[mbrain]

> The project is conducted in partnership with the Strengthening Social Cohesion and Peace in Sri Lanka (SCOPE) programme, co-funded by the European Union and German Federal Foreign Office. SCOPE is implemented by GIZ in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, Prisons Affairs and Constitutional Reforms.

Is this specific project really funded by tax-payers money?

> Curated thousands of 3D assets to replace default buildings

How does this help to achieve any of these below ?

> Potential applications include:

> Simulating changes in roads, transport routes

> Exploring effects of changes in private transport policies

> Visualizing impact of new infrastructure like monorails or wider pavements

> Assessing effects of introducing more green spaces or parking areas

[icaruswept]

Yup. The 3D assets are from Steam workshop and impact visuals and population calculations (since pop calc is based on square footage). Otherwise, with Skylines' defaults, this would all look like the Netherlands.

They're funding us to do this and a few other things:

2) Create and publish maps of Sri Lanka, especially for journalists to use for environment and land use reporting, for 2017-2024, using Sentinel-2 data

3) Build and publish our wiki of 70+ crops that can be grown in Sri Lankan backyards

4) Build and publish our open-source DIY agricultural sensor kit

5) Design and publish our journalism and media literacy course for young journalists and the general public

In general, these folks (https://www.giz.de) are one of main european branches of NGO funding in the Global South. This is a very small project in their overall scheme of things - your tax money goes to a lot of places in the world.

[creesch]

It only seems fair to also include the previous block:

Ultimately, what we realized was that there had to be some visual way to bridge the gap between professional expertise (often confined to academic papers and reports) and public understanding.

Our virtual city of Colombo serves as a crude "Digital Twin," offering a platform to:

1. Visualize and understand current urban design issues

2. Test and communicate potential infrastructure changes

3. Explore the impact of policy decisions on traffic and population distribution

4. Educate students and the public about urban planning concepts

Note how it specifically mentions public understanding and education twice. If you want the public to be able to relate to such a simulation, you want it to look as close as possible to the real thing. Otherwise, it will just remain an abstract simulation in which people will have trouble recognizing their own city.

[Dalewyn]

Playing Devil's Advocate, making the game look more like the real world (I am assuming this is what was meant by "curating 3D assets") would help tremendously in "simulating", "exploring", "visualizing", and "assessing" the impacts and effects of changes and new additions to city policies and infrastructure to the average man.

As for whether this is a good use of taxpayer money... well, it could be worse.

[rjh29]

Seems worth it as a teaching method.

[crubier]

I thought it was a pretty cool project, thought it was self-funded. But I agree I have no idea why I should finance this with my European taxpayer money.

[karma_fountain]

The EU is the world's main source of and main destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). Inward and outward FDI play a fundamental role for generating sustainable economic growth, business opportunities, employment, technological development and innovation.

[seper8]

I'd rather they spend it on projects like these, where at least some people get joy playing videogames for work. Alternative is they get together and cook up some of the worst bureaucratic dogshit wrapped in catshit they call quality legislation.

[octocop]

wait until you see the Horizon Europe project