Optimising Cruise Passenger Flow Using ABM: First Steps towards an Urban Digital Twin

This paper reports the application of agent-based models (ABM) for modelling and simulating human flows in the urban environment, using the specific example of the transit of cruise tourism between urban arrival points and cruise terminals in port cities. Findings from the Port City Model project, a collaboration between the Hamburg Port Authority, HCU CityScienceLab and MIT Media Lab's City Science Group, are a first step towards the implementation of a Digital Twin Strategy. The project examines flows and routes in the city of Hamburg, where a significant proportion of cruise passengers arrive in the city via the Central Train Station. Due to its size and the sheer number of passenger, Hamburg Central Station becomes a major European bottleneck, especially as a point of multimodal land transportation related to cruise tourism. The Spatial orientation and perception of incoming cruise passengers, making their way to the respective cruise terminals, are identified as a major challenge. Hence, the Port City Model aims to enhance the comfort and efficiency of cruise tourists in transit by testing alternative mobility scenarios. This research acknowledges that the potential of optimising ports and port-related mobility processes is a main priority and seeks to effect improvement, in relation to the entire city-harbour system.