Key to avoiding mistakes in urban planning and expediting permits. The municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana is positioning itself at the forefront of municipal technological innovation in southern Gran Canaria by integrating digital twin platforms and geospatial intelligence systems (GIS). Within the framework of modernization strategies promoted by technology firms such as Esri Spain, the southern island council is adopting advanced analytics and artificial intelligence models to unify land management, bringing together under a single operational environment areas as critical to its economy as urban planning, mobility, and tourism development.
Juan Carlos García Palomares, professor in the Department of Geography at the Complutense University of Madrid and Director of tGIS (Transport, Infrastructure and Territory Research Group), explains that the urban digital twin represents an evolution within Geographic Information Technologies (GIT) and allows for “reproducing the city using digital mapping and data associated with that mapping.” Through this data, digital maps are created that allow for the evaluation of the complete life cycle of new urban developments, encompassing the study of aspects such as the distribution of public and private facilities, transportation, urban planning, and urban climate.
Its operation is based on bidirectionality: in addition to the initial reproduction, digital twins can be constantly updated with real-time data as the original physical environment changes. This capability ensures that any modification to a physical city is reflected in the model to maximize its efficiency. As a result of all this processing, a high-fidelity virtual reproduction is achieved, embodied in 3D maps or animated cartography that accurately reflect all these changes and their timing.
In contrast to the traditional fragmentation of data across departments, the implementation of geospatial technologies allows local governments to transform vast amounts of information into strategic knowledge. As Daniel Rojas-Marcos Sanguino, head of Local Government and Tourism at Esri Spain, points out, the current challenge lies in overcoming organizational fragmentation to evolve towards predictive management. The integration of municipal databases with Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and satellite imagery systems provides public managers with a comprehensive, real-time view of the municipality.
In areas with high population and tourist pressure, such as Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés, this analytical capacity is crucial. Territorial digital twins no longer operate as mere virtual visual representations, but have become established as operational centers from which to simulate scenarios, evaluate the impact of future urban development projects, and optimize coordination among public services.
The combined application of artificial intelligence and geospatial technology (GeoAI) automates infrastructure inventories, detects soil disturbances, and forecasts maintenance needs for roads and green spaces in the southern part of the island. For the tourism industry, which has a substantial portion of its mature accommodation in this municipality of Gran Canaria, having predictive models for mobility and flow management directly improves the destination's competitiveness and the quality of services provided to visitors.
Furthermore, the technological strategy contributes to administrative transparency. The availability of interoperable map viewers allows technical information to be made available to the public, facilitating the understanding of urban development projects and strengthening collaborative governance in the southern region of Gran Canaria.
