Introduction

As cities worldwide face unprecedented challenges from rapid urbanization and digital transformation, innovative approaches are needed to tackle infrastructure pressures, climate resilience, social equity, and sustainability.

To explore these solutions, the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation (GIUI), in partnership with the Metaverse Institute (MI), has released Use Cases of People-Centered “Citiverse”. The report presents the Citiverse vision: a human-centered approach that leverages digital tools—such as AI, blockchain, and digital twins—to create more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable urban futures. The Metaverse Institute is composed of leading experts in the metaverse, AI, and related technologies, committed to advancing a people-focused digital ecosystem.

The Barcelona Time Pact / Time Use Initiative recently interviewed Nicholas You, GIUI Executive Director and one of the report’s lead contributors. Nicholas is a global authority on sustainable urban development, with over 30 years of international experience, including senior roles at UN-Habitat and training programs for more than 1,000 city leaders worldwide. The interview highlights insights on AI governance, digital public services, social equity, and the Citiverse’s potential to shape the cities of tomorrow.

A Note Before We Begin

Let’s be clear from the outset: the rise of AI and the metaverse is not an unalloyed good. For every exciting promise of a new creative medium or a solution to a complex problem, there is an equally valid fear about job displacement, loss of privacy, and a future where machines dictate human and societal outcomes.

I share these concerns. The speed of this change is dizzying, and the stakes - for our economies, our freedoms, and our very way of life - could not be higher. To ignore the potential pitfalls would be irresponsible.

Yet, I believe that surrendering to dystopia is equally irresponsible. My responses in this interview are founded on a core conviction: our trajectory is not predetermined. The digital transition will be what we make it. If we anchor every development in a people-centred ethos, if we measure progress not by technological sophistication but by its ability to create a more equitable, sustainable, and humane world, then we can steer this powerful force toward immense positive change. This is not about building a new world to escape the old one; it is about using new tools to fix the one we have and the one we will bequeath to future generations.

1. Definition of Citiverse and Underlying Principles & Technologies

The Citiverse is a concept coined by several of us working on the metaverse and the city simultaneously. It is made up of “CITIzen” and “metaVERSE”. Its underlying principle is a people-centred approach – one that ensures that technology serves citizens’ needs, promotes inclusivity, and bridges digital divides.  Other principles include social, economic, and environmental sustainability. It embodies the principle of collaboration and acknowledges the importance of multi-stakeholder involvement in planning, design, and implementation.

Some of the core technologies enabling the Citiverse include: “Simulation, Planning and Design: digital twins, AI analytics"; "Interaction & Experience: AR/VR"; "Data & Infrastructure: IoT, cloud computing, data visualisation", and “Transparency and Accountability: blockchain, digital twins, etc.  A digital twin is a potentially powerful tool, as it enables predictive urbanism, allowing planning and design solutions to be tested for their impact before decisions are made. The Mayor of Moscow utilises the digital twin of Moscow to inform public policy as well as the day-to-day management of the city. Istanbul is a world leader in using a digital twin of the city to assess the vulnerability of buildings and infrastructure to earthquakes, as well as a tool to help manage disaster response in real-time.  

2. Reasons for Global Traction and Inspiration for Cities like Barcelona

The Citiverse is gaining traction because it offers a new toolkit for solving age-old urban problems that have been intensified by recent global crises. These include the increasingly complex challenges of rapid urbanisation and immigration, infrastructure strain, and climate change, all of which require innovative solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed many structural weaknesses in our cities that had been papered over during “normal” times. Overcoming these structural weaknesses requires more effective decision-making based on better data and trend analysis, as well as the optimal use of human, technical, and financial resources – all of which can be significantly enhanced by the judicious use of digital tools. Digital tools also enable stakeholders and planners to simulate the impact of decisions in a virtual environment before implementing them in the real world.

Barcelona already has a strong foundation in innovative city initiatives (e.g., supercomputing capabilities, digital twin projects), which enables the city to leverage the Citiverse to enhance its already renowned urban planning model, its innovative approach to reducing motor vehicle use, and to expand user-friendly public spaces.  

