Co-creation Processes and Urban Digital Twins in Sustainable and Smart Urban District Development - Case Kera District in Espoo, Finland

Abstract

In the context of climate change mitigation, calls for methods that can facilitate co-creative practices and processes between different stakeholders in the development of sustainable and climate-neutral urban districts have been increasingly expressed in recent years. This has included calls for collaborative, accessible, transparent and open tools that can facilitate urban development processes and engage different stakeholders in the different phases and stages of an urban district development process towards shared targets on sustainability and emission reduction. In this paper, we present and examine two practical tools, 1) a co-creation model for developing positive energy district (PED) solutions, and 2) a digital twin tool for shared data sharing and collaboration, which were developed and utilized recently in two development projects focusing on Kera district, Espoo, Finland. The Kera district is a current brownfield area, which, since the early 2020s, has been undergoing a transformation from a former industrial and mass logistics area into a future mixed-use urban district with significant emphasis on sustainability and circular economy targets. We utilize actor-network theory (ANT) to explore the human and the non-human actors and their interrelations related to the district’s development. Additionally, we seek to understand the networks that emerge within both the co-creation process and the virtual urban digital twin environment and the role these tools have in supporting the formation and facilitation of multi-stakeholder co-creation networks. Finally, we aim to examine the advantages and disadvantages of integrating a regional urban digital twin and the urban co-creation process to enhance sustainability in urban development projects.