Another example of a publicly funded mega-project that can serve as a catalyst for a city-level digital twin, is Cross River Rail in Brisbane, Australia. The Cross River Rail project is a 10.2-kilometer section of rail that includes 5.9 kilometers of a tunnel under the Brisbane River, 6 new stations – 4 underground and 2 on the surface, plus upgrades to 6 existing stations, all aimed at making public transport more attractive and removing existing bottlenecks in Brisbane’s public transport.
The AUD $5.4 billion project, which started construction in 2019 and is due to be operational by 2025, is already unlocking future investment in residential and commercial properties and was a key component of the City of Brisbane’s successful bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics, given its alignment with the International Olympic Committee’s criteria for having the games blend in with, and be catalytic to, the growth of host cities versus a one-off two-week event.
Multi-environment digital twins that continually communicate with one another are at the heart of the project ‘digital network approach’, and its benefits extend beyond digital engineering to provide a better understanding of the interconnected nature of proposed assets with associated infrastructure within and beyond station environs. Andrew Curthoys, digital delivery manager at Cross River Rail comments “they (digital twins) allow us to plan for the life of the project, cast forward to what it will be like, with the advantage of a full digital representation that can be used for additional tasks including the ongoing operations and maintenance.”
Cross River Rail’s CEO Graeme Newton expects that in comparison to the benefits digital twins provide, the cost of creating and maintaining them is insignificant and that investment in digital twin technology will just become the norm. Newton believes future owner-operators will ask “What have been the (data) inputs into all of these things? How are you maintaining the standard you said you would? How do we know that safety is paramount? The digital twin means it is forever captured and forever represented and is forever traceable.”
The problems being handled by digital twins in Singapore and Brisbane are comparable to those that are affecting or will soon impact the UK, but the technology has additional applications. For example, the Grenfell Tower catastrophe has refocused government and regulators on the safety of higher-risk structures, while national and international banks must explain the effect of their investments against economic, social, and environmental (ESG) criteria.
The banking community, as important investors, has a significant chance to reap the benefits of digital twins by employing them to provide value, follow sustainability objectives, attract new investments, and better manage risk.
More in the next post about Here’s Why Investors are Starting to Pay Attention to Infrastructure Digital Twins…
This article was republished with prior written permission from Bentley Systems.
(Source: Cockerell, Steve. “Here’s Why Investors Are Starting to Pay Attention to Infrastructure Digital Twins.” Bentley Blog, Bentley Systems, 6 Sept. 2022, https://blog.bentley.com/heres-why-investors-are-starting-to-pay-attention-to-infrastructure-digital-twins/.)
(Image Source: Adapted from the European Train Control System (ETCS), Cross River Rail Delivery Authority)
Bentley Systems (NASDAQ: BSY) is the infrastructure engineering software company. We provide innovative software to advance the world’s infrastructure — sustaining both the global economy and environment. Our industry-leading software solutions are used by professionals and organizations of every size for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, water and wastewater, public works and utilities, buildings and campuses, mining, and industrial facilities. Our offerings include MicroStation-based applications for modeling and simulation, ProjectWise for project delivery, AssetWise for asset and network performance, Seequent’s leading geoprofessional software portfolio, and the iTwin platform for infrastructure digital twins. Bentley Systems employs more than 4,500 colleagues and generates annual revenues of approximately $1 billion in 186 countries.
ClimaTwin® is a leading climate risk intelligence solution for infrastructure assets and the built environment.
We empower infrastructure stakeholders to mitigate climate risks and assess adaptation actions across the total asset lifecycle. By connecting complex climate models and infrastructure digital twins, our solution enables engineers, owner-operators, and governments to aggregate, visualize, and analyze disparate datasets, revealing site-specific insights at a hyper-local scale. Benefits include 5-10x near-term returns and lifetime cost-avoidance by mitigating risks to systems, services, and societies.
To learn more about climate risk intelligence for your infrastructure assets, please visit www.climatwin.com today.
