written by Aidan Mercer, Global Marketing Director Government and Utilities at Bentley Systems
It’s hard to talk infrastructure without hearing the terms “smart cities” or smarter processes. These terms are spurious at best. What we do know is that infrastructure in general is going through a transformative change to incorporate a multitude of new software, processes, mega trends and advancements that are collectively enabling a smarter way of working. This is allowing instantly adaptable responses to current, or future situations. The rise of 3D for example has had a dramatic impact on the way the urban landscape has evolved and continuous to evolve, by offering new perspectives on how we visualize and optimize new and existing infrastructure. Data analytics, sensor technology and improved computational power are all adding to the continuous advancements in software, paving the way for smarter infrastructure and smarter infrastructure professionals who have anticipatory tools. But are we truly delivering on these smart city objectives? At Bentley, we believe we are closing this gap with new technology to advance and sustain infrastructure projects around the world.
In order to model the future, the ability to model today is a fast-growing requirement sought after as a means to capture the reality of existing infrastructure and the ability to continuously monitor and survey infrastructure assets for more understanding about how they operate and perform over time. The concept of “reality modeling” is concerned with adding real-world imagery to infrastructure projects by capturing, processing, reusing existing site data with 3D imaging and photogrammetric techniques. The world is moving away from 2D, and the benefits are bountiful. Today, with an application from Bentley called ContextCapture, even simple photographs can be turned into 3D models that are automatically generated to give virtual representations of existing infrastructure assets. By automating the capture-to-process capability, enabled by computational power enhanced by The Cloud, modeling of an entire city can now be done in an accurate and efficient manner.
The beauty behind these 3D models, is realized by the accuracy of the data and the precise geo-coordination gathered when combined and consumed in geospatial data. These semantically rich models are scalable and less intractable than a point cloud for example. These models can work seamlessly within engineering workflows and provide immersive designs with that real-world context to enliven designs beyond what we’re used to experiencing.
Now that technology is firmly entrenched in advancing and sustaining infrastructure, we can also consider the benefits of this virtualized world created as a result. It is giving rise to new acknowledgment for the importance of digital data that is used in various phases of the lifecycle, shifting the focus to a greater understanding to the total expenditure of projects. The digital DNA found in the design and construction phase by virtue of the digital engineering models created is now being seen as a requirement including the operational phases. This is being driven by the need for better business outcomes and the vast majority of owner-operators are seeing this essential data as the driver for smarter operations.
These exciting developments are forcing great collaboration between architects, engineers, owners and the consultants that help to improve the way infrastructure is managed. A smart city is one that strives for betterment, for continual improvement to deliver a better service and a better quality of life and adopts the latest innovations to do so in a more efficient and effective manner. And although the gap is closing, I still believe we have a way to go, but the signs are that we are closer now to being smarter with the way we work, the technology we use and the people needed to operate these assets.
Learn more about the Bentley solutions for Smart Cities and visit us at INTERGEO 2016 in Hamburg, hall 4, booth E4.041.
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