Customer cases

Municipality of Alkmaar

Digital Twin of the Municipality of Alkmaar

2018

start of the digital copy of the city

2025

Clappform is part of the scrum team

3 layers

basic figures, scenarios and expert analyses

In brief

Customer

Municipality of Alkmaar

Solution

Digital Twin

Since

2025

Goal

Tackling complex challenges in an integrated and participatory way

Data used

Basic registers and municipal sources

3D city model and geo data layers

National government liveability models

Satellite image analysis for parking pressure

Hydrological model results for water storage

Noise measurements from municipal and citizen sensors

Traffic and mobility data from external sources

Data for district heating planning

Key figures on residents, jobs and safety

The project

The Municipality of Alkmaar has been working on a digital copy of the city since 2018. Since 2025, Clappform has been part of the scrum team helping to build the future of this digital twin, as part of the Network of Local Digital Twins (NLDT). What began as a simple 3D map has become a platform where data, technology and participation come together.

All information linked to a location comes together on one interactive map, from city level down to street level. The platform works with three information layers and so serves several audiences: basic figures for a broad public, scenarios for the council and policy, and expert analyses for specialists.

The challenge

In urban area transformations, housing, mobility, energy, green space and water come together in the same location. Grid congestion, climate adaptation and affordability put the spatial domain under pressure. The data needed mostly exists already, but is spread across departments, reports and organisations. As a result, decisions are made too late and without coherence, based on static documents instead of calculated variants.

The solution

The Digital Twin is a data platform with a 3D viewer and three components: a geo tool in which data layers are switched on and off and combined, a layer that brings together static sources and model results, and a calculation and scenario layer that calculates and visualises variants.

The liveability module, to which Clappform has contributed, links national government liveability models to the physical data layers. This way, the twin calculates the social domain just as it does the physical domain. Open standards such as OGC and Common Ground keep components and data layers reusable for other municipalities and regions.

Within the Digital Twin, users can, among other things:

calculate and visualise scenarios, such as water storage during heavy rainfall;

monitor parking pressure based on satellite images;

plan district heating networks based on current data from various sources;

predict and simulate the impact of policy choices on liveability;

run analyses at street level, for example of noise peaks;

incorporate data from residents and partners, such as measurements from citizen sensors.

This creates a shared picture of the facts, moves trade-offs to an earlier stage of the process and increases residents’ sense of ownership. In Alkmaar, a citizen measurement of noise nuisance led an entrepreneur to make an adjustment, without any intervention from the municipality. A digital twin is therefore a means of tackling complex challenges in an integrated and participatory way.

GeoserverBetaSearch layers

Map layers4 layers

BAG buildingsKadaster · 12,840 objectsPublished

Cadastral parcelsBRK · 4,215 objectsPublished

Districts and neighbourhoodsCBS · 18 areasPublished

Aerial photoPDOK · rasterPublished

EPSG:28992 · WMS and WFS

Layer published/wms/building_plans_2026

Example of the solution, with fictional data.

More information

Want to know more about Digital Twins at Clappform? Read the page on the Digital Twin or get in touch.

Want to know more about the Digital Twin of the Municipality of Alkmaar? Open the twin via the link below:

Digital Twin of the Municipality of Alkmaar

How Clappform helps municipalities with data challenges

A municipality deals with a wide range of themes: from housing and liveability to sustainability, safety and the social domain. These domains touch directly on area development and call for current, reliable data.

When allocating resources, prioritising policy interventions and monitoring neighbourhood developments, current insights help municipalities make well-founded choices and adjust course.

Clappform offers municipalities one modular data platform that connects existing systems and data sources, checks the data on every load and runs thematic dashboards on top of it that match policy questions.

Want to explore the possibilities?

Tom Griffioen

Head of Business & Data