Can digital twin technology help stem growing urban heat crisis? – Data and Analytics – Leadership

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Can digital twin technology help stem growing urban heat crisis? – Data and Analytics – Leadership
Can digital twin technology help stem growing urban heat crisis?



Jacques Beltran, Dassault Systèmes’ vice president and Global Head for Cities and Public Services

Climate change is driving extreme heat across many parts of the Asia region, with temperatures reaching record highs in many countries this year. In densely built-up cities, ambient temperatures can go up to 7 degrees Celsius higher than in rural areas in the same location. This will only get worse, unless mitigating action is taken.

To control urban heat which can trigger other environmental issues such as air pollution and intense storms leading to floods, current urban planning and city infrastructure must be improved.

These infrastructures are massive objects that once built are difficult to change and it’s helpful to take advantage of advanced simulation to virtually construct those buildings and predict their effects on their surroundings, Dassault Systèmes’ vice president and Global Head for Cities and Public Services, Jacques Beltran, told iTnews Asia in an exclusive interview.

City design factors including building height, features and orientation; materials and surfaces; road direction and width; transportation arrangements, and vegetation and water body placement can be manipulated using digital twin technology.

“Concurrent multi-factorial simulation will even allow for the building’s impact on air quality, and public healthcare costs due to sub-optimal air, to be calculated,” he added.

He shared an example where his team in Jaipur, India, helped the local government plan and design a new flyover bridge in a dense area of the city. They created a 3D model of the city and integrated the design of the flyover bridge to help the urban planners make decisions around the infrastructure and construction planning.

“Urban planners use simulation to study heat island effect and flooding risk in cities,” Beltran said.

Digital twin systems must be reliable and accurate

Beltran said it is important to build reliable digital twin systems. He said comparing simulation predictions to real-world data and measurements can help assess the accuracy of the simulations.

He mentioned an instance during COVID crisis where their predictive algorithm had a margin of error of only 5-8 percent, making their systems very accurate.

Conducting sensitivity analysis enabled us to understand how changes in input parameters or assumptions impact the simulation results. This can help identify the key drivers and uncertainties.

“Collaborate with research institutes and experts to further improve the underlying models and knowledge about complex urban phenomena like the heat island effect,” he added.

Continuously monitoring and updating the simulations as new data becomes available will improve their reliability over time.

Data must be transparent and shared

As cities have scattered data in different departments making it hard to get a holistic view, Beltran said using a digital platform can provide a collaborative environment with data analytics apps to help authorities make informed decisions.

A major challenge seems to be the availability of data, whether it is related to mapping, air quality, noise, traffic, temperature or others, but most of the time, the data exists and is available.

“The challenge is mainly to process the data and to integrate it into a single database,” Beltran said.

He added that streamlining data access is a way to streamline organisations and processes.

Most of the companies have made changes in the digital twin business model and cities with limited resources can access data simulation services at lower cost. Hence 3D digital twin technology can make public policy decisions more transparent.

For instance, Dassault Systèmes offers a science-based collaborative environment with modelling, simulation and data analytics capabilities to crash-test future public policies in the virtual world prior to implementing them in the real world. This collaborative element is a key success factor in involving stakeholders and creating consensus among them.

Nurturing public-private partnerships can help build sustainable cities with help of informed data and consultation, he added.

Emerging Technologies for Sustainability

Beltran said emerging technologies like generative AI and data analytics can help cities adapt to urban challenges.

In Keihanna, a district of Kyoto, Japan, Dassault Systems worked in partnership with a Japanese telecom company to develop a flooding risk simulation. They used this simulation to create a mobile app that would inform citizens of flooding risks and provide them with safe evacuation routes based on the predicted flooding patterns.

He added that urban planners have stringent rules for planning in most countries and they can use generative AI to automate rule compliance in design scenarios.

Large language models (LLMs) are also among the emerging trends in the 3D experience platform, with potential to help manage data and automate tasks in public administrations.

Beltran believes LLM technology can accelerate report writing and free up civil servants for more added-value missions.

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