Inception of harmonizing data silos and urban simulation tools using 3D city models for sustainable management of the urban food water and energy resources

This paper explains the first insights into the ongoing development of a CityGML based Food Water Energy Application Domain Extension (FWE ADE). Cities are undergoing rapid expansion throughout the globe. As a result, they face a common challenge to provide food, water and energy (FWE) supplies under healthy and economically productive conditions. Consequently, new tools and techniques must be developed to support decision-makers, such as governments, public or private infrastructure providers, investors and city developers, to understand, quantify and visualise multiple interdependent impacts for the sustainable supply of the FWE resources. However, a common practice amongst these stakeholders is to work in their data silos, which frequently results in a lack of data integration and communication between domain specific simulation tools belonging to different infrastructure departments. As a result, insights related to critical indicators showing inter-dependency amongst different urban infrastructure are missed and hence, not included in the cities’ redevelopment action plan. This paper documents the first ongoing attempt by an international group of domain experts from food, water, energy, urban design and geoinformatics to harmonise the data silos of food, water and energy domain for the case study regions of the County of Ludwigsburg in Germany, the city of Vienna in Austria and the neighbourhood of Gowanus in New York, the United States of America.