In a world facing complex urban challenges—such as rapid population growth, environmental crises, social inequalities, and pandemics—cities must adopt innovative approaches to ensure sustainable development. Digital transformation has become an essential strategy to meet these challenges. It provides cities with the necessary tools to become smarter, more resilient, and more inclusive, while ensuring citizen participation and a higher quality of life. In a context of limited resources, digital technology offers local authorities innovative solutions to optimize infrastructure, modernize public services, and foster innovation. Thus, digital transformation is redefining how cities are planned, managed, and evaluated.
At the same time, geomatics technologies have undergone remarkable development, offering both powerful and intelligent tools. Advanced geomatics combines sophisticated methods for collecting and processing spatial data with smart technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Big Data analysis of geospatial information. These advancements not only improve data acquisition, processing, and exploitation but also reinforce the role of geomatics as an essential tool for territorial planners. In particular, they support strategic decisions in the face of rapid urbanization, thereby contributing to the creation of resilient and inclusive cities.
These advances in digital transformation and geomatics open unprecedented opportunities to develop urban strategies capable of addressing major contemporary challenges such as climate change, environmental crises, population growth, and social inequalities. By relying on targeted strategies, they help promote digital skills, improve access to technological infrastructure, and support local entrepreneurship. Hence, digital transformation becomes a genuine driver of inclusive growth. It contributes to improving citizens’ living standards and well-being, reducing territorial inequalities, and fostering social cohesion.
On the other hand, while the synergy between digital transformation and advanced geomatics offers significant opportunities to revitalize urban spaces and enhance the quality of life, the challenge remains considerable. Achieving these ambitions requires overcoming several major obstacles through a strategic and coordinated approach. This congress aims to serve as a privileged platform for sharing best practices, discussing critical issues, and outlining guiding principles for a successful and inclusive digital transition. It will explore how this synergy can optimize transformation processes toward smart cities and encourage the development of innovative service ecosystems that cater to the needs of citizens, investors, and enterprises.
Following the success of the first edition, we are honored and pleased to organize the second edition once again. This congress will bring together experts, public decision-makers, and economic stakeholders to build a shared, structured digital vision for the future of cities. It will spotlight the potential of digital technologies—such as new geomatics technologies, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Big Data—to stimulate urban services and the territorial economy, create new jobs, and encourage the development of appropriate training programs. Moreover, it will emphasize optimizing resource management and supporting innovation. Discussions will allow participants to explore how digital transformation, bolstered by advanced geomatics, can open new pathways for sustainable growth and contribute to achieving the goals set out in the New Development Model (NMD) adopted by Morocco since 2021.
