As part of ongoing work on Geodesign and Urban Digital Twins, Dr Paul Cureton and Elliot Hartley (Garsdale Design) gave a keynote at SLU, Sweden, 15th October 2025.
By creating a digital copy of something in the real world, a so-called digital twin, we can better understand how it works, how we can fix things and how they might change in the future, for example due to climate change. We can both predict the future and manage and develop places through digital twins in planning. The new systems are changing the traditional processes and approaches in landscape design and are putting landscape architecture back at the heart of the planning process, putting environmental infrastructure at the heart of future development. Paul Cureton also mentioned the geodesign approach – a framework for shared decision-making – as a way to co-design digital twins (See Image). He also presented a methodology for a system for urban planning built on digital tools. Paul Cureton showed what a digitally supported systems approach for urban planning could look like. He also spoke about the need for more engagement in planning processes, the importance of including underrepresented groups, and that games and simulation are a low-cost method, especially for engaging young people.
A Blog Post on the Talk can be found here:
SLU Tankesmedjan Movium.
Paul Cureton