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Researchers investigate 'digital twin' of cities to improve city planning

Researchers investigate 'digital twin' of cities to improve city planning
Many faces of DTs: Information content of DT (Table 1) serves example applications. (a) Point clouds with color are mostly used as raw material for processing models (City of Melbourne, CC4.0). (b) Wind simulations where a voxel grid is used (Image courtesy of AccuCities, www.accucities.com). (c) Triangulated surface mesh for terrain height modeling (Elevation Model from the City of Helsinki). (d) 3D CityGML model describing the shapes and the placement of buildings with colors indicating building functions. Roads are marked with red. (e) Photorealistic model for virtual reality (VR) (Jaalama et al., 2021). (f) BIM model derived from a point cloud for construction planning (Image courtesy of bimcolab blog, bimcolab.files.wordpress.com). Credit: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2022.102915

A team of UT researchers from the Faculties of ITC, BMS and ET has recently published a new study in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation that found using digital twins can improve planning and coordination in cities. Digital twins are digital representations of physical objects or systems, and have been widely used in manufacturing, construction, and maintenance to improve planning and coordination. Now, researchers are exploring how they can be adapted to serve cities and their complex, dynamic ecosystems.

ITC researcher and the study's lead author, Dr. Ville Lehtola said, "Digital twins have the potential to bring significant benefits to cities, by allowing , residents, and businesses to access up-to-date information on the city's infrastructure and services."

The researchers believe that their findings could significantly improve the efficiency of planning and managing cities. By using digital twins, cities can save time and money, and ultimately make our more sustainable.

In their publication, the authors discussed the and open questions surrounding the realization and benefits of urban digital twins. "There are many different types of digital twins, each with its own technical characteristics and applications, so it can be challenging to integrate them into a single, comprehensive urban digital twin."

For example, the creation of a digital twin for manufacturing and construction starts with the digital twin and ends with a physical product. Meanwhile, creating for maintenance or smart city management purposes require constant changes and updates.

For these constant updates, the researchers suggest the development of a back-end digital twin infrastructure to contain all information. "This means more than just a 3D model of all the buildings. The digital twin should for example also have information about traffic noise, , and ," explains Lehtola.

The back end could then be used to create different front-end representations for different users. For example, a VR world of a city that its citizens can explore. Lehtola said, "A city planner needs different data from the digital twin compared to citizens for example. However, both can profit from such a system."

This research was conducted in collaboration between several UT researchers and Forum Virium Helsinki. Involved authors were Dr. Ville Lehtola, Dr. Mila Koeva, Dr. Ir Sander Oude Elberink, Dr. Paulo Raposo (all Faculty of ITC), Juho-Pekka Virtanen (Forum Virium Helsinki), Dr. Ir Faridaddin Vahdatikhaki (Faculty of ET) and Dr. Simone Borsci (Faculty of BMS).

More information: Ville V. Lehtola et al, Digital twin of a city: Review of technology serving city needs, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (2022).

Provided by University of Twente

Citation: Researchers investigate 'digital twin' of cities to improve city planning (2022, December 13) retrieved 27 May 2025 from /news/2022-12-digital-twin-cities-city.html
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