Speaker Tom Walski, Senior Product Manager, Water at Bentley Systems, Inc., presents the webinar “Achieving Success with Digital Twins.” During the webinar, Walski discusses how digital twins “…help improve system operations and drive intelligent asset management decisions.” Further, the speaker addresses challenges and solutions when optimizing the capabilities of digital twins for water systems. Attendees learn about the following topics on digital twins and water utilities:
Sharing data between multiple technologies such as SCADA, GIS, and others;
Determining pump efficiency based on power usage inputs;
Implementing flexible controls under manual system pumps;
Ensuring the security of digital twin platforms to reduce risks;
Calibrating models for specific user requirements and use cases, and;
Advocating for stakeholder buy-in of digital twins at water utilities.
About the Speaker
Tom Walski, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, has over 40 years of experience in the water and wastewater industry. Throughout his career as an engineer, author, presenter, and university professor, he has worked at applying modeling methods to solve planning, design, and operation problems. Based in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, Tom has a passion for presenting sound modeling methods in ways that can be understood by practicing engineers and operators.
Bentley Systems (NASDAQ: BSY) is the infrastructure engineering software company. We provide innovative software to advance the world’s infrastructure — sustaining both the global economy and environment. Our industry-leading software solutions are used by professionals and organizations of every size for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, water and wastewater, public works and utilities, buildings and campuses, mining, and industrial facilities. Our offerings include MicroStation-based applications for modeling and simulation, ProjectWise for project delivery, AssetWise for asset and network performance, Seequent’s leading geoprofessional software portfolio, and the iTwin platform for infrastructure digital twins. Bentley Systems employs more than 4,500 colleagues and generates annual revenues of approximately $1 billion in 186 countries.
ClimaTwin® is a leading climate risk intelligence solution for infrastructure assets and the built environment.
We empower infrastructure stakeholders to mitigate climate risks and assess adaptation actions across the total asset lifecycle. By connecting complex climate models and infrastructure digital twins, our solution enables engineers, owner-operators, and governments to aggregate, visualize, and analyze disparate datasets, revealing site-specific insights at a hyper-local scale. Benefits include 5-10x near-term returns and lifetime cost-avoidance by mitigating risks to systems, services, and societies.
To learn more about climate risk intelligence for your infrastructure assets, please visit www.climatwin.com today.
It is not only outside examples and sources of new funding that can help provide confidence that new technology will provide ongoing, lasting value to infrastructure. A surprising factor shows how infrastructure development and operations can benefit from the same factor that gives many successful technology companies, from social media networks to technical solution innovators, much of their value. That factor is the network effect.
At its core, the network effect describes the incremental benefits a platform gains from new users, which results in the product becoming more valuable for all users. When Facebook first expanded beyond college students, for example, its value was relatively limited, as most users only knew a few people on it. As more joined, each individual could keep up with more friends and family members, becoming something millions of people use daily.
The network effect can also make new infrastructure design and operations technology more valuable as more people use it. Creating an infrastructure digital twin, a replica of an asset or a work site is an impressive feat. Yet, many companies were hesitant to use what seemed like new technology since they could not see the value. However, digital twins already proved their value back in 1960. When oxygen tanks on Apollo 13 exploded, NASA mission controllers matched the spacecraft’s conditions back on Earth and determined how to get the astronauts home.
The first infrastructure digital twin users found early success and set the path, showing how the replica could help them optimize design through improved visualization, plot out the construction process, or detect problems with operations. Subsequent users examined these first examples and found ways to improve on them. For example, more advanced use of sensors could not only detect a drop in water pressure but could also automatically determine the cause of the drop in a different part of the water system. As digital twin use grew and demonstrated new ways to enhance infrastructure, their perceived value grew, and in turn, any hesitation dropped away.
More in the next post about Leveraging Digital Twins and the Network Effect…
This article was republished with prior written permission from Bentley Systems.
