INDUSTRY BLOG

Digital Twins at the 2022 Esri User Conference

The excitement is growing!  We are days away from the 2022 Esri User Conference.  This is the largest gathering of GIS professionals in the world, and it is happening both in-person and virtually from July 11-15 in San Diego, California. This is an event like no other, where you get to see the latest technology, talk to experts, and connect with other like-minded individuals who are using GIS to solve the world’s biggest challenges.

To meet these challenges, organizations need scalable solutions that that not only solve today’s challenges, but also align to their strategic future vision. ArcGIS is the foundation for Digital twins, providing solutions to achieve this vision and their transformation objectives

Digital Twins are abstracting and modeling everything. They offer a means to improve business processes, reduce risk, optimize operational efficiencies, and enhance decision-making with automation to predict future outcomes. Digital twins provide greater context to solve business challenges by creating relationships and streamlining workflows.

To best prepare you for your Esri UC 2022 experience, this blog will cover the ways you can learn more about how ArcGIS is the foundation of Digital Twins and provide you with a curated list of sessions on digital twin technologies, special Interest groups, and customer presentations.