Arup-led Digital Twin project wins ISOCARP Awards 2025 Grand Award

The project establishes a comprehensive and standardised framework for developing Digital Twin platforms in urban and infrastructure planning, aligning international best practice with Hong Kong’s unique development context. Supporting the Hong Kong SAR Government’s Smart City Blueprint, Hong Kong 2030+ and the Northen Metropolis development, the outcome of this project addresses long-standing challenges such as siloed data, fragmented workflows and inefficient information sharing that can hinder planning and decision-making.

At the core of the project is a robust Digital Twin Framework structured around platform design and platform management. Platform design is organised into data, business and application layers, enabling secure data access, effective system logic and user-friendly analytical tools. Platform management covers collaboration, systems, data, applications and security, ensuring trust, adaptability and long-term scalability.

The framework enables rapid creation of scalable Digital Twin platforms from planning through to operation. Through an open-source approach and an application warehouse, project teams can reuse, adapt and share tools to support scenario-based planning, environmental analysis, community engagement and performance monitoring across various New Development Areas (NDAs) such as San Tin Technopole, Lau Fau Shan, Tung Chung, Lung Kwu Tan, Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen, etc.

By providing a locally adaptable yet globally compliant benchmark, the project demonstrates how standardised Digital Twin development can facilitate effective use of digital twin and data, enhance collaboration, streamline decision-making and support integrated city management.

Check out the full list of winners.