Digital Twins Can Transform Urban Landscape

The concept of digital twins has emerged as an innovation that could transform the planning and managing the resources effectively. Digital twins, in simple terms, are 3D high-resolution images that offer a far-reaching application beyond traditional mapping. They provide detailed, accurate representations of cities, like capturing precise shadows of buildings or the exact layout of rooms. 

Against the backdrop of the central government’s Smart Cities Mission (SCM) to develop 100 cities across the country to provide core infrastructure, a clean and sustainable environment and provide a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of 'smart solutions'. 

The mission aims to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life through comprehensive work on the social, economic, physical and institutional pillars of the city. Experts noted that the digital twins of cities are going to play a crucial role in urban development.

As India is rapidly progressing, the young population seeking better facilities and livelihoods moving to urban areas resulting in the rise of the urban population. 

Gasping, Flooding, Overcrowded Indian Cities 

Currently, Urban areas accommodate 487 million people, constituting over 35 per cent of the total population, as per the 2011 census. This urban population is settled across approximately 10,000 urban settlements, including 5,000 towns. The rapidly growing urban population is expected to reach 600 million by 2036, making up around 40 per cent of the total population of the country.

The increase in urbanisation brings both opportunities and challenges to urban governance and planning. Cities serve as engines of economic development. Urban Indians contribute more than 60 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP), generate 90 per cent of tax revenues and are major hotspots for the majority of jobs.

Photo: TomTom Index

In recent times, India has witnessed major events. Delhi is choking for air, Bengaluru is under traffic chaos and Chennai is flooded with water. The economically booming cities are making news for being vulnerable due to mismanagement and inadequate planning. 

Smart Cities Need Smart Plans 

In this context, geospatial mapping emerges as a powerful tool for urban planning. It comprises a huge database, visualisations and modelling of Infrastructure that can play a crucial role in addressing the complexities of urban development. 

According to the experts, the 3D digital twins can be used to locate, identify, visualise and inspect the location of critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, railway lines, hospitals, public amenities etc.

During a press event, Sajid Malik, Managing Director, Genesys International highlighted the advantages of geospatial information to enhance the delivery of public services. This involves identifying the resources and monitoring the progress of development projects. 

"Geospatial technology can play a crucial role in supporting disaster management initiatives by offering real-time information on critical infrastructure and resources, along with tracking the location," Malik asserted.

Malik further said that in urban planning, engineering-grade geospatial data can be used to create detailed 3D digital maps of cities and towns, which can be used to identify areas that need development and plan infrastructure projects such as transportation and housing.

Talking about city management, this technology can also be used to improve the delivery of public services such as citizen safety and security, healthcare, and education. Upcoming infrastructure and projects can be digitally modelled and inserted into the existing city. "Simulations can be run to understand how the proposed infrastructure interacts with and affects the current city and town infrastructure," Malik added. 

Cities like Bangalore have implemented geospatial technologies in various aspects, such as property tax systems, digitized reference data and integrated technology for better administration.

He further added that Varanasi the oldest and holy city’s traffic management is effectively coordinated with the Genesys geospatial data. While Mumbai uses geo-spatial data to collect the land taxation which indeed leads to effective administration, Malik mentioned.

Upkar Pathak, Technical Secretary, Survey of India told to BW Businessworld, "The 3D digital mapping could be extremely useful for infrastructure development and urban planning."

Digital Twins Are Future

The future of technology in transportation seems to be automation while companies like Tesla are set to enter India and ecommerce platforms are experimenting the drone delivery, all these activities necessarily need 3D digital geospatial data, which can give precise, accurate and real time data for effective delivery of services.

Taking a leap to the future, Hitesh Kumar Makwana, Surveyor General of India stated that there will be days when land parcels will be transacted and registered seamlessly like Unified Payment Interface (UPI).