Urban planning is becoming increasingly complex due to the high demand for housing and the need for healthy living environments. To make well-informed decisions regarding this issue, it is necessary to integrate and visualize all data and computational models at every stage of a project.
The province of Utrecht has developed a methodology to improve healthy area development. This method uses digital twin technology in which plans for the living environment are modeled, analyzed, and visualized in an integrated way.
We call this methodology the GGO methodology (Gezonde GebiedsOntwikkeling / Healthy Area Development). For every municipality and every location, the GGO methodology is a reusable digital twin technology with which all necessary data of the location is integrated, simulated, and presented. This allows the impact of its own urban development plans on health, climate adaptation, and the environment to be recalculated.
Province of Utrecht shares new version of Healthy Area Development indicators
The province of Utrecht strives to optimally, systematically, and timely take health and safety into account when formulating environmental policy and implementing it. To support this objective, a set of indicators for Healthy Area Development was developed within the province, with which both the current state of an area and a future scenario for it can be made transparent. This concerns, for example, aspects such as noise pollution, air quality, odor, and external safety in an area.
This set of indicators can be calculated in the Tygron Platform. This makes it possible to integrate all data of the methodology and to simulate and visualize the effects of plans.
It is important to the province that the method is transparent, insightful, and can be applied broadly. At the beginning of 2023, this set of indicators was therefore openly shared with all interested users, including those outside the province of Utrecht. In practice, this means that any area in the Netherlands can be calculated based on the indicators. Subsequently, a housing development plan can be loaded (for example, a dxf, see How to import AutoCAD DXF files) and this plan can be recalculated. The impact of the plan is made clear in a well-organized dashboard.
On June 1, 2024, a new version of the indicator package was released. What is new in this version:
A number of new indicators have been added, for example in relation to greenery and water, and for giving a 'score' to heat stress.
The dashboard is now also available to all users as part of the template.
On this website of the province of Utrecht, you will find everything about the indicators, their background, and the approach: Handboek GGO Digital Twin Provincie Utrecht - Handboek GGO Digital Twin Provincie Utrecht (provincie-utrecht.nl) .
All users of the Tygron Platform can immediately apply this approach to their projects by selecting the template 'Ggo Template V2' when creating a new project:
They can also add the indicators to existing projects by downloading them from the Public GeoShare GeoShare – Tygron Support wiki)
We warmly invite everyone to get started with the updated template!