(Source: Ross, Cindy Ross. “Leveraging Digital Twins and the Network Effect: How Funding to Improve Technology Can Help Expand Your Ecosystem.” Bentley Blog, Bentley Systems, 16 Dec. 2022, https://blog.bentley.com/leveraging-digital-twins-and-the-network-effect/.)
Bentley Systems (NASDAQ: BSY) is the infrastructure engineering software company. We provide innovative software to advance the world’s infrastructure — sustaining both the global economy and environment. Our industry-leading software solutions are used by professionals and organizations of every size for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, water and wastewater, public works and utilities, buildings and campuses, mining, and industrial facilities. Our offerings include MicroStation-based applications for modeling and simulation, ProjectWise for project delivery, AssetWise for asset and network performance, Seequent’s leading geoprofessional software portfolio, and the iTwin platform for infrastructure digital twins. Bentley Systems employs more than 4,500 colleagues and generates annual revenues of approximately $1 billion in 186 countries.
ClimaTwin® is a leading climate risk intelligence solution for infrastructure assets and the built environment.
We empower infrastructure stakeholders to mitigate climate risks and assess adaptation actions across the total asset lifecycle. By connecting complex climate models and infrastructure digital twins, our solution enables engineers, owner-operators, and governments to aggregate, visualize, and analyze disparate datasets, revealing site-specific insights at a hyper-local scale. Benefits include 5-10x near-term returns and lifetime cost-avoidance by mitigating risks to systems, services, and societies.
To learn more about climate risk intelligence for your infrastructure assets, please visit www.climatwin.com today.
Government entities and qualifying owner-operators do not have to go it alone and figure out how to pay for better infrastructure solutions. In the United States, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) does not only earmark billions of dollars toward the repair and development of infrastructure, but it also sets aside hundreds of millions of dollars specifically for the purchase of technology to help in infrastructure repair and development.
Though funding infrastructure-related technology supports IIJA’s overall goal of shoring up the country’s infrastructure, it benefits owner-operators well beyond the scope of the act. Users can eliminate the financial barrier to entry and use the new technology however they see fit. That way owner-operators can explore innovations, such as digital twins, 4D construction modeling, advanced reality capture, and machine learning, and learn how they can sharpen their work without worrying about the return on investment.
More in the next post about Leveraging Digital Twins and the Network Effect…
This article was republished with prior written permission from Bentley Systems.
(Source: Ross, Cindy Ross. “Leveraging Digital Twins and the Network Effect: How Funding to Improve Technology Can Help Expand Your Ecosystem.” Bentley Blog, Bentley Systems, 16 Dec. 2022, https://blog.bentley.com/leveraging-digital-twins-and-the-network-effect/.)
Bentley Systems (NASDAQ: BSY) is the infrastructure engineering software company. We provide innovative software to advance the world’s infrastructure — sustaining both the global economy and environment. Our industry-leading software solutions are used by professionals and organizations of every size for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, water and wastewater, public works and utilities, buildings and campuses, mining, and industrial facilities. Our offerings include MicroStation-based applications for modeling and simulation, ProjectWise for project delivery, AssetWise for asset and network performance, Seequent’s leading geoprofessional software portfolio, and the iTwin platform for infrastructure digital twins. Bentley Systems employs more than 4,500 colleagues and generates annual revenues of approximately $1 billion in 186 countries.
ClimaTwin® is a leading climate risk intelligence solution for infrastructure assets and the built environment.
We empower infrastructure stakeholders to mitigate climate risks and assess adaptation actions across the total asset lifecycle. By connecting complex climate models and infrastructure digital twins, our solution enables engineers, owner-operators, and governments to aggregate, visualize, and analyze disparate datasets, revealing site-specific insights at a hyper-local scale. Benefits include 5-10x near-term returns and lifetime cost-avoidance by mitigating risks to systems, services, and societies.
To learn more about climate risk intelligence for your infrastructure assets, please visit www.climatwin.com today.
