{"id":1106721,"date":"2021-01-11T08:00:30","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=1106721"},"modified":"2022-08-11T10:29:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T17:29:25","slug":"gis-foundation-for-digital-twins","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis\/aec\/gis-foundation-for-digital-twins","title":{"rendered":"ArcGIS: A Foundation for Digital Twins"},"author":6531,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[615021],"tags":[25781,310972,30371,643751,23081],"industry":[],"product":[421922],"class_list":["post-1106721","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aec","tag-3d","tag-aec","tag-bim","tag-digital-twin","tag-utilities","product-arcgis"],"acf":{"short_description":"GIS enables successful Digital Twins, virtual representations of the real world that include objects, processes, relationships, and behaviors. ","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Digital Twins are virtual representations of the real world that incorporate physical objects, processes, relationships, and behaviors. Digital twins are used to represent accurate historical state, to observe and monitor performance, and to explore or predict future state. A digital twin of a fixed asset or real-world system benefits directly from the inclusion of GIS data about the asset and GIS context around the asset.\u00a0 GIS can be used to create digital twins of the natural and built environment and it can also be used to integrate many different digital representations of the real world.<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

 <\/p>\n

In the last several years, the convergence of geospatial technology, building information modeling (BIM), and interactive 3D has driven a conversation about \u201cDigital Twins\u201d and how they may be used to simulate single facilities, entire cities, and even large natural systems.\u00a0 We frequently get asked how GIS plays into the digital twin strategy of our customers and here we provide some of our most common answers.<\/p>\n

What is a digital twin?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Digital Twins<\/a> are virtual representations of the real world including physical objects, processes, relationships, and behaviors. When we reference digital twins in GIS, we\u2019re typically speaking about virtual models of real-world assets or natural systems along with information models, data, reports, analyses, and user experiences intended to capture state, monitor performance, and predict future outcomes.\u00a0 Digital twins may be used to represent current, past, or even future states of assets and may not reflect exactly what exists in the real world today.<\/p>\n

The concept of a digital twin originated in the product manufacturing industry.\u00a0 Precise digital models of complex objects, such as airplanes or cars, can be captured in a database for purposes of reporting, analysis, and, eventually, simulating and testing an object\u2019s performance. The original digital twin concept helped move the use of data about an asset from strictly used for finance and cost-accounting to use for performance and operational analysis that could then be iterated back into the financial perspective of the asset\u2019s manufacture and sales.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":1107791,"id":1107791,"title":"2020-1-CJA - DenverAerometrex1","filename":"2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1.jpg","filesize":613873,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis\/aec\/gis-foundation-for-digital-twins\/2020-1-cja-denveraerometrex1","alt":"GIS information overlaid on Aerometrex I3S mesh for Denver provides a powerful web dashboard for cities","author":"6531","description":"GIS information overlaid on Aerometrex I3S mesh for Denver provides a powerful web dashboard for cities","caption":"GIS information overlaid on Aerometrex I3S mesh for Denver provides a powerful web dashboard for cities","name":"2020-1-cja-denveraerometrex1","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":1106721,"date":"2021-01-09 01:10:54","modified":"2021-01-09 01:37:04","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2560,"height":1440,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1-213x200.jpg","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1.jpg","medium-width":464,"medium-height":261,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1.jpg","large-width":1920,"large-height":1080,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1-1536x864.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1-2048x1152.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1152,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1-826x465.jpg","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":465,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2020-1-CJA-DenverAerometrex1-1920x1080.jpg","wide_image-width":1920,"wide_image-height":1080}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/digital-twin\/overview"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Today, we\u2019re involved in many discussions about how the digital twin concept can be applied to real world infrastructure management<\/a>, buildings, and even for systems at scales as large as whole cities and natural environments.\u00a0 The idea that a model of fixed physical assets can be used to help understand performance, costs, and construction is compelling. Extending the digital twin concept to inhabited systems that include ongoing human activity including maintenance and operation becomes even more interesting, but also drives complexity to be high.<\/p>\n

GIS has been used to model real world systems with high accuracy for years.\u00a0 Utility networks<\/a>, legal parcel boundaries<\/a>, and traffic networks have all been represented in GIS for purposes of asset management, maintenance, and planning. The digital twin concept builds on older techniques and technologies for data warehousing, federated systems, and object-based data models by adding realism, interactive user experience, and high-resolution 3D and 4D models of assets and systems. Ultimately, the digital twin must help the owner or operator of the real-world asset or system to solve business or mission-critical applications to justify the investment and process changes that will inform and maintain the twin.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

What kinds of problems can a digital twin help solve?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The three main problems that digital twins address include:<\/p>\n