Autodesk Announces Salzburg, Austria, as First Pilot City of its Digital Cities Initiative

Autodesk announced recently that it will be working with the city of Salzburg, Austria, as the first pilot city in Autodesk’s new Digital Cities initiative. The Digital City initiative is Autodesk’s technology designed to provide a collaborative environment for visualizing, analyzing, and simulating the future impact of urban design and development at a citywide scale.

Autodesk has chosen to work with Salzburg to help it integrate its city data into a detailed 3D model of the city. Scientific personnel from Salzburg University‘s Center of Geoinformation will assist with the implementation of Digital City for the city of Salzburg. This combination of city data with realistic visualization and simulation tools reportedly will allow Salzburg to view and interact with the city landscape and to analyze the impact of future urban planning, tourism, and economic development projects before they are built.

“I am very pleased to announce the launch of this pilot project which holds considerable significance for modern urban administration. With Autodesk as a leader in design innovation and the University of Salzburg drawing on its many years of experience in the geoinformation area, we have two internationally acknowledged partners joining forces to realize this future project. The digital city model will help cities like ours better understand the impact of proposed urban projects,” said Heinz Schaden, mayor of the city of Salzburg. “This type of pilot program will help us better understand how we can create an attractive and sustainable future for Salzburg and its people.”

“Salzburg is one of the most progressive, well known cities in the world and so they are a natural choice to participate as our first pilot city. Our Digital City technology can help the city and community of Salzburg communicate, collaborate, and deliver projects in a more effective — and sustainable — way,” said Lisa Campbell, vice president, Autodesk Geospatial. “We are proud to work with them and our longstanding partner, the University of Salzburg, to create a business tool that will help Salzburg plan and operate sustainable development essential for tomorrow’s high-performance cities and economies.”