Sustainable urban regeneration is a key strategy in addressing significant challenges faced by cities resulting from rapid urbanisation, economic and demographic shifts, and the impacts of climate change. This study introduces a practitioner informed performance framework that integrates urban digital twin technology to enhance sustainability and effective placemaking in urban development projects. An urban digital twin utilises real-time data to generate a dynamic multidimensional virtual replica of a physical environment enabling more nuanced data analysis and visualisation. Despite their considerable potential, these digital tools are underutilised in urban regeneration, often resulting in missed opportunities to engage communities and conceptualise sustainable urban futures or to test scenarios ahead of implementation.
The urban digital twin project performance framework has been developed through the collaboration of public and private sector practitioners, researchers and various stakeholders employing both bottom-up and top-down approaches. This framework has been applied to Melbourne’s Greenline Project as a case study. The findings highlight the transformational capacity to foster urban resilience and enhance community health and wellbeing. Furthermore, this research identifies governance and implementation challenges that can be mitigated through collaborative efforts. This underscores the need for a robust framework designed to create vibrant public spaces that are in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promoting inclusive sustainable development
Local governments are increasingly adopting digital technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide services and to plan for future strategic urban regeneration projects. This transformation requires frameworks which focus technology on community participation, protect privacy, and ensure inclusivity as well as ethical practices and security. Additionally, these tools should be user-friendly and capable of delivering high quality people centred outcomes.