The current population of India is 1.4 billion, accounting for 17.7% of the total world’s population (United Nations data). Until 2020, its urban population was estimated at 35%. On the economic front, IMF has forecast India’s growth by 9.5% in 2021 and 8.5% in 2022.
As per Geospatial Artha Report (2021) as produced by Geospatial World, urban development has emerged as the second priority sector (next to defence sector) with a significant geospatial market in 2021, i.e., INR 1,820 crore and a total potential of approximately INR 3,030 crore in 2025.
UN-Habitat (2020) suggests that the spatial conditions of a city can enhance its power to generate social, economic and environmental value, and well-being. The Govt of India (GOI) has laid special emphasis on digital transformation, especially in urban departments.
Several schemes like Smart City Mission, AMRUT Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, HRIDAY, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban, launched with huge outlays, are being executed by the respective departments, efficiently.
The importance of “location” parameter in all urban projects is of immense value and has been acknowledged by all stakeholders in these projects. It brings out hidden geographic relationships through spatial analysis and helps in urban infrastructure projects’ planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance phases. Urban planners and engineers demand higher accuracy datasets to bring in the right value to their exercises.
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Our world is in 3D but the maps that are being used in India by the urban local bodies (municipal corporations, municipal councils, nagar panchayats) for their day-to-day operations and decision-making are by and large 2D in nature.
While the operations in various projects are happening in a planimetric manner (technology to measure distances and areas) through creation and analysis of 2D spatial datasets, it’s time to prepare city centric datasets in a 3D environment on a large scale so that engineering grade urban datasets can be generated for various stakeholders.
Earlier, survey delays were commonplace, given the policy restrictions. But after the GOI launched a landmark policy on February 15, 2021, the industry got a free hand to capture high-resolution real-world datasets, including 3D datasets, without any prior approval (with exception of published negative list) from security agencies in India. This also encouraged the geospatial industry to proactively contribute to government projects and businesses.
With a larger bandwidth resulting in speedier networks and boosting computing power in the processing environment of the Servers, big datasets like 3D models of the urban infrastructure, street view panoramic imagery, LiDAR point clouds etc. can now be rendered to the client end at a faster pace.
The fusion of all these urban datasets integrated with the IoT and AI/ML techniques leads to the creation of Urban Spatial Digital Twin.
“Digital twin” is a concept that creates a model of a physical asset for predictive maintenance. This model will continually adapt to changes in the environment or operation using real-time sensory data and can forecast the future of the corresponding physical assets.
“Urban Spatial Digital Twin” is about extending this powerful concept in the urban environment through a combination of spatial data (2D/3D models) and intelligence that comes from the linked business attributes represented through appropriate data model, IoT sensor feeds from various connected devices, structure, context and behaviour of a physical system of any type.
Many cities like New York City, Las Vegas, etc. have taken a pioneer role in its implementation, whereas country like Singapore did the same a few years back and has since been deriving inherent benefits in creating “Digital Twin” models.
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For the past two decades, Genesys has been surveying and mapping using its advanced survey equipment and mapping tools for various countries worldwide (both for governments and large businesses). After the new geospatial policy, it decided to develop the “Maps and 3D Models Content Program” to boost the concept of ‘Urban Spatial Digital Twin’ for top Indian cities.
Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, launched the Genesys Digital Twin program for top 100 cities of the country on 1st December, last year. This will bring India on the Global map with cities using Digital Twin with geospatial technology and boost the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) through transformation of Digital India. The output datasets and the applications can be availed using subscription services.
On February 15, 2022, the Union Minister for Science and Technology termed the concept of “Digital Twins” historical, revolutionary, and a game-changer. Genesys has pledged INR 500 crore for the Atmanirbhar initiative and has already procured manned aircraft, high-end aerial sensors (LiDAR, optical-nadir and oblique cameras (resolution of 150 MP) and near infrared band), 50-plus Mahindra Scorpio SUVs fitted with terrestrial mobile LiDAR and 360-degree panoramic imaging sensors.
Genesys aims at revolutionizing the map ecosystem in the country. With the “Digital Twin” program, highly accurate, digital 3D maps and models will be available for the first time, depicting reality “as is” with high-accuracy, engineering-grade datasets.
This will lay a strong foundation for planning and operations of urban bodies, smart cities, utilities like telecom (including effective 5G rollout), gas, power companies, renewable energy projects, sustainable environment initiatives and importantly, disaster management, and emergency response. The Urban Spatial Digital Twins of Indian cities will eventually be a part of the emerging Metaverse.
In course of time, the network of 3D virtual worlds and the “Digital Twin” promises to transform the way people would engage with the world around them.
The Genesys program will entail acquisition of highly accurate geometrical dimensions of cities’ assets via a constellation of sensors. It will follow spatial feature extraction as per the national guidelines laid down by the Town and Country Planning and Survey of India, norms of IoT specifications and publishing protocols as defined by the Ministry of IT, GOI, standards of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), and other standard organisations viz ISO TC 211 and OGC.
The datasets of various remote sensing satellites, including those from the Indian remote sensing satellite, can be fused effectively into Genesys Digital Twin Datasets. Integration and interoperability with the “Bhuvan” platform of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also been tested successfully through a ‘testbed’.
The “system” of Genesys’ Urban Spatial Digital Twin is a collaborative program in which various government bodies, including city administrations in India, enterprises, start-ups, technology & solution providers, and academia, will play their respective roles, keeping in mind the Standard Operating Procedures ( SOPs).
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