Towards hyperreal planning? Surveying practical uses of digital models and simulations in Hamburg’s public administration

As urban planning practice increasingly intersects with digital technologies, models and simulations are becoming central components of integrated urban development. Yet, claims that such tools either risk a return to technocratic planning or support better decision making are often made in the absence of empirical evidence on their institutional uptake and practitioner’s needs. This exploratory survey addresses this gap by examining which models and simulations are employed by the public administration of Hamburg, Germany, and for which spatially relevant decision-making processes. The analysis also investigates which models and simulations are desired for future integrated urban development purposes in the context of an urban digital twin. Findings indicate that while around two thirds of the currently used digital models are static representations of urban systems – such as data layers and 3D-models – the majority of requested models lie in the domain of dynamic simulations for mobility, the urban environment, and urban development. This suggests a pending shift from static to dynamic representation. Moreover, results highlight that sharing a pluralistic set of simulation models across departments could harness substantial synergies. Consequently, the study argues for public digital infrastructure capable of embedding computational advances into multi-stakeholder planning processes.