For many people operating on 3D city data is limited to rotating, scrolling, and inventorying neighbourhood backyard. This is not a reproach. I love to rotate and scroll too, but Digital Twin is much more than a tool for describing reality in a visual aspect.
To be clear, I define Digital Twin not only as a 3D Mesh but also as a set of GIS data.
The first application of 3D city models that comes to my mind (definitely not the most important one) is tourism and navigation support.
This is extremely useful if you can review locations that may be of interest to you in 3D prior to your trip. You can also plan a route with a ground-level (or from tower) field of view.
By the way, I think that to this day the city landscape is often underestimated or even ignored in city planning. And all you have to do as a city planner is take the DT and simply simulate how the new building will affect the landscape or how new occupants will drive traffic.
Moreover, DT is powerful because it is a tool to create a virtual world with simulations of not only of different objects and their influence on nearby surroundings in time but also a variety of events and conditions for example weather, flood, evacuation process. In that meaning, it is a very creative and visionary way to perceive the world.
The city is for people. Today more than ever we need to recreate and renovate the urban environment to make it more human-friendly. Rising pollution, climate changes, welfare polarisation force us to put words into action. Digital Twin can help to support the protection of the environment and by the environment, I mean a place where man is an inseparable part of it.
A few examples of how DT can help in that matter:
A solar potential to locate roofs where we can install some photovoltaic panels and even calculate when this investment will payback. A little tip: maybe you want to think about how your roof slopes should be exposed to the sun before you build them.
Thermal imaging for the location of buildings and installations that are losing heat and need insulation or repair. This helps to reduce heating costs and - consequently - to reduce CO2 emissions. We have already created ready to use solution to acquire and analyze this type of data.
Moving smoothly to the next application, I would like to point out how trees in the city reduce the local temperature. The effect is drastic and it looks like the climate will continue to warm up - colloquially speaking. Conclusion? More trees in the cities!
A detailed treemap helps to monitor the city greenery and helps city planners to make our cities cooler and more human friendly. It can also help in more precise allocation of funds to manage greenery.
For example, in the city of Warsaw, we have collected information not only about the location of every tree in the city but also about its condition, health, and species.
A wind effect calculation can help to prevent cities from closing air tunnels that enables airing and therefore keeping the air pollution on a lower level. The key is to identify the prevailing wind directions throughout the year.
Building roof analysis for roof gardens. This trend may not be strong yet, but I have a feeling that the increasing human need for contact with greenery may change it. Imagine taking a 15-min break at work and walking your bare feet on the grass :) .
Those are just a few applications - I can bet you can name a few more on your own.
Digital Twin is a tool that gives us consistent, complementary and up-to-date information about how the city's organism functions and what are its dependencies.
3D Mesh from oblique images is one of our products from 2016. But not only that. Data just to be put on the shelf? This is not our mission. Therefore we always try to add something more like analysis and direct our customers on how to use the data.
If you want you can check on some of the city models take a look here.
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