Chapter 4: Practical challenges for city digital twin (CDT) development

Previous chapters have argued that a variety of digital technology ‘components’ are available to develop CDTs for different purposes. It has also been highlighted how theoretical perspectives with a socio-technical focus are suited to explain large-scale technological transitions in history, and facilitate future, desirable technology implementations through contextually appropriate iterations that consider existing socio-technical systems (e.g. institutional structures, rules and norms, laws and regulations and professional practices). One such defining characteristic of the contemporary societal context across a variety of geographical locations is the multi-actor and multi-sector nature of policy decision-making, in which an important role of CDTs has been identified as technical artefacts (objects) performing and supporting boundary spanning. This role in turn requires that CDTs provide information for decision-making that is deemed salient, credible and legitimate by the actors involved. In terms of technology design, this implies that CDT development should prioritise a clear purpose in response to salient policy or practical problems, effective functioning to provide credible information, and facilitating trust across the stakeholder landscape in order to contribute to an evidence-base that is widely perceived as legitimate (Bolton et al., 2018).