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Singapore has shown the world that digital twins can make a difference in urban governance and development.
In the summer of 12 years ago, two periods of 100mm torrential rain hit Orchard Road in Singapore in a very short period of time. The world-renowned shopping paradise suffered serious flooding for the first time in 26 years. Roads were flooded and cars stalled. Tourists had to hide in higher floors to wait for assistance. In June and December of the following year, the continuous rainy season made this embarrassing scene repeated.
An ambitious three-dimensional mapping program was launched quickly, and the first three-dimensional map covering the whole country was released in 2014. In the beginning, the Singaporean government used it to simulate, identify and assess areas at risk of flooding, and choose the optimal solution according to local conditions. With the iterative upgrade of technology, it has also gradually participated in policy formulation, planning, operation and risk management in various fields such as traffic optimization and energy consumption management. Earlier this year, a senior official of the Singapore Land Management Authority announced that the world’s first “national-level digital twin” was completed.
Since 2017, China has begun to promote the application of digital twin technology in the construction of smart cities.
Not long ago, “Lingang Digital Twin City” was included in the first batch of municipal-level digital transformation demonstration areas in Shanghai.
In the view of the Lingang Digital Twin City project team, no matter which city in the world, there is still a long way to go to realize this ultimate vision.
Digital twinning is a technology that uses simulation prediction to save decision makers a lot of costs.
The Lingang New Area has always adhered to the concept of “moderately advanced” in planning and construction of the city. As the population continues to be introduced, Lingang will likely encounter a situation where the planning does not match the actual needs, and if adjustments are made at that time, it will be hard.
Instead of this, it is better to do a good job of simulation prediction, find out in advance various problems that may be encountered in the future, such as traffic congestion and uneven distribution of educational and health resources, and optimize them in the planning stage to reduce the number of trial and error and costs.
The superiority of digital twins in this regard has been fully demonstrated in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. The water supply system of this old city in Central Europe has a history of 144 years and has long been damaged. It is imperative to rebuild a modern pipe network. During the construction process, the project team created a digital twin model to simulate the operation of the pipeline network system and more than 150 usage scenarios, and also considered the possibility of earthquakes. Finally, the delivery time was shortened by 16 months. A new system with stable operation and a significant reduction in water loss has been established.
The Lingang New Area has another advantage – it is relatively ‘new’ overall, less complicated, and easier to model. It can learn from others and the digital twin city project team has, for example, decided that it is of little significance to model every street, every building, and every pipeline.
The key depends is what data is needed to support decision-making. For example, SenseTime has made a detailed 3D reconstruction of almost every corner of the office building in order to solve a series of office problems such as off-peak queuing in the cafeteria, conference room reservations, and lost and found.
More than a year of exploration has also exposed some difficulties and challenges of digital twin technology. The benefits of handing over to a private partner are obvious. The market-oriented model is more efficient, and companies such as Baidu and SenseTime still have ready-made data and solutions.
Collecting data across various lines and departments will encounter obstacles. Some are format issues, some are confidential reasons, and some other considerations. Only by breaking the data barrier can a digital twin city be created with more complete functions, which needs to be solved from the top-level design.
On the other hand, the digital twin city system needs to collect massive amounts of information, and with the deepening of the pilot, information security issues have become more prominent. The Lingang New Area previously intended to place sensors in some residential areas to obtain data in real time to create a smart community. However, when soliciting opinions, it was strongly opposed by developers and property owners. “Many communities are unwilling to cooperate, fearing that citizens’ privacy will be violated, and they will be ‘asked for trouble’ if something goes wrong.” A project leader said.
At present, the data sensors in the Lingang New Area are placed in public facilities and public places. Exploration is still in the “shallow water area”, and the technical team is still exploring the boundaries. They also hope that relevant legislation can be introduced as soon as possible to protect the rights and interests of citizens and give digital twin cities more room for development within the framework.
Column editor: Xu Min
Source of title and picture: Lingang New Area