The MIT Media Lab City Science team and member company NTT Data began a collaborative research project in 2021 with the goal to enable more livable, equitable, and resilient communities in the context of Rome, Italy. For this project, the teams will explore the concept of a 15-minute city using various urban simulations to analyze existing conditions and to propose new interventions. 

The simulation will form the base for an interactive user interface to examine land use and mobility scenarios with an aim to also understand and quantify the impact of the proposed scenarios. The tool’s urban performance dashboard will enable users to make inputs and simulate results to best evaluate potential scenarios. 

The teams will further refine a specific area of Rome for this study—to address its challenges, explore innovative solutions, and provide insights on possible interventions to improve livability.  In the coming months, City Science and NTT DATA plan to share a digital version of the CityScope, hoping to further enable a walkable and accessible community. These findings may offer insight into other communities in Rome and beyond as we strive to enable more sustainable and resilient neighborhoods.

To highlight the team's vision and ongoing collaboration, Eiji Yoshida and Kent Larson  spoke at the NTT DATA Innovation Conference 2022 in the NTT DATA digital twin is changing the future! session. View their talks here to learn more about the proposed research and ongoing collaboration.