At the Urban Digital Twin (UDT) Lab, we are dedicated to driving digital transformation in urban and land planning through strategic consulting, cutting-edge research, and innovative prototype development. Based at the University of Central Florida, our lab specializes in UDT and Planning Support Science, focusing on creating smart and sustainable cities of the future.

Cities are complex systems and fast-growing, which challenge urban planners and designers to clearly understand the interconnection of their economic, ecological, and demographic changes. Over the past three decades, many technological innovations have been produced to support the process of city planning, design, and management.

However, these technologies have yet to reflect the reality and complexity of urban systems. The problem is that urban data, modeling, and visualization systems are fragmented and limited to their data formats, with limited interoperability. In addition, most of the current planning support systems provide an abstract representation of cities and lack real-time data, which does not help an evidence-based and data-driven planning, design, and decision-making process.

We conduct cutting-edge research and develop Urban Digital Twin, which is an innovative PRODUCT that transforms the PROCESS of Urban Planning and Design. This Digital Infrastructure enables the data and city model interoperability to mirror the process of city changes and provide more realistic insight for decision-makers.

• Planning Support Systems

  • Automated Development Control Approval
  • 3D modeling and scenario building for Development Envelop Control

• Urban Data Infrastructure and Analytics

  • Multi-modal (structured/unstructured) and multi-dimensional (2D, 3D, Real-Time) data integration and analysis
  • Composable and modular urban digital twin system architecture
  • Urban sustainability and resiliency analysis
  • Urban disease transmission analysis
  • Camera imagery and recording location accuracy
  • Geospatial AI applications for sustainable and smart cities

• Environmentally Sustainable Design

  • Urban heat and pollution analysis
  • Urban energy modeling and analysis

• Infrastructure Planning and Development

  • Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), the built environment and pedestrian interactions
  • Smart airport, metaverse, and digital twins

• GeoDesign

  • Extended Reality (XR) for participatory urban planning and design
  • Web-based geospatial platforms and analytics for multi-stakeholder tasks