Mar 3, 2026
Digital twin France: IGN/Cerema/Inria unveil the national foundation at the Mayors' Show
JNFT: national common heritage for augmented decision-making of territories
Presented on November 18, 2025 at the Salon des Maires, the Digital Twin of France and its Territories (JNFT) is co-led by IGN, Cerema and Inria, with 1Spatial France as the operational ensemble.
Strategic objective: to provide State, local authorities, economic stakeholders with a shared technical base (open access) for immersive visualization, scenario simulation, real-time massive data analysis.
Context: territories facing ecological, energy, economic, climatic upheavals → need to anticipate, simulate, compare impacts for sustainable planning/adaptation.
Massive ecosystem: 14 partners (including BRGM recently) + “France team”>200 stakeholders (2024 common calls). French digital sovereignty at the core.
Technical Framework: Interoperable Standards, Homogeneous Data, 1st version by end of 2026
Concrete Deliverables planned for 2026:
Shared Software Bricks + interoperable data standards (European LDT CitiVERSE).
Key Turnkey Business Services: land use analysis, transport, ecological transition, natural risks, water, health.
Homogeneous National Data + massive real-time data for augmented decision-making.
Roadmap: focus on priority territorial issues from S1 2026, industrial/public solutions. 1st version of the framework + applications before end of 2026.
Key Quotes:
Pascal Berteaud (Cerema): « Augmented decision-making thanks to sovreign twins and controlled costs through a national framework ».
Sébastien Soriano (IGN): « Future of the map: descriptive → prospective, simulation for climate public policies ».
Bruno Sportisse (Inria): « AI, 3D visualization, modeling for digital sovereignty ».
Complementarity of twins: national JNFT foundation + specialized local solutions
JNFT = macro-foundation (national data/maps, standards) → economic sector accelerator for digital twins services.
Target areas :
Urban planning : scenarios d densification/ZAN.
Ecological transition : water/energy/biodiversity/climate.
Natural risks : floods, erosion, fires.
Transport/mobility : flow/optimization of infrastructure.
European interoperability : aligned with Local Digital Twins (LDT) EU Commission, Cerema in charge of EDIC CitiVERSE.
For the territories : free foundation + professional services → accelerated digital transformation, data sovereignty. UrbanThink closely follows: how specialized local twins (environmental) rely on JNFT for fine/operational data.
