Jax Twin Urban Digital Model

At a glance

What: an informational presentation to the committee on the Jax Twin, a University of Florida "digital twin" of Jacksonville that combines building, infrastructure, flood, transportation and demographic data in an interactive 3D model.
Where it stands: no bill or vote. The researchers are seeking specific city problems to apply it to and offered access to council members.
Who: Jeff Carney and Chen presented; Amaro invited them.
Uses shown: transit service and equity analysis with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, E. coli early warning for waterways, heat island and shade simulation, flood and storm exposure, and regional targeting beyond census tracts.
Member interest: resilience and resident outreach (Carlucci), JTA route optimization (Howland), mapping underground utilities (Peluso), JEA household affordability and rider wait times (Arias).
Official minutes (2026-10-20, TEU): presented by Professor Carney (director, Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience) and Dr. Chen. The team has worked on the model for three years under a UF Strategic Initiatives Award and a second grant with the UF Jacksonville campus; a parallel JEA household-energy project is funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant. The platform is password protected and the team can create logins for individual council members. About 32,000 buildings are mapped so far, without critical infrastructure such as hospitals and grocery stores yet. No vote.

About 31 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-20 - Transportation, Energy & Utilities	31

The presenters showed the platform and its pilots; members asked about JTA, resilience, underground utilities and JEA affordability. No vote.

Minutes: presentation with questions from Carlucci, Howland, Peluso and Arias; no vote.