This digital reflection connects complex infrastructural, social, economic and environmental systems with the decisions being made by the council and their impacts on communities.

This ability to connect decisions and impacts comes from the evolving architecture of the digital twin. The base course of the digital twin is made of data, whether it’s models of buildings and assets, surface or regulatory data, or real-time data from sensors or business processes. This data can then be shared and used for analysis or prediction. The final component of the digital twin is the experience layer. This allows people to see and use the data. In the past five years the evolving digital twin has been used to assist in earthquake response, the creation of Wellington’s Resilience Strategy, urban planning, public engagement on climate change and social harm reduction. The digital twin helps the council to coordinate growth, communicate what its investments can mean for the city and understand the longer-term future of climate adaptation.