Digital twins, increasingly utilized in smart cities. What possibilities does this technology—recreating the real world digitally—hold for business?

Have you ever heard the term "digital twin"? It refers to technology that recreates physical spaces digitally. A proof-of-concept experiment using this technology has begun in Tokyo, drawing significant attention. We'll cover the details later, but its application is advancing in various fields like manufacturing and disaster prevention. This article introduces the characteristics of digital twins and explores their use cases in smart cities.We will explore its application in the business sector from the perspective: "Can smart city development using digital twins provide insights for business planning?"

Digital twins are spaces for experimentation and analysis aimed at improving the real world

"Digital Twin" is a technology that collects data from physical environments and objects in the real world and recreates them in a digital space. The term "twin" is used because it represents a one-to-one relationship between the real and digital worlds.

Hearing this, some might think it sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, but digital twins are actually being utilized in various fields in recent years. Many people also likely associate it with virtual reality spaces like VR or the metaverse, which are frequently discussed lately. However, VR and the metaverse tend to be primarily aimed at enjoying the experience itself within the virtual space, such as entertainment content like games and videos, participating in events, or user-to-user communication.Digital twins, on the other hand, recreate real-world facilities or cities in a digital space to conduct experiments and simulations. The results can be fed back into real-world initiatives, making this technology highly practical for social projects like infrastructure development and disaster prevention. Consequently, its adoption is increasing not only among companies but also by governments and local authorities.

A key feature of simulations conducted with digital twins is their "interaction with the real world." While simulations using 3D spaces have existed for some time, they typically ran based on predefined scenarios. Digital twins, however, can replicate real-world events—such as weather conditions or changes in the environment surrounding an object—in real time within the digital world. This enhances the accuracy of verification and prediction, enabling more efficient problem-solving and improvements based on the results.

These characteristics led to early adoption of digital twins in manufacturing. For example, collecting and analyzing real-time data on factory workers' operational status and workload enables optimization of schedules and personnel allocation.In disaster response, digital twins can predict the scale of events like earthquakes or typhoons and estimate damage risks in real time, aiding in the development of optimal rescue and relief plans. Recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people likely saw simulation videos in the news verifying how virus droplets spread indoors. Digital twins are also utilized for such simulations.

Digital Twins Accelerate the Evolution of Smart Cities

As the application of digital twins expands across various fields, their use in urban development and city planning is also gaining attention.In recent years, as countermeasures against rapid population aging and declining birthrates, along with frequent disasters, efforts toward "smart cities" – urban development leveraging digital technology – have intensified. Digital twins are expected to play a significant role in realizing this vision. The reason is that recreating the urban environment and resident conditions in a digital space enables experiments and simulations that are difficult to perform in the real world. Let's look at some concrete examples.

Example 1: Tokyo Metropolitan Government's "Digital Twin Realization Project"

Tokyo is advancing its Digital Twin Realization Project toward 2030. The "Tokyo Digital Twin 3D Viewer," which allows viewing Tokyo from various angles, is already available for trial use, enabling anyone to explore a digitally recreated Tokyo. The project aims to utilize this technology for proposing congestion-avoidance routes based on real-time pedestrian flow data, suggesting evacuation routes during disasters, and streamlining the management of lifelines like water and gas. Proof-of-concept experiments are currently underway.

Case 2: Singapore's "Virtual Singapore"

Looking overseas, a leading example of digital twin utilization in urban planning is the "Virtual Singapore" project developed in Singapore. This initiative attempts to recreate all urban data—including traffic conditions, infrastructure, public health data, energy consumption, building construction materials, and resident numbers—in real time on a 3D map.The map enables users to grasp the city's movements and current events synchronized with reality, as well as perform detailed simulations based on actual conditions. By feeding these results back into the real world, the project aims to realize safer and more livable cities.

Incorporating digital twin technology into smart cities is thus expected to help solve diverse urban challenges. Beyond the two examples mentioned, consider a scenario where a terminal station becomes dysfunctional. Data collected via the digital twin could predict the impact on surrounding transportation networks and even human behavior during emergencies.Furthermore, digital twins hold archival value, providing accurate clues about the city's previous state during major disasters. If such technology accelerates smart city evolution and spreads beyond major cities to regional areas, it could contribute to regional revitalization.

Intricate simulations using vast amounts of data can be applied across various fields

So, how will digital twin technology and concepts evolve in the future?

Challenges in the Development of Digital Twins

Technologically, improvements in sensing technology for collecting real-world data are anticipated. The ability to gather more detailed and voluminous data than ever before will enable the development of even more realistic and concrete plans. In the future, if smartphones and similar devices become widely used as data-collecting sensors, the volume of data that can be collected will increase further. As the data handled becomes massive, the evolution of technologies like AI for accurate analysis of this data and the development of communication infrastructure capable of supporting large-scale data transmission will become indispensable.As 5G, enabling high-capacity, low-latency communication, becomes increasingly widespread, use cases are expected to expand further. This includes leveraging digital twins for remote operation of numerous devices and facilities.

However, it is crucial to note that as all data from the real world becomes subject to collection and analysis, concerns arise regarding privacy protection and potential infringements on data ownership. Within the smart city concept, a key factor will be whether data acquisition and its utilization can be implemented in a manner that gains the understanding and acceptance of residents and society.

Simulations that better reflect reality while considering societal impacts

Furthermore, as digital twin technology becomes more widespread, its applications may increase in scenarios like facility planning and event organization. Simulations using digital twins could facilitate planning that considers not only the convenience of project planners and operators but also broader societal impacts, legal compliance, and social norms.

While business planning naturally considers project profitability and user convenience/comfort, digital twins enable detailed analysis from perspectives like: "How will building a facility there affect surrounding pedestrian flow?" or "Are there issues from disaster prevention or environmental standpoints?" Planning that encompasses impacts on people's lives, society, and the environment may become more efficient.

Digital twins, which reflect real-world changes in real time within a digital space for verification, are significantly accelerating the realization of smart cities. Furthermore, planning that considers impacts on people, society, and the environment has the potential to enhance sustainability, contribute to society, and bring new value to projects.

Moving forward, valuable data like that from Tokyo's digital twin project will likely become more openly available. By staying abreast of this data and integrating it with your own business, you may uncover new insights and opportunities.