Project Challenge
Urban Digital Twin (UDT) emerges as a promising solution to bridge the gap between indoor and outdoor spaces for an integrated thermal environment evaluation. However, creating a UDT indeed presents multiple ethical concerns that could potentially leave disadvantaged communities behind. This project introduces the concept of an Ethical Urban Digital Twin, specifically tailored for the Westside neighborhood.
CIVIC-PG Track A: Create an Ethical Urban Digital Twin to Co-design Heat Mitigations for Integrated Indoor and Outdoor Environments
San Antonio Historic Westside
NSF Award ID: 2430700
PI: Wei Zhai, The University of Texas at San Antonio
2024 Civic Innovation Challenge
Pilot Vision
- Co-create digital twins with residents to improve the co-design of heat-resilient home rehab strategies
- Leverage civic engagement, such as Cool Home Coalition to help overcome institutional obstacles that restrict access to heat mitigation resources
- Develop a Cool Home Platform, fostering a collaborative learning environment where residents, community organizations, and stakeholders can share best practices for heat mitigation
- Sponsor Westside middle and high school students to participate in the UTSA Pre-Freshman Engineering Program (PREP), providing them with early exposure to STEM education and career pathways
Civic Partners:
- Historic Westside Residents Association
- City of San Antonio
- Esperanza Community Land Trust
Research Questions
- How to build an Ethical Urban Digital Twin for communities to mitigate heat?
- Whether co-created digital twins improve the co-design of heat-resilient home rehab strategies?
- Whether civic engagement helps overcome institutional obstacles that restrict access to heat mitigation resources?
The team used LiDAR sensor and Insta360 camera to collect 3D data
The team hosted a community workshop