Lewis Mumford famously termed cities as a theatre of social action. When the physical and digital worlds merge for a more immersive, interactive experience and near real-time information exchange, it’s safe to assume that all facets of cities would get transformed and the action would get magnified. Digital Twin and metaverse offer immense potential for cities. Beyond just IoT, blockchain and fast connectivity, enmeshing physical and digital would redefine cities.
At the plenary on Digital Twins and Digital cities held at GWF, 2022 in Amsterdam industry leaders discussed how latest evolutions in digitalization will empower individuals, governments and citizens alike.
“3D and beyond is not important, it is critical and the only pathway towards a sustainable world. By applying vast amounts of data, metaverse will evolve to 4D, 5D and so on. I am excited about the experience of smart digital reality that will involve simulating experiences in the digital world before moving into a physical world”, says Juergen Dold, Executive Vice President, Hexagon.
With the transition to Industry 4.0, geospatial is fast getting integrated across multiple sectors and its value will increase manifold that will enable a host of opportunities for geospatial professionals across segments and verticals.
“Geospatial engineers have unique opportunity to serve business opportunities for decades to come. Disruptive technologies will change the way we work, and the rapid growth of affordability and accessibility of this technology will disrupt the industry”, he adds.
Digital cities and smart cities are often used interchangeably. But there is a subtle difference. Digital cities is all about the technological node that links everything that makes a city smart.
“Digital technologies have advanced more than any other innovation in our history, but there are challenges”, says BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder Chairman, Cyient.
“Enormous amount of progress in digital cities has all to do with sensors. Along with sensors we require computing power, storage, and equally important is the communication capability. It’s the confluence of these four things going together: computers, data, communications, algorithms, and these are bringing a profound change”, he adds.
Just like any other complex system, a digital city has many stakeholders, but ultimate beneficiary of it would be society.
Data and analytics are invaluable for the entire value chain of digital economy. Be it for service delivery, decision-making, or customer satisfaction, data analytics takes primacy. And with a geospatial and location ‘where’ coordinate, the data gets a new directionality.
Digital Twin is extremely important for cities for multiple reasons, ranging from modelling, planning, predicting to executing. 3D data makes things efficient, timely and reduces the error margins.
“It’s always crucial to emphasize the importance of geospatial data regarding cities. Today there are challenges in terms of sustainability and mobility. Governments are migrating from 2D to 3D which will make what we do with data much more predictive”, says Frank Pauli, CEO, Cyclomedia.
