DITUR: Digital Twins for Upscaled Retrofits

Project Description

DITUR (Digital Twins for Upscaled Retrofits) aims to stimulate group renovations using a digital twin dashboard for policy makers and contractors and an embarkment tool for citizens. The digital twin dashboard will provide insights on recommended renovations to increase energy efficiency in cities. The embarkment tool will support homeowners to make decisions on renovations and provide them with the information packages they need during renovation. The approach will be tested and validated with two different target groups: urban environment and social housing companies. The project will also report on the potential of scaling up to a broader perspective considering insights from consultations with society including the value network and business model for digital twin concepts in Flanders.

Role of SMIT

SMIT support the development of the digital twin dashboard by exploring which information is key to make informed decisions for policymakers and contractors. Here we try to find an answer to questions like: what are the functionalities of a data-based decision support dashboard? How can it support the current policy decision process or enable new processes? For this we deploy an affordance-based design process for the digital twin dashboards vis-à-vis the identified governmental and individual policy processes (cfr. the policy cycle framework).  The dashboard will guide them in their decision-making related to group renovation opportunities. In addition, SMIT will develop appropriate engagement strategies for policy makers to enhance participation in group renovations and energy-efficient measures in their cities. During the project, we will test appropriate communication and engagement strategies with guidelines and tools for city administrations to enhance participation in energy efficiency, identify the data-literacy gap and define specific guidelines to address and engage vulnerable target groups.