The city is a space where science can fully express itself. Without the technical innovations produced in laboratories, universities and companies, we would not have public transportation, building materials, telecommunications networks or even waste treatment systems that are utilized daily by society.

Surprisingly, while our urban spaces can be considered layers of scientific knowledge, their governance struggles to be organized around a truly scientific approach, including diagnoses, piloting, evaluations and forecasts.

This situation becomes even more challenging with global warming, which requires the mobilization of objectives, science-based knowledge and methods.

Nowadays, cities are collectively facing a challenge: to improve their governance by adopting a scientific approach and demonstrating that they implement actions and strategies that respond to the warnings raised by scientists.

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For several years, public actors have been investing in the ecological transition that supports changes in practices and the transformation of infrastructures towards more economical, accessible and resilient modes of operation. Despite these measures, public actors lack visibility on the externalities of their public policies and their real gains generated.

Few territories have a detailed and objective diagnosis of their ecological footprint. Decision-makers mostly share this observation – the difficulty of demonstrating that their actions have the expected impact.

Demonstrating impact

Regarding ecological transition, the question of demonstration is fundamental, as well as the ability to build a collective commitment. In order to encourage territories to commit to a sustainable transition, it is essential to mobilize the whole ecosystem. The consultation and decision-making process is hard to manage since stakeholders, private companies, local organizations, public institutions and citizens have divergent interests. However, each of these networks must be involved in a convergent effort toward common goals of sobriety for this transition to be successful.

To meet this challenge, public decision-makers are coming to the conclusion that traditional methods of driving networks and projects are now outdated due to lack of traceability, complex sharing of information, absence of contextualized collaborative tools, inability to articulate the scientific and political worlds, overly prevalent organizational silos, etc.

To implement public policies using a scientific approach while combining the interests of each stakeholder, more and more public actors are relying on digital solutions.

Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables public decision-makers to meet these challenges and needs by providing them with tools to facilitate the understanding of their territory, to scientifically simulate the impact of public policies before they are implemented and to improve collaboration and dialogue with their ecosystems.

The development of a 3D virtual twin of a city or neighborhood allows territories, cities, public actors and urban operators to visualize their territory and all their data in full perspective and run various scenarios in order to facilitate the urban diagnosis and build a consensus within their ecosystem around the decision to be made.

However, to achieve this objective, the implementation of a data strategy based on four principles is essential: to collect, analyze, value, and share. This strategy makes it possible to build a database from heterogeneous sources (web, sensors, technical systems, partners, public services, etc.). Enhanced in the context of a digital twin, this data then becomes a source of actionable information for the territory’s projects.

Thus, more and more territories are now adopting the virtual twin approach to manage public policies.

City digital twins in action

As an illustration, Rennes Métropole in Brittany, France, needs to serve 43 different communities, nearly half a million residents and more than 18,000 companies with equity and efficiency. Simultaneously, its urban planners must integrate modern, gleaming towers with the centuries-old buildings that give the region its historic charm, and they must manage quality-of-life issues, from pollution and traffic to energy efficiency and green space.

The city is relying on a 3D virtual twin of the city to help drive its sustainable transformation and improve the quality of life for its residents. Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform is connecting the city ecosystem to allow efficient teamwork and accelerate decision-making. It provides a common data reference that facilitates coordination between all stakeholders – especially elected officials and municipal staff.

For 20 years Rennes has been using 3D models and simulations to represent and understand the territory. In 2017, it created the 3D virtual twin of the city as a basis for extended collaboration. The virtual twin synthesizes geometric, topographical, demographic, mobility and other data in a unified, visual model. It allows the city’s internal and external stakeholders to plan and manage any project for equipment, infrastructure, or environmental initiatives in a transversal and collaborative way. Several partners have been able to provide their know-how by delivering specific applications within the platform.

The urban planning department is using the platform to share all of the project’s information in a city context. Project managers can sketch 3D space reservations which are shared with urban designers to deliver their projects. Then, the 3D scene is used to evaluate options and communicate on the project’s progress. At different stages of the project, the platform is used in public meetings or events to explain the planning and design choices.

Virtual Rennes enables all city stakeholders to work better together, remotely share data, simulate evolutions of the city and operate its transformation.

In Japan, Dassault Systèmes and NTT demonstrated the capabilities of city virtual twins to support the Smart Keihana Project sponsored by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Keihanna city, one of Japan’s major city areas, has been virtually modeled in 3D for officials to visualize, analyze, collaborate, and make decisions across a wide range of measures and projects related to smart cities.

In the context of an ageing population, the city wanted to analyze new means of transportation for the elderly and others, including in times of disaster, creating an environment for smart, safe and comfortable living. Several other projects were tested in the city virtual twin: The “Last One Mile Mobility” initiative as well as the “Pole-Hanging Delivery Box” and the PiPPA-GPS-equipped Shared Bicycle projects.

The project demonstrated the virtual twin capability to simulate several projects in a single environment aggregating multiple sources of data.

In very different circumstances, virtual twins can be utilized to rebuild cities. Ukrainian public authorities have decided to test out the benefits of virtual twin technology to rebuild Chernihiv in northern Ukraine. The government appointed three French companies – Dassault Systèmes, Egis and B4, respectively specializing in 3D virtual technologies, construction and engineering – to help restore some of the country’s most damaged urban areas.

The project is composed of two major phases:

Analysis of the Chernihiv region to assess damages and estimate reconstruction costs.
A virtual reconstruction of the city of Chernihiv for strategic master planning, covering optimization of the design of new buildings and the organization of city transportation, infrastructure and other services.
The aim is to rebuild resilient and sustainable Ukrainian cities to enrich the lives of their inhabitants.

Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables public decision-makers to explore new methods for designing, evaluating and forecasting public policies in an extended collaborative context. These tools support the emergence of a new form of urban governance that refocuses its steering capacities around scientific, collaborative and investment-consistent methods.