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In the hustle and bustle of modern cities, where technology and urban life are increasingly intertwined, a little-known but potentially transformative innovation is emerging: digital twins.
These complex virtual models are revolutionizing the way cities are managed, planned, and experienced. Despite its promising impact, the concept of digital twins in the field of smart cities remains, for many, a mystery hidden in the shadows of technological advancement.
From Simulation to Reality: A New Urban Paradigm
By: Gabriel E. Levy B.
The term “digital twin” originated in manufacturing and aerospace, where it is used to create exact virtual replicas of physical products or systems, allowing engineers to perform tests and simulations without the need for expensive physical prototypes.
This technology quickly moved to other industries, and today, cities are beginning to adopt this approach to improve their planning and operation.
An urban digital twin is a digital representation of the city as a whole or its individual parts, such as buildings, transport networks, or waste management systems.
This virtual copy is updated in real-time with data from sensors and connected devices, allowing urban planners and city managers to foresee problems before they occur, optimize the use of resources, and improve the quality of life for citizens.
Professor Michael Batty, author of The New Science of Cities, suggests that digital twins can radically change our understanding of urban dynamics.
“These models allow us to experiment with the future of the city in real time,” Batty notes, “giving us the ability to proactively respond to challenges such as traffic, pollution, and climate change” (Batty, 2013).
Cities that think about themselves
To understand the revolutionary potential of digital twins, it is crucial to recognize how they transform the relationship between cities and their inhabitants. Traditionally, urban decisions have been based on historical data and static predictions.
However, with digital twins, cities can “think” and adapt in real-time.
Imagine a city equipped with sensors that monitor traffic flow, air quality, energy consumption, and even crowd behavior at public events.
This data, constantly fed into the digital twin, makes it possible to predict and mitigate bottlenecks before they occur, adjust street lighting to save energy, or redirect emergency resources more efficiently during a disaster.
A pioneering example of this technology is Singapore, which has developed Virtual Singapore, a 3D digital twin that allows authorities to visualize, analyze and simulate both urban problems and natural disasters. “The digital twin provides us with a risk-free testing space where we can experiment with different policies and projects,” explains Kok Ping Soon, Director of GovTech Singapore (Lee, 2018).
However, the potential of digital twins goes beyond efficient municipal management. It is about creating cities that respond in a dynamic and personal way to the needs of their citizens. These models can, for example, design public transport routes optimised for the mobility needs of users, improve waste management by adapting the frequency of collection to the actual amount of rubbish produced or even adjust the cultural and leisure offer according to the preferences and behaviour of the inhabitants.
The power to predict the unpredictable
While digital twins represent a quantum leap in urban planning, their adoption also raises crucial questions about privacy, security, and equity. The collection and use of real-time data can improve efficiency, but it could also lead to over-monitoring and invasive surveillance.
For example, in the city of Toronto, a smart city project led by Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, raised significant concerns about data privacy. Citizens and privacy advocates feared that the extensive collection of data needed to fuel digital twins could be misused, by both companies and governments, for purposes that go beyond the common good.
Shoshana Zuboff, in her book *The Age of Surveillance Capitalism*, warns about the dangers of massive data use in smart urban environments. “The use of data to improve urban life must be subject to strict and transparent control,” Zuboff states, “otherwise, we could face a new form of surveillance capitalism, where every move and decision becomes a marketable product” (Zuboff, 2019).
In addition, the implementation of digital twins requires advanced and expensive technological infrastructure, which could exacerbate existing inequalities between rich and poor cities. While some advanced metropolises can afford to invest in cutting-edge technologies, many others struggle to maintain even basic services.
Explorations at the Forefront: Specific Cases
In several cities around the world, digital twins are already proving their value in different contexts and applications, providing tangible examples of how this technology can transform urban life.
In the United Kingdom, the City of Cambridge has developed a digital twin that helps manage urban traffic more effectively. Using real-time data, the system predicts congestion and suggests alternative routes for drivers, which has significantly reduced travel times and improved air quality in congested areas.
On the other hand, in Helsinki, Finland, the city’s digital twin not only helps in traffic management, but is also used for environmental simulations, such as the impact of climate change on urban infrastructure. By modeling future scenarios, Helsinki can more effectively plan for the adaptation of its urban systems to extreme weather events, such as floods and heatwaves.
In Latin America, the city of Guadalajara, Mexico, has begun exploring the use of digital twins to improve the management of its water network. In a region where water is a scarce resource, the digital twin allows authorities to monitor consumption and leakage in real-time, thus optimizing distribution and reducing waste.
These cases demonstrate that although the concept of digital twins is still in its early stages of implementation, its potential to transform cities is immense. However, they also highlight the need to address the ethical and technological challenges that accompany this emerging technology.
In conclusion, digital twins represent a new and fascinating frontier in the development of smart cities. By providing a dynamic and accurate virtual representation of cities, these tools can improve urban planning, optimize resource management, and ultimately create more livable and sustainable urban environments.
However, as with any technological innovation, it is crucial that they are implemented equitably and transparently, ensuring that the benefits of these advances are shared fairly among all citizens and that their risks are appropriately managed. The city of the future is no longer just a vision, it is a digital reality in constant evolution.
