LIVEABLE CITY DIGITAL TWIN: A PILOT PROJECT FOR THE CITY OF LIVERPOOL (NSW, AUSTRALIA)

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of Digital Twin (DT) for cities is increasingly at the core of most smart city initiatives, as it has been identified as a critical tool for tackling the challenges of this century. A robust city modelling framework is essential if local, state and national governments are to move towards sustainable built environments and work together across complex multi-sectoral problems to drive impacts that improve urban liveability and climate adaptability. Furthermore, the level of collaboration and interoperability required to address these cannot be achieved without proper standardisation of DT components. The aim of this project is to develop a demonstration DT that integrates existing data using a standardised 3D format based on CityGML and that embeds analytics, such as sun exposure and tree coverage, to assess liveability within a 3D city modelling framework. Common urban features such as buildings, roads, railways, vegetation and water bodies are also processed and incorporated. Additionally, IoT sensors are integrated into the model and all processes are performed using open-source tools to improve accessibility and repeatability. Details of the workflow, including the storage of the city features in a 3D City Database (3DCityDB), the 3D upgrading of urban features commonly available as 2D data as well as a few use cases are illustrated and discussed in this paper.