Description
Through research and technology development, the project will develop new tools that help destinations, companies and public actors to make better decisions about nature management and destination development. The work is conducted within Dalarna University's Centre for Tourism Industry Research (CETLER), which conducts research on sustainable and data-driven development of the tourism industry.
An important part of the project is the development of a Digital Twin, i.e. a digital model that makes it possible to analyse and simulate how visitor flows affect natural environments over time. The Digital Twin will be developed by the research engineers at CETLER data lab.
- "With a digital twin, we can for the first time see how visitor flows affect nature and make decisions before wear and tear or congestion occurs, instead of repairing afterwards. It provides new opportunities to develop nature tourism in a sustainable way," says Tobias Heldt, professor at Dalarna University and project manager.
The goal is to create knowledge and solutions that can help control visitor pressure, reduce wear and tear on sensitive environments and at the same time strengthen the long-term development of nature tourism. The researchers within the project will also investigate how digital solutions can be used to create new funding models for nature conservation and maintenance of trails and visitor environments.
The project will also contribute to strengthening the digital development in the tourism industry. The work is being carried out in close collaboration between Dalarna University, Karlstad University, Visit Värmland, the Glaskogen Nature Reserve Foundation and Smedjebacken municipality's management company. Glaskogen in Värmland and Malingsbo-Kloten in southern Dalarna will serve as test environments where the solutions are developed and tested in practice.
-"By combining research, digital technology and collaboration between several societal actors, we want to develop solutions that can be useful both in Dalarna and Värmland and, in the long term, also in other parts of Sweden and the Nordic region," says Tobias Heldt.
The project runs from 1 July 2026 to 2029 and includes research, technology development, tests in real-world environments and dissemination of results to destinations and other actors. The budget is SEK 12 million, with funding coming from the European Regional Development Fund via the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and co-financing from Region Dalarna, Region Värmland and the project's partners.
Important to note is that the project is based on close collaboration between academia, the public sector, business and civil society. By combining research, practical experience and local knowledge, new solutions will be developed and tested in real environments.
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