How to prepare for the rebuilding of cities

05.11.2026, 09:20◉ 03 min readEditorial team “SHCHO STALOSIA”

The restoration of Mariupol or Bakhmut should not begin from the day of their liberation. Documentation, specialists, and infrastructure data can be collected now.

How to prepare for the rebuilding of cities

Discussion of the reconstruction of currently occupied cities usually refers to costs, construction works and international assistance. However, there is a more urgent question: what do we know about these cities and are we ready to make decisions about their restoration?

Important tools are working in Ukraine: DREAM (Digital Restoration Ecosystem for Accountable Management) and the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property.

DREAM is the state ecosystem for the management of restoration projects. It ensures transparency at all stages – from project initiation to financing, procurement and delivery ofthe facility. The system combines data from other registries and allows donors and citizens to track progress.

The Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property records the destruction of housing and other real estate. Citizens apply through Diya, and commissions conduct surveys, including remote surveys, using satellite imagery and drones. This data becomes the basis for compensation under the "eRecovery" program.

Details

There are also individual pilots of digital models in liberated communities and cities in the controlled area. The European Commission is developing AI-based digital twin tools for damage assessment and reconstruction scenarios.

Context

After the de-occupation, it will be necessary to assess the condition of buildings and infrastructure; to determine what can be restored, what should be built and how to organize the urban space so that it meets the needs of people. Some of this work cannot be done without access to the territories, but this does not mean that you just have to wait until the de-occupation.

Not a full-fledged digital twin of the city and not a replacement for DREAM or the register of damaged property, but a working database that can be created now so that after the de-occupation not to start from scratch.

What's next

One of the mistakes is to assume that the preparation for the restoration of the city begins when they regain control over it. This work should be started earlier: collecting documentation, preserving the knowledge of specialists, systematizing data on infrastructure and preparing solutions that can be verified after de-occupation. Otherwise, we risk losing precious time just when it is most needed.

At the next stage, several scenarios can be developed: from maximizing the use of preserved infrastructure to deeper modernization of the most damaged areas. Final decisions should be made after on-site technical examinations. Such a project would help preserve the knowledge of people who were forced to leave their cities and involve them in planning for the future.