City Information Modelling: A Conceptual Framework for Research and Practice in Digital Urban Planning

Abstract

The digitalization of the urban development process is driven by the need for informed, evidence-based, collaborative and participative urban planning and decision-making, epitomized in the concept of Smart Cities. This digital transformation is enabled by information technology developments in fields such as 3D city models, Digital Twins, Urban Analytics and Informatics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Planning Support Systems (PSS). In this context, City Information Modelling (CIM) has recently emerged as a concept related to these various technological driving forces. In this article, we review the state of the art of CIM (definitions and applications) in the academic literature and propose a definition and a general conceptual framework. By highlighting how the different disciplines are related to each other within this conceptual framework, we offer a context for transdisciplinary work, and focus on integration challenges, for research and development, both in academia and industry. This will contribute to moving forward the debate on digitalization of the built environment development process in the field of Smart Cities.