blog: Houston's massive mistake

Jeff Wood, Urban Milwaukee, July 20 2019

Original article published on Urban Milwaukee.

Houston's Massive Mistake

'Meet Your Digital Twin: City planners are beginning to utilise 'digital twins', computer-based replicas of physical cities that reflect the dynamics of cities, including the people and vehicles that move through it. The tool is helpful to combat public skepticism toward planning projects, as models of digital twins effectively represent anticipated street conditions based on a variety of parameters. Digital twins can be used to predict future traffic conditions or air quality. This kind of urban modelling does require extensive data collection, including anonymized smartphone data, but some cities are already implementing the technology despite concerns over privacy. Portland, Oregon, is launching a one-year pilot to virtually replicate its city from scratch with the aid of a digital twin (Wyatt Cmar & Stephen Goldsmith / Governing)'

Digital twins have been created that can be used as virtual replicas of cities, and that have the ability to predict future conditions that may affect a city through data collection. But while many find privacy a main concern when it comes to digital twin technology being utilised in cities, it does not need to be a worry.

​Technology exists today, using digital twins, that keeps privacy and security central, and an important part of the way that they function. The creation of an interoperable ecosystem that stores all the data you own through digital twins of your assets, means that you are able to pick and choose who you share your data with. Therefore, digital twins of cities are able to function to their full potential, predicting conditions such as weather, traffic, and air quality, as well as aiding in construction projects by collecting data that may affect them, while privacy remains in-tact. This technology is available to you, today. Find out more on our website.