Let’s start by “filing” this under a few ideas so that readers might better understand why this article on city administrations creating digital twins of their municipalities deserves their time. It’s kind of fascinating, it’s partially a new vision of smart cities, it’s quite aspirational so far (some might say it’s mostly hype), and it’s an intriguing topic where urbanism, architecture, challenges like the climate crisis, and gaming intersect.
Trees are one of those things that seem to be staring us right in the face and which we only now “rediscover” through renewed walks in parks during the pandemic, and the need to face the climate crisis, where trees have shown the ability “to reduce city temperatures, absorb carbon dioxide and soak up excess rainfall.”
Most people who have not taken a specific interest in the commons have likely come into contact with them through public spaces in a city, urban gardening plots, and of course Wikipedia. Although most of us don’t necessarily realise that’s what they are and don’t spend much time considering what that implies. Breathable air is another form of commons we’ve grown more aware of with pollution and of course COVID and protecting that shared air by using masks.
As a growing number of people realise, climate change isn’t just about large-scale, somewhat slow change; it’s also about more frequent and more extreme “weather events,” like “hundred-year storms” happening two or three times in 15 years, for example.
This past Tuesday, we had a post about the city of Helsinki’s project to enable participatory budgeting with a card game. Both the budgeting aspect itself, and the card game, could be loosely grouped under the concept of “civic design.” To go a bit further on that, this short article by the team at Local Peoples can give us some useful pointers and closes with an overview of a framework.