3. Urban Challenges Addressed by Citiverse

The Citiverse can help tackle a wide range of urban challenges, including:

- Mobility and traffic management: Simulating traffic patterns to reduce congestion and improve public transport efficiency.

- Sustainability and resilience: Modelling climate impacts (e.g., flooding, heat waves, drought, etc.) and optimising energy and water use.

- Public service delivery: Improving accessibility to education, health, and caring services for the vulnerable, as well as emergency response.

- Inclusive participation: Engaging citizens in co-designing urban spaces through virtual town halls and participatory budgeting.

- Tourism and cultural preservation: Creating digital replicas of heritage sites for virtual tourism and conservation.

The core promise of the Citiverse is to break down silos. Instead of dealing with traffic, energy, and housing separately, we can model them as a single ecosystem. This interoperability enables us to address specific problems, such as land, water, energy, waste, mobility in relation to the economy (production and consumption), accessibility, affordability, and health and wellbeing. We are not quite there yet.  

4. Real Case Study: Improving Time Management

There are several notable examples of how the citiverse can make a big difference in time management. I would like to single out three areas -  the operational dimension of time management, the economic dimsion of time management and the social dimension of time management.

Operational dimension of time management

On the operational front, we are witnessing digital booking, ticketing, and payment for taxis, buses, and train tickets in many parts of East Asia. In Singapore, it is even used for boarding a plane. Additionally, in China, digital tools are being utilised to support medical diagnosis and triage, as well as remote treatment and the delivery of medications. These are all designed to save time and facial recognition and user-friendly apps render queuing and waiting a thing of the past.

In Xianning, China, planners utilised various digital tools to enhance access to a school by improving traffic management, creating child-friendly and child-safe pedestrian pathways, and beautifying the surrounding public spaces based on children’s designs.  Whereas the vast majority of parents used to drive their children to school, more than 98% of children now walk the last mile to school, saving parents a significant amount of time and reducing traffic congestion for others. An important side benefit is improved air quality and reduced noise pollution.

Similarly, cities such as Guangzhou, China, and Seoul, Korea, have designed their bus systems to make them safe for school-age children and easy to use by older people, thereby avoiding the school run for parents and allowing older people to request buses on demand. Real gains in time management are expected to come with the advent of autonomous vehicles and the rollout of the low-altitude economy. Once autonomous vehicles and logistics become the norm, traffic congestion will be a thing of the past, and everything from drone deliveries to flying taxis will have a significant impact on time management.  

Economic dimension of time and location management

On the economic side, Tô Legal was an application set up at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Many people lost their jobs and livelihoods, compelling them to resort to the informal economy. One of the least-costly activities was, and remains, street vending, something that is strongly embedded in Brazilian urban practice. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of applications, the municipal authorities developed a mobile application that enables people to apply for a vending permit in a matter of hours, rather than days. The innovative aspect of the application is that it not only provides the location of available stall locations, but also informs the applicant of who is selling which kinds of goods and services along the same street. The application has since grown into a platform providing a one-stop shop for a wide range of services such as financial literacy courses, access to micro-finance, and other capacity-building services.

The social dimension of time management

On the social side, Bogotá's Care Blocks represent an innovative model of care-centred urban development, aiming to address the structural inequities of unpaid care work, which disproportionately affect women. The initiative integrates digital tools into the city's social and spatial infrastructure, providing decentralised, accessible, and data-informed care services to help caregivers overcome the issue of “time poverty”.

Central to the Care Blocks’ operation is a suite of digital platforms that allow caregivers to access a wide range of services, including educational programs, legal and psychological counselling, health support, and employment resources, both in-person and remotely. This hybrid model enhances access and flexibility, particularly benefiting women with limited mobility or time due to caregiving responsibilities.

5. Key Factors for Successful Implementation in Catalan/Spanish and Other Cities

I am not knowledgeable enough about Catalan and Spanish cities top delve into this in any detail. My experience suggests that local context is key with several universal success factors that all cities need to consider for the successful implementation of the Citiverse. These include:

- Legal and ethical frameworks: Ensuring data privacy and security, and using, wherever possible, open source platforms are critical to gain and maintain people’s trust in the system.

