Paradigm: the first winner of the Smart City Challenge 2024 with the TreeCity project
Cracked roadways, lifting pavements, conflicting underground land use juggling technical networks and tree roots... Managing underground infrastructure in urban areas is a growing challenge for cities. With TreeCity, Paradigm is providing an innovative digital twin focused on trees, integrating their root systems for the first time.
This project, the result of a collaboration with bhg.common.blank_link_warningFARI (the Artificial Intelligence Institute for the Common Good) and several partners, is the first of three winners of the bhg.common.blank_link_warningSmart City Challenge 2024 organised by the Tallinn-based bhg.common.blank_link_warningFinEst Centre for Smart Cities, out of over 40 European entries. This ambitious partnership includes the Tallinn University of Technology (bhg.common.blank_link_warningTalTech), the cities of Tallinn and Helsinki, the bhg.common.blank_link_warningUniversity of Liège (bhg.common.blank_link_warningGeoScITY), bhg.common.blank_link_warningGreenTwin.ai and bhg.common.blank_link_warningFARI (ULB/VUB). Its aim is to model the interactions between roots and infrastructure – interactions that are often invisible but still have a major impact.
TreeCity will enable cities to visualise the invisible interactions between living organisms and infrastructure, so as to improve urban planning, avoid damage to underground infrastructure and strengthen the territories' resilience, all while preserving biodiversity.
The project, financed by the Estonian European ERDF fund and Estonia's digital strategy, is scheduled to start in January 2026, with European funding to be spread over two years. The initiative is expected to result in a GIS (geographic information systems) platform module within two years.
Find out more: bhg.common.external_link_warningread the press release.