As cities expand, operational challenges grow increasingly complex: from traffic management to water and energy consumption in public spaces, and the maintenance of critical infrastructure. The need to monitor these areas constantly and efficiently is becoming more urgent, since a lack of control and security can lead to risks for citizens and higher operational costs for local administrations.

In fact, issues such as traffic congestion, environmental impact, or urban accidents have a direct effect on city economies. According to the AEOC report ‘Towards a Sustainable Model of Urban Goods Distribution in Spain’, such inefficiencies generate annual losses ranging between €15.1 and €23.8 billion, representing around 2% of the national GDP.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to find damaged infrastructure, deteriorated pavements, or public systems that fail to respond effectively in critical moments. What matters most is preventing these situations from escalating into serious incidents that compromise public safety.

Faced with this scenario, moving toward more responsible and proactive management becomes essential. To achieve this, we need tools that provide visibility, control, and the ability to react. Digital twin technology emerges as a key ally to monitor strategic areas of the city, reduce response times, optimize resources, and prevent incidents before they occur.

Main Challenges Hindering the Operational Efficiency of Smart Cities

Infrastructure Monitoring: The Digitalization Challenge in Smart Cities

Monitoring critical infrastructure such as pumping stations, electrical panels, urban HVAC systems, or water reservoirs remains a weak point in many Spanish cities. Despite frequent discussions about digitalization and urban innovation, the reality is that much of this infrastructure is still managed manually or with disconnected systems, which greatly limits operational efficiency.

This reactive approach is problematic because issues are often detected late (when the damage is already done), maintenance teams perform rounds without knowing whether faults exist, and there is no unified view of the state of the infrastructure. Each system operates separately, without interoperability, traceability, or real-time data to enable informed decision-making.

And most concerning: without historical data or predictive analytics, decisions rely more on intuition than on evidence. Sound familiar? If you work in urban management, you probably know this scenario all too well.

Inefficient Management of Water and Energy Consumption in Urban Environments

Excessive water and energy consumption is one of the toughest challenges for cities striving to be both smart and sustainable. The causes vary, but they converge in the same factors: lack of visibility, lack of control, and lack of integration.

Undetected leaks in public water networks can account for up to 30% of total supply losses in extreme cases, particularly in cities with aging infrastructure. According to Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2022 an estimated 16.3% of total water supplied to urban networks was lost due to leaks, breaks, and uncontrolled failures.

Public lighting often runs on fixed schedules without considering real occupancy or light levels, leading to unnecessary energy consumption every night.At the national level, municipal outdoor lighting is estimated to consume 5,296 GWh annually, costing €741 million.

The problem is not just environmental but also economic, operational, and reputational. Citizens expect efficiency, and administrations often lack the tools to deliver or demonstrate it.

Inefficient Traffic and Urban Parking Management

Urban mobility remains an unsolved challenge in most Spanish cities. Daily traffic jams and parking shortages generate frustration, pollution, productivity loss, and inefficient use of public space.

The biggest issue is not only the problem itself but how it is managed: without real-time data, heat maps, or occupancy histories by area or time slot. Decision-making often relies on guesswork or citizen complaints rather than evidence.

A study by the Foundation for Applied Economic Studies (FEDEA) estimates that traffic jams result in annual economic losses of €187.5 million in Madrid and €175.5 million in Barcelona due to lost time.

The same report highlights that polluting emissions cause 3.3 million deaths worldwide each year, with traffic as one of the main contributors. In Spain, air pollution is responsible for 31,520 deaths annually, according to the European Environment Agency.

Deterioration of Roads and Urban Infrastructure

The condition of Spain's road network has raised growing concern. According to the Spanish Road Association (AEC), “one in every thirteen kilometers of the Spanish road network shows significant deterioration across more than 50% of its surface, with potholes, ruts, and longitudinal and transverse cracks,” compromising both comfort and safety.

Road and street maintenance still often follows a reactive model. Repairs are made only after damage occurs: a pothole becomes a sinkhole, a sidewalk is fixed after a citizen complaint, or a street is closed due to an unexpected break.

This model causes a threefold problem: road safety risks, higher repair costs, and a lack of budget planning. Without a preventive strategy, interventions cannot be prioritized based on the real condition of assets.

Today, most municipalities lack consolidated data on the state of their road infrastructure. They do not know how long it has been since interventions were made, which areas accumulate the most incidents, or how deterioration could be anticipated using variables like traffic, rainfall, or pavement type.

From Uncertainty to Efficiency: The Benefits of Implementing Digital Twins in Urban Management

Can you imagine a city that can see everything happening on its streets in real time? Knowing exactly when a pipe starts leaking or when a road deteriorates before it poses a risk to citizens?

