Heavy rainfall and its effects on the smart city of Dresden: Digital twin for simulating severe weather events

Flooded basements, overloaded sewage systems, flooding: Torrential rain can cause enormous damage and endanger people's lives. In 2024, heavy rain and flooding caused EUR 2.6 billion in damage across Germany. The Smart City pilot project run by the state capital Dresden and TUD Dresden University of Technology has launched a prototype of a digital 3D application that can be used to better assess severe weather and its effects.

The digital twin of Dresden provides a realistic model of the city. It simulates the effects of heavy rainfall of around 30 to 50 liters per square meter per hour and shows the potential damage to residential buildings in the urban area. In addition, measurement data on precipitation, water levels in bodies of water, and air temperature can be retrieved. The scenarios generated by the system illustrate correlations and provide valuable insights for urban planning.

The digital heavy rain twin is being developed at the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Technical Hydromechanics at TUD: “Bundling complex city data into a single platform and making it usable for heavy rainfall prevention is an exciting challenge,” explains developer Lars Backhaus. “This allows us to integrate previously abstract information into a tool with powerful capabilities that provides clear guidance to both administrators and citizens.” However, such a sophisticated system requires additional expertise: “We are very excited that several Dresden-based partner institutions from the fields of city administration and science are working together on this project,” says project manager Dr. Katja Maerker from the Environmental Office of the State Capital of Dresden.

A team from the University of Applied Sciences Dresden (HTWD) is developing tools for 3D visualization and damage calculation of residential buildings. The data is provided by the Office for Geodata and Land Registry, the Stadtentwässerung Dresden (Dresden City Drainage Authority), as well as others. In the future, the model will be expanded to include an early warning system and sensors to detect flooding in railway underpasses.

The online application is now publicly available at digitaler-zwilling.dresden.de. Users are invited to share their impressions and experiences of testing the heavy rain twin with the project team. For this purpose, an online survey has been set up at digitaler-zwilling.dresden.de/umfrage.

Digital twins for optimizing the circular water economies worldwide

In India, Prof. Jürgen Stamm, Professor of Hydraulic Engineering, recently presented the potential of such digital twins considering cross-boarder cooperation with regard to the global challenges caused by climate change. At a conference of the Indo-German Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC) in New Delhi, he showed how such simulations can be used to perform stress tests on critical infrastructure or optimize the circular economy in the water sector.

© Avinash Chekuru

Against this backdrop, Stamm said, technological innovations offer new opportunities for expanding the partnership with India, e.g., at transCampus with IIT Madras through long-term institutional integration, joint doctoral training, and bilateral research platforms.

About the Smart City Dresden pilot project

The Smart City Dresden pilot project is a cooperative funding project between the state capital of Dresden and TUD Dresden University of Technology that aims to promote strategic digitalization and sustainable, integrated urban development. It seeks to test innovative digital solutions, citizen participation formats, and technological approaches to improve quality of life, participation, and sustainability in the city. The project is part of the German federal government's nationwide Smart Cities Model Projects funding program and is financed by the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development, and Building (BMWSB) through the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW).

Contact:

Markus Jüngling
Communication Manager
Faculty of Architecture
WISSENSARCHITEKTUR - Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture
01062 Dresden
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