2026-03-25
Arup-led Digital Twin Project Wins ISOCARP Grand Award for Smart City Innovation
Arup’s Digital Twin Standardisation and Applications Development project has received international recognition, winning the ISOCARP Awards for Excellence 2025 – Grand Award (Realised Projects) for outstanding achievement in digital innovation and urban planning. Delivered in collaboration with the South Development and Sustainable Lantau Office of Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD), the project was selected from 18 leading initiatives worldwide, underscoring its global significance and leadership in smart city development.
This marks Arup’s third ISOCARP Grand Award, following previous wins in 2020 and 2022 for pioneering smart, green and data-driven planning initiatives in Hong Kong. The award highlights Hong Kong’s growing role as a testbed for forward-looking digital and sustainable urban development.
The project establishes a comprehensive and standardised framework for developing digital twin platforms in urban and infrastructure planning, aligning international best practice with Hong Kong’s unique development context. It directly supports key government initiatives including the “Smart City Blueprint”, “Hong Kong 2030+”, and the Northern Metropolis development strategy.
At its core is a robust digital twin framework covering both platform design and platform management. Platform design is structured across data, business and application layers, enabling secure data access, effective system logic and user-friendly analytical tools. Platform management focuses on collaboration, systems, data, applications and security to ensure trust, adaptability and long-term scalability.
The framework enables rapid development of scalable digital twin platforms from planning through to operation. Through an open-source approach and an application warehouse, project teams can reuse and adapt tools to support scenario-based planning, environmental analysis, community engagement and performance monitoring across multiple New Development Areas.
By providing a locally adaptable yet globally compliant benchmark, the project demonstrates how standardised digital twin development can enhance collaboration, streamline decision-making and support integrated, sustainable city management.
The project establishes a comprehensive and standardised framework for developing digital twin platforms in urban and infrastructure planning, aligning international best practice with Hong Kong’s unique development context. It directly supports key government initiatives including the “Smart City Blueprint”, “Hong Kong 2030+”, and the Northern Metropolis development strategy.
At its core is a robust digital twin framework covering both platform design and platform management. Platform design is structured across data, business and application layers, enabling secure data access, effective system logic and user-friendly analytical tools. Platform management focuses on collaboration, systems, data, applications and security to ensure trust, adaptability and long-term scalability.
The framework enables rapid development of scalable digital twin platforms from planning through to operation. Through an open-source approach and an application warehouse, project teams can reuse and adapt tools to support scenario-based planning, environmental analysis, community engagement and performance monitoring across multiple New Development Areas.
By providing a locally adaptable yet globally compliant benchmark, the project demonstrates how standardised digital twin development can enhance collaboration, streamline decision-making and support integrated, sustainable city management.
Learn more: https://www.arup.com/news/arup-led-digital-twin-project-wins-isocarp-awards-2025-grand-award/
Watch the video about the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xcn6TpGHA
Watch the video about the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xcn6TpGHA