URBANAGE

Summary

URBANAGE is a European initiative focused on helping urban planners and policymakers harness the power of new technologies for more inclusive, evidence-based decisions. As Europe faces an oncoming demographic shift where its urban populations will consist of a higher proportion of older adults, the need for cities to offer better services for happy and healthy aging is crucial.

URBANAGE supports the development of age-friendly cities through the roll-out of a new decision-support ecosystem, co-created by relevant stakeholders (public servants) and users (older adults). The innovative ecosystem will bring together people’s needs and city data with new technologies including Big Data analysis, and Artificial Intelligence modeling and simulation algorithms, all accessed via Local Digital Twins with online Gamification features for enhanced engagement purposes.

Based on a thorough understanding of users’ needs, the ecosystem (tools, and co-creation) will be validated by piloting use-cases in three local planning systems in Europe (Helsinki, Santander, and Flanders).

Scope

Urban Test Beds

Helsinki
Santander
Flanders

Main Objective

To assess the potential benefits, risks and impact of implementing a long-term sustainable framework for data-driven decision-making in the field of urban planning for aging well in cities, by means of an engagement strategy with relevant stakeholders and users, supported by disruptive technologies such as urban digital twins, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and gamification.

Objective 1: To understand the implications (including potential benefits, risks, social impact, and acceptance) and requirements from the end-user’s perspectives (public servants and senior citizens) of using disruptive technologies for evidence-based decision-making and enhanced governance in urban planning for age-friendly environments, including their ethical and legal consequences.

Objective 2: To integrate disruptive technologies such as urban digital twins, big data analysis, and artificial intelligence in an Ecosystem of tools designed to support public decision-making and services provided in urban planning for age-friendly environments.

Objective 3: To validate the URBANAGE Ecosystem in 3 use cases (Helsinki, Santander and Flanders region), and evaluate its implementation with end-users to extract lessons for replication.

Objective 4: To develop a viable business model to ensure the long-term sustainability of the URBANAGE Ecosystem and tools and pave the way for market uptake.

Domains

Age Friendly Cities The URBANAGE project aims at providing a long-term sustainable framework for data-driven decision-making in the field of urban planning for age-friendly cities. URBANAGE will develop and validate a decision-support Ecosystem that integrates urban digital twins, big data analytics, predictive algorithms profiting from artificial intelligence, and gamification for enhanced engagement purposes. Based on a thorough understanding of users’ needs, it will be validated by piloting use-cases in the context of three local planning systems in Europe (Helsinki in Finland, Santander, in Spain, and the Flanders region, in Belgium). These technologies will support the analysis, modeling, and simulation of physical conditions for aging well in cities: accessibility and safety in all areas of the physical environment, including public spaces, streets, public transport, and housing, as well as the location of public equipment and services or the access to community services.
Digital Twins The URBANAGE Digital Twin is an extensible platform that allows modelling the city and its processes through a virtual replica. The implementation of the Digital Twin will be done by developing components to facilitate data modelling and mapping, geospatial analysis and data retrieval through web services (API and advanced visualization services). The modelling of the city elements will be achieved through the City Information Model (CIM) that represents the four layers that allow connecting the different elements which define the city and its processes. These four layers are citizen, urban planning, physical infrastructure and technical infrastructure. Functionality 1: Short-term decision-making support for city management (DSS) Universal accessibility is a key issue to ensure older people´s active and healthy living. It is important to guarantee day-to-day accessibility to services and amenities that older people use most frequently, such as health care centers, cultural and social equipment, public spaces, etc. URBANAGE DSS will facilitate the prior evaluation of the impact of different events and unexpected situations in the older population of an area, and to propose alternatives. Moreover, it will provide information and alternative routes and services to older people based on analysis of the physical urban conditions (topography, density, climate), services use and their usual routes, in the event of: works, breakdowns, special events, special weather conditions, and so on. Functionality 2: Long-term decision-making support for city planning (PSS) Planning for age-friendly cities will benefit from the creation of an age-friendliness index for neighbourhoods which, through a combination of different data sources analysis, will assess, with an integral approach, the readiness of an urban area to ensure an active and healthy living for an older population. Based on this index, and with inputs from historical data (also from the projects' Functionality 1) URBANAGE Planning Support System will allow for the creation and evaluation of different scenarios and alternatives for making long-term planning decisions geared at improving an area´s age-friendliness index.

URBANAGE

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Summary

Scope

Main Objective

Domains

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