Munich strengthens frontrunner position with advanced digital twin

Munich – the city that will host the 2026 edition of Intergeo – has reaffirmed its position as Germany’s leading smart city, taking first place in the Smart City Index by digital association Bitkom for the third consecutive year. A key factor behind this success is the city’s pioneering Digital Twin, a virtual model of Munich that allows planners to simulate and assess urban developments before implementing them in the real world.

The digital twin project, launched in 2019 and funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, is coordinated by GeodatenService München. Its goal is to build a complete 3D city model of Munich enriched with extensive information and real-time data, providing a stronger basis for urban planning, for example by testing what-if scenarios. Augmented reality also plays an increasingly important role, offering planners and citizens intuitive visualizations of future developments.

Dynamic and data-driven backbone

The Digital Twin Munich is based on highly detailed geodata, available in both 2D and 3D, and is continually expanded through mobile mapping. Data from the city administration, the public utility company and the Munich transport company add specialist layers, while real-time data such as weather conditions, noise and air pollution levels, and traffic volumes enhance the model’s accuracy. Throughout this process, data protection remains a top priority.

Technically, the digital twin consists of an external showcase (GeoPortal Munich) and a powerful server architecture. The servers combine Munich’s geodata infrastructure with a sensor data infrastructure currently being built to process and deliver real-time information. At the core lies the Urban Data Platform Munich, which connects these systems and offers numerous interfaces to integrate further specialized applications, creating a scalable data backbone for the city.

Bitkom praised Munich’s strong citizen participation tools, well-developed car sharing network and high broadband coverage – elements that, combined with the digital twin, reinforce the city’s position as a national frontrunner in digital urban planning. With Intergeo, the world’s leading trade fair for the geospatial industry and surveying profession, soon to get underway in Germany, putting Munich in the spotlight serves as a showcase for the strength of the German geospatial sector. In this light, it is worth noting that the 2026 edition of the event will take place in Munich.