Author | Esther FuldauerThere’s a new buzzword in smart cities: Digital Twin.Digital twins are hot -but they are not new. They have been around since the early 2000s, but it has only been until now that they started to be affordable thanks to the Internet of Things. First born in enterprises as 3D digital replicas of physical assets, they were used for testing, planning and monitoring.Sensors and data analytics, AI, machine learning and drones, are feeding information real-time, giving life to these digital models, which have evolved becoming into more complex representations of their physical counterparts, and no longer of isolated single objects, but full-fledged systems of interconnected things.
What is a digital twin for?
In the realm of smart cities, a digital twin is a virtual model of a city, a replica of the physical world. They are rapidly becoming indispensable tools to visualize the pulse of the city in real time with layered data sources of buildings, urban infrastructure, utilities, businesses, movement of people and vehicles.
Some digital twins in progress
https://youtu.be/y8cXBSI6o44One of the more advanced of the smart city digital twins in progress is Virtual Singapore, project which was overseen by Dassault Systémes using its 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The project offers four main capabilities to stakeholders: Virtual experimentation, test-bedding, decision-making and research & development.Amaravati, a greenfield smart city, will be the first city born with a digital twin. The initial 3D prototype of the city was built using Cityzenith’s Smart World Pro software.