The second session of the Built Environment Technology Expert Panel encompassed an exciting discussion exploring how technology influences planning, design and people, Ruth Hynes of Atkins reports.

Understanding barriers to adoption 

Despite growing importance of digital tools and technology for design and planning, there remains barriers to wide-spread adoption of innovative technology. This requires exploration of how these barriers impact various roles in design and planning stages, and the critical digital skills requirements to address this.  

In addition to technology for professionals, digital engagement tools are changing the way we work with local communities, with benefits of higher engagement and creating more user-friendly digital interfaces for communities. However, the perception of technology and gathering data can create issues of trust in digital tools, a topic that will be explored in the coming months.  

As the scale and breadth of urban data generation and availability grows, there are increasing number of digital twins and data ecosystems available to cities, professionals, and communities. Within these topics, we will challenge ourselves to consider definitions and purposes of the measures, metrics and standards found within these. 

Critical to all digital technology is an understanding of how and where data is generated and stored. The data centres and network infrastructure needs physical space, energy and connection to wider systems and contexts. As the world becomes more digital and data driven, our cities must adapt.

Over the next months, working groups will take detailed exploration of these topics, to develop a critical understanding of technology and data ecosystems, and consider how these should be considered in the New London Agenda.