Digital twin

I am interested in examples of digital twins of the natural environment (groundwater, soil, geology, ground properties/resources in particular) - do we need to define what those are -  would love to hear other people's thoughts

On 19/05/2020 at 10:43, holgerkessler said:

I am interested in examples of digital twins of the natural environment (groundwater, soil, geology, ground properties/resources in particular) - do we need to define what those are -  would love to hear other people's thoughts

Thats a good question, I wonder if we can find people in this space to contribute? I would assume the language is not developed in this space!

Our draft IEC Smart Cities Systems Committee definition of digital twin is:

Digital Twin

formal, explicit, computer-readable and computer-executable digital representation of an object or system that allows a computer to understand that object or system

Note 1

Digital twins can be made of material objects and systems (house, city, human, electrical distribution system etc.) and of immaterial objects (process, project plan, etc.)

Note 2

Digital twins can be primary, when the digital representation is developed before the physical object or system is built to help in the design or construction of that object or system. Or they can be secondary, when they are developed to represent an object or system that already exists in the physical world.

Note 3

A digital twin of an existing object or system is created from data gathered from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, with scientific and social-science modelling, machine learning and other advanced analytics applied to replicate the behaviour of that object or system, supporting decision making.

Note 4

A digital twin of an existing object or system is more than just a model: it must have a two-way connection with that object or system and should provide dynamic as well as static representations of that object or system. Data needs to flow between the physical twin and the digital, enabling insights and creating the opportunity for positive interventions within the physical twin.

I am missing a consideration of the natural environment that most infrastructure is grounded in - if we fail to connect up with the Geology/Soil/Groundwater/Archaeology/Geotechnics community we will miss a trick and the predictability of city or infrastructure digital twins will be severely impeded.

On 27/05/2020 at 07:36, holgerkessler said:

I am missing a consideration of the natural environment that most infrastructure is grounded in - if we fail to connect up with the Geology/Soil/Groundwater/Archaeology/Geotechnics community we will miss a trick and the predictability of city or infrastructure digital twins will be severely impeded.

Our internal definition subtly swaps out the term "asset" for "environment" to keep us conscious of things such as ground movements or air quality.

Quote

A digital environment that reflects on, mirrors, and evolves ahead of the physical environment or service to facilitate SMART decision making.

As organisations seek to develop their understanding of digital twins and devise an approach and implementation plan, the advocates/champions will need to pitch to the purse string holders.   Often times he purse string holder want to understand what’s the minimum expenditure to deliver a service/capability.  
 

in my experience it’s useful to break a capability down into constituent parts and have a quality scale. Perhaps good, silver or bronze. An organisation can then pitch a quality level within the areas key to their organisation. 
 

can we define an exemplar scale or at least make a start?!

Would it be worth considering something similar to TRL or IRL (technology/investment readiness levels)?

Greg Demchak from Bentley Systems defined a digital twin as a “synchronized virtual representation of a real-world asset, a digital version of reality that is continuously updated.”

I define Digital Twin as 

Quote

Smart 3D model that contains enough information to support the operation & maintenance of the asset.

Is mandatory to have a 3D model in a digital twin deployment?

In addition to the connection with real assets to reflect their evolution, digital twins are great tools for simulations of assets behavior in different circumstances, especially critical in resilience scenario modelling.  Running thousands of those scenarios in a virtual environment saves time, money and improves decision making about the real assets.