Genoa completes pilot mapping for urban digital twin of surface and subsoil

On 19 November 2025, Genoa advanced its plan to create a digital twin of urban areas and the city’s subsoil to support hydrogeological risk analyses, identify points of vulnerability and simulate flooding scenarios. The city reported the completion of an experimental project mapping four areas and stated that its conclusion will be presented during Genoa Smart City Week. The initiative follows further extensive damage caused by bad weather in recent days in Genoa and across Liguria and is intended to enable predictive analyses, simulations and strategic decisions on mobility, emergency management, public works and infrastructure maintenance.

Promoted by the Municipality of Genoa and realized with the Start 4.0 competence centre (established in 2019 on the initiative of Mimit) and the Hexagon group (a Swedish multinational mechatronics company), the project, according to the Municipality’s technicians, “represents a unicum in the national panorama: for the first time, urban structures in the city centre have been digitally mapped, above and below; data from surveys, sensors and technical documentation will be collected, processed and made interoperable in a single digital environment”.

The digitized areas include Piazza Corvetto; two stretches of the historic centre of Genoa, one of 600 metres where the underground development of the Sant’Anna stream had been almost impossible to survey due to difficult access and unpredictable water flows, and another of 900 metres that is orthogonal to the passage of other underground streams crossing the city; and Via delle Tofane in Valpolcevera, a road characterized by a complex network of underground utilities difficult to survey.

For these areas, all surface structures were digitized using static laser scanning, mobile mapping and vehicle mapping. The technicians reported that these tools enabled the millimetric acquisition of building fronts, road surfaces, vertical and horizontal signs, manholes, street and technological furnishings and other urban elements.

For the subsoil, the survey used georadar technology, which, according to the technicians, “made it possible to map all the sub-services, in particular the hydraulic ones, and to identify any element capable of generating interference, up to a depth of about three metres from ground level, such as, for example, the covering vaults of underground streams”.

To complete the survey campaign, the team used an innovative drone equipped with a LiDAR laser scanner, designed to operate in confined spaces or in potentially dangerous conditions for operators. This device was deployed inside the Rio Sant’Anna, granting access to the underground and enabling what the technicians described as a “unique intervention of its kind, never before carried out in the Municipality of Genoa,” while ensuring maximum safety for personnel.

The Municipality stated that the collected data will make it possible “to continuously monitor the status of networks, buildings and installations, identifying any critical issues before they turn into emergencies and planning maintenance interventions in a more targeted and predictive manner.” The digital twin is intended to simulate scenarios, optimize flows and improve urban planning, with reported benefits for businesses including greater operational efficiency, reduced maintenance and management costs, improved process control and higher security for people and infrastructure.

All data will be integrated into the Hexagon Smart Sites (HSS) platform, provided and configured by Start 4.0 in collaboration with Hexagon, and will be used by the Municipality’s SIT (territorial information systems) office. The technicians stated that the objective is to “bring data to life,” creating a digital base to support predictive analyses, simulations and strategic decisions on mobility, emergency management, public works, hydrogeological risk and infrastructure maintenance.