The second day of the Geospatial World Forum 2021 witnessed detailed discussions on ways in which digital models of our physical environment, powered by geospatial information, can ensure better efficiency, accuracy, and sustainability in construction and infrastructure projects.
The second day of the Geospatial World Forum 2021 saw multiple sessions running parallelly on subjects like AEC & Digital Cities, Location & Business Intelligence, SDGs & Circular Economy, Defense & Internal Security, among others. The session on AEC & Digital Cities started with an introductory talk by the Industry Manager, AEC, Geospatial World, Kasirajan Mahalingam, who highlighted the significance of digitalizing every part of a project lifecycle. He demonstrated the impact and importance of integrating geospatial and BIM, based on some of the ongoing research work being carried out by Geospatial World. “The integration of geospatial and BIM, also called GEOBIM, can help in avoiding cost overruns and saving precious time,” he said. The AEC Industry Manager also shared crucial information on the mergers and acquisitions in the geospatial and BIM space and gave a glimpse into the global GEOBIM Readiness Index.
Enabling sustainable infrastructure
The opening subject for discussions in the session was Geospatial Infrastructure & Digital Twin: Empowering Sustainable Construction. Speaking on the subject, Ingo Simonis, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), Germany, said, “The key is to make all geospatial data findable and accessible.” He also emphasized the requirement for data standards for better project execution and delivery.
Focusing on the advantages of modeling, Amr Raafat, Vice President, VDC & Technology, Windover Construction, USA, said, “BIM data helps us visualize things concerning construction, be it industrialized or offsite construction. We see geospatial as not a technology tool but as a solution. The ultimate goal is to integrate geospatial data from sensors and drones with BIM and AR & VR.”
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Meanwhile, Daniel Pierre, Group Innovation Director, Antea Group, France, exhibited the work on environmental digital twins by his company to ensure sustainability. “Digital Twins will help in making our sustainable cities more sustainable, and that is why we need environmental digital twins with an ecosystem approach,” he said.
Developing Digital Twin for a country
The Netherlands was one of the first countries to begin digital mapping in 1994. Over the years, several digital twins have been built across the Netherlands, including a digital replica of the port of Rotterdam, the biggest port in Europe and the sixth biggest in the world by annual cargo throughput. Work is underway to now build a national Digital Twin for the country. During discussions on Developing a National Digital Twin for the Netherlands, Marcel Reuvers, Senior Advisor, Strategy and Policy, Kadaster, the Netherlands, said, “We need a National Digital Twin to overcome challenges concerning the impact of climate change, energy transition, agriculture transition, replacement infrastructure, and housing construction. In the next 10 years, we have to build 1 million houses in the Netherlands. For this, we will have to work together, and we already do that.”
Meanwhile, Thomas Pelzer, Product Manager, Aerial & Street LiDAR, Aerial Imagery, Street Ortho, 3D & Digital Twins at Cyclomedia, the Netherlands, said that his company was working on developing a national digital model for the Netherlands. “We see 3D as a total solution. For this we need to turn all 2D models into 3D models. For a National Digital Twin, we need to have nationwide availability of open standards, and ensure that there is technology that is affordable and accessible.
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Ravi Peters, Researcher, 3D Geoinformation at Delft University of Technology, shared details about their 3D BAG, an up-to-date dataset containing 3D building models of the Netherlands. The 3D BAG is open data, and it contains 3D models at multiple levels of detail which are generated by combining two open datasets — the building data from the BAG and the height data from the AHN. The 3D BAG is updated regularly, keeping it up-to-date with the latest openly available building stock and elevation information. “It’s exciting to see how many different users ranging from technology enthusiasts to companies have accessed our creation,” he said.
Tech to drive infrastructure development
Later into the session, discussions were held on Built & Spatial Data for Technology-driven Infrastructure Planning & Development. Dr. Shivangi Somvanshi, Director, Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure, Geospatial World, was acting as the moderator, and she started the session by explaining the concept of Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure (GKI). “The significance of data lies in the knowledge derived from it. Since most problems in the world are time and space related, geospatial knowledge is crucial for addressing those problems. GKI is nothing but an evolution of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), which was invented in 1990s. While SDI was focused on data, GKI is focused on knowledge,” she said.
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Anthony Tuffour, Director, Global Lead GIS and Digital Twins, BuroHappold Engineering, UK, listed out challenges of infrastructure planning and development in the built environment. “The challenges include timely and accurate data, understanding of accurate infrastructure requirements against limited resources, intended beneficiaries, stakeholder engagement and collaboration, environmental impact, competing demand and interest, and power politics and governance,” he said.
On the other hand, Maya Tryfona, Data Engineer, ASM / Digital, Data & Analytics, Amsterdam Airport, Schiphol Group, talked about the challenges concerning asset management. “We were working in silos earlier, but in 2019 we took an application centric approach, rather than a data centric approach,” she said.
Digital replicas as solutions
The final subject of discussion was Digital Twin Solutions for Efficient Infrastructure Asset Management. The participants included Jan Van de Steen, Senior Manager, GIS & Asset Management, Capgemini, Belgium, Katarzyna Fedyk, Principal Consultant, Mott MacDonald, Niels Reyngoud, Program Manager, Implementation Asset Management and BIM, Province Gelderland, the Netherlands, and Cristina Savian, Founder, BE-WISE, Australia who was moderating the discussion. During the course of the event, the participants discussed about ways in which digital twins can help in management of different assets to create value.
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For the participants of the AEC & Digital Cities session, the day ended with a reception and networking opportunities.