It is not fiction; it’s technology already within reach. And it’s called a digital twin.

Digital twins have become one of the most powerful solutions to improve smart city operations. Their ability to combine 3D virtual representations, data analysis, and AI-driven predictions within a single platform makes them a proven choice for advancing toward more efficient urban management.

According to ABI Research, the use of digital twins in urban planning could generate global savings of up to $280 billion by 2030, thanks to more efficient, sustainable, and prevention-oriented planning.

Urban Planning and Maintenance with TOKII: The Revolutionary Digital Twin Platform

At IMMERSIA, we have developed TOKII, a digital twin platform powered by artificial intelligence that centralizes and visualizes data in real time, analyzes it through interactive interfaces, and enables intuitive interaction within an immersive 3D environment. This solution is designed to tackle the operational challenges of smart cities, supporting more efficient and proactive urban management. It can integrate data from sensors, drones, CCTV, traffic lights, and even roads.

Infrastructure Monitoring through Digital Twins

TOKII allows the creation of digital replicas of urban assets such as pumping stations, electrical panels, HVAC systems, or transformer centers. These digital representations enable remote and continuous monitoring, including automated alerts, incident logging, and predictive maintenance. This makes it possible to anticipate when interventions are required and avoid reactive maintenance that causes delays and cost overruns.

One example is Comdiflex, which implemented TOKII to monitor industrial components. Using drones equipped with advanced sensors, the system captures changes such as color variations caused by corrosion. TOKII processes this data and sends alerts to managers when replacements are needed. It can even automate supply chain tasks, triggering orders for replacement parts and reducing downtime.

Digital Twins for Reducing Energy and Water Consumption:

Thanks to the integration of smart meters and network sensors, TOKII allows visualizing water and energy consumption in buildings, neighborhoods, or municipal facilities. Additionally, the platform detects anomalies such as excessive consumption spikes, leaks, or inefficiencies and represents them intuitively in graphs on 3D models. This allows responsible parties to act before waste increases or problems worsen.

In the case of Tolosaldea LHII, TOKII is connected directly to the building’s solar panels to monitor energy use centrally. It also integrates with the building management system (BMS), covering electricity and water consumption, ambient temperature, usage of electric bikes, and even ERP data from Odoo.

Data Analytics for Road Infrastructure Monitoring: Predicting and Preventing Deterioration

TOKII integrates with various data sources, such as IoT sensors, smart cameras, and traffic management platforms, to provide a complete, real-time view of urban mobility. By centralizing this information, the platform allows generating heat maps, visualizing mobility patterns, and predicting congestion. This helps mobility managers to quickly identify areas that require intervention, such as the need for more parking spaces, redesigning routes, or prioritizing public transport, based on data-driven evidence.

In a project with RACC, we implemented TOKII to analyze and improve safety across Catalonia. By leveraging IoT sensor data, historical accident records, and other sources, TOKII builds 3D digital models of road segments and categorizes them using color codes. This VR-based project makes it easier to identify accident patterns and bottlenecks, helping managers understand root causes and make informed decisions to improve road safety and reduce accidents.

Anticipating Road and Infrastructure Deterioration with TOKII:

TOKII also tracks the condition of pavements, sidewalks, bridges, and tunnels. By integrating data such as traffic levels, rainfall, and materials, the platform generates predictions of potential risk areas, for example, urban sinkhole-prone sections in coastal cities.

We also applied this analysis and visualization approach in the case of Fulcrum, where TOKII is used as an integrated platform for managing hydraulic infrastructure such as dams and reservoirs. Through the digital twin, managers can visualize data from structural monitoring sensors, topographic and bathymetric surveys, as well as historical meteorological and hydrological data to anticipate structural behavior. They can also share and visualize technical documents, regulations, images, and other files directly in the platform, ensuring an always up-to-date perspective.

Successful Applications of Digital Twin Technology in Smart Cities

• According to Hexagon, the city of Chattanooga (USA) uses a digital twin powered by data from 500 sources, including traffic cameras and weather stations—to optimize traffic management. The city has achieved up to a 30% improvement in traffic flow, increasing energy efficiency and reducing passenger delays.

• Virtual Singapore is another example: a project that turned the entire city into an interactive 3D digital twin. This urban model integrates real-time data on infrastructure, mobility, weather, and public space use, and allows scenario simulation before decisions are made, such as how a new development will impact traffic, which areas are most vulnerable to flooding, or how to reorganize public services to optimize resources.

• At Nanyang technological university (Singapore), a digital twin project reduced energy consumption by 31% and cut carbon emissions by 9.6 kilotons.