con terra: GeoAI, Digital Twins & AI for Geospatial Data | INTERGEO 2026

READ THE FULL GEOmedia ARTICLE https://www.rivistageomedia.it/geodat... EXPLORE ALL GEOmedia INTERGEO 2026 INTERVIEWS https://www.rivistageomedia.it/landin... What makes a Digital Twin truly useful—and when does GeoAI actually add value? At INTERGEO 2026, Renzo Carlucci, Editor-in-Chief of GEOmedia Magazine, talks with Thore Fechner, Director of Business Development and Consulting at con terra GMBH, and Marc Kleemann, Business Development at con terra, about GeoAI, accessible geospatial information and the future of Digital Twins. Their starting point is simple: AI should solve a real problem, not simply be added to an existing workflow. One example is metadata management. AI can analyse geospatial datasets, suggest titles and descriptions, identify possible inconsistencies and reduce repetitive work—while keeping a professional human in the loop to accept, modify or reject its proposals. But AI could also transform the way people interact with geospatial information. Instead of requiring every user to understand GIS concepts such as layers, buffers and spatial operations, natural-language interfaces could allow people to talk directly to a Digital Twin, making geospatial capabilities accessible to a much broader community. The conversation also challenges another common assumption: A Digital Twin is not simply a 3D model. Point clouds, meshes, CityGML or Gaussian Splats are different ways of representing reality. What ultimately matters is whether the information is accessible and useful for the people who need it. The experience of the Digital Twin of North Rhine-Westphalia illustrates this approach: a common geospatial foundation can support different domain-specific Digital Twins for applications such as disaster risk management, monument protection and other public-sector use cases. But who keeps all this information up to date? CON TERRA proposes a federated Digital Twin model: rather than relying on one organization to maintain everything, different authoritative organizations remain responsible for their own domains while connecting through shared architectures, APIs and data flows. The result is not a single static model, but a living network of geospatial information. Geospatial Foundation → Domain-Specific Digital Twins → GeoAI → Human Interaction → Federated Data → Better Decisions Topics: GeoAI • Artificial Intelligence • Digital Twins • Federated Digital Twins • Human-in-the-Loop • Natural Language • GIS • 3D Geospatial Data • CityGML • Point Clouds • Gaussian Splatting • Geospatial Accessibility Interview: Renzo Carlucci – Editor-in-Chief, GEOmedia Magazine Guests: Thore Fechner & Marc Kleemann – CON TERRA 📍 INTERGEO 2026 #GeoAI #DigitalTwin #ArtificialIntelligence #GIS #Geospatial