- Digital inclusivity: Invest in digital literacy programs and accessible technologies to avoid excluding vulnerable groups.

- Transparent governance: Establish clear guidelines for data ownership, usage, and citizen consent.

- Public-private collaboration: Partner with tech firms and academia for expertise while maintaining public control over critical infrastructure.

- Pilot projects: Start with small-scale implementations (e.g., in districts like Eixample or Gràcia) to test effectiveness and public acceptance.

6. Integration into Political and Decision-Making Processes

The Citiverse can move us from reactive governance to predictive and participatory governance. Data-driven policymaking is perhaps one of the most significant contributions to making the governance and management of city administration more responsive to the real needs of people, more transparent, and more accountable. Digital tools allow users of public goods and services to provide instant feedback as well as their preferences for future services.

Similarly, the citiverse can empower city inhabitants to offer their input on planning and design decisions.  This is greatly facilitated by the visualisation of data and the simulation of planning and design solutions using, for example, digital twins and immersive technologies.  Last but not least, the integration of blockchain into land and real estate transactions, as well as contracts and procurement, can make budgeting and finance more transparent, helping to reduce transaction costs in terms of both finance and time, as well as corruption.  

7. Importance of the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC)

I am not closely involved with the EDIC's specific work, so I shouldn't comment on details. However, the principle behind it is essential. For the Citiverse to thrive, we need exactly this kind of transnational cooperation to develop shared standards, ensure interoperability between cities, and safeguard ethical principles like data privacy on a European scale and global scale.

8. Future Evolution of Citiverse and European and other Cities in 2050

By 2050, if not earlier, the integration of AI and the development of intelligent systems and robotics will enable many routine tasks in city administration and management to be automated. 3D mapping and digital twins will allow planners and city managers to engage in predictive urbanism, facilitating informed decision-making and citizen and stakeholder engagement, far surpassing the existing tools of participatory planning. Tools such as blockchain will greatly enhance transparency, accountability, and inclusion. Smart and autonomous vehicles for mobility and logistics will make traffic congestion, parking, noise and air pollution a distant memory. The latter will enable architects and engineers to design buildings using nature-based solutions for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, one of the most intensive uses of energy in urban settings.¹ Ubiquitous AR/VR will significantly enhance the effectiveness of virtual public services, whether educational, medical/therapeutic, or recreational.  Disaster prevention and emergency response will be improved considerably by real-time data analytics, risk assessment, and the deployment of the right resources at the right time and in the right place.

The above notwithstanding, the essential evolution, in my opinion, will be the transition from the “smart city” to the “cognitive city”. While a smart and sustainable city can be defined as a system of interconnected communities, activities, services, systems, and people that improve quality of life and preserve the planet’s resources, cognitive cities will be adaptive and creative learning ecosystems that respond dynamically to changing conditions and needs, regenerating both human and planetary health.  

The Citiverse represents a transformative approach to urban management, blending technology with citizen-centric principles. For cities like Barcelona, it offers a path to greater efficiency, inclusivity, and sustainability - but success depends on thoughtful implementation that prioritises people and their rights, leaving no one and no place behind. European and global initiatives, such as the EDIC and ITU’s ongoing work to develop global standards, norms and protocols for the Citiverse, are crucial in shaping this future collaboratively. As usual, not everything will happen everywhere at the same time. Cities will experiment with different approaches tailored to their respective contexts and priorities. What matters is that we can learn from each other and share lessons learned from experience interactively and in real time. 

¹New energy vehicles, coupled with autonomous mobility and logistics, are silent and have no emissions. Buildings in urban settings will no longer need to seal themselves off against noise and air pollution generated by ICE vehicles, especially buses, trucks and other heavy vehicles, not to mention the honking of horns by frustrated drivers. This should enable radical changes in architectural design, integrating nature and nature-based solutions into built space and the use of non-energy-intensive means of HVAC.