PACT) and engaging the research and development team in the process. Despite the challenges, the results show that the methodology used was beneficial.

Low-Cost 3D Virtual and Dynamic Reconstruction Approach for Urban Forests: The Mesiano University Park

“…Indeed, the larger framework of this exploration is ongoing research investigating the development of a Territorial Digital Twin (TDT)-of which forest digital twins would be essential components-as a multiscale 3D digital copy of fragile landscapes to increase their resilience [36]. Specifically, even if the modelling of the natural environment has only recently started to be developed in urban digital twins (e.g., the GreenTwins project for Helsinki and Tallinn [37]), it seems crucial to address the rising importance of urban vegetation for the well-being of citizens.…”

The Renewal of the Finnish Planning Legislation as a Strategy of Urban Planning and Development

“…However, RYTJ does not recognise the use of digital urban data that are produced by non-public actors. Nevertheless, there is ongoing research on digital twins that does recognise civil engagement in data production [35]. The definition of digital planning material and immaterial rights will probably have to be specified later in RYTJ from the perspective of third parties or commercial use.…”

“…However, the proposed Building Act in Finland implies the use of 3D planning, and CIM-and BIM-based building requirements without explicit reference to the digital empowerment of civil society. Recently, some of the experiments on digital twins have disclosed that without the adoption of a flat ontology perspective, digital empowerment deepens only the public participation of activists but not self-organisation [35].…”

“…The latter is more advanced than CIM, as it contains semantic information about its focus, as well as online information. It can also serve as a platform for simulations [35].…”