The need to adapt to Covid-19 will accelerate expansion of digital twin and smart city technologies, according to a new report from ABI Research.

Titled Smart Cities and Smart Spaces, the report found that a need to increase resilience and optimise resource management in light of the Covid-19 pandemic will be a key driver in the uptake of digital twins over the next five years.

The researchers estimate that the market for digital twins will grow from $US3.8 billion in 2019 to $US35.8 billion per year by 2025.

The report also projects that by 2025, the number of urban digital twins globally will be over 500 and that implementation will expand to widespread, multi-purpose deployments from pilot projects.

Dominique Bonte, Vice President, End Markets at ABI Research noted that since the first digital twins were deployed in cities such as Singapore around three years ago, features have quickly expanded to enable a much wider range of application areas including infrastructure coverage planning and green infrastructure management.

“Real-time 3D models of cities-built environment allow scenario analysis through the simulation of the potential impact of natural disasters like flooding, [adoption of] generative design principles for new city developments [which optimise] energy savings and solar capacity, and saving costs by operating cities more efficiently and effectively,” he said.

“The digital twin ecosystem system activity is growing quickly with more suppliers announcing more deployments in more cities.

“Vendors like Dassault Systèmes and others are paving the way for extending urban Digital Twins to marketplaces and opening access to key metrics and dashboards to the citizens themselves, increasing their overall involvement and helping gain approval of city government decisions and policies.”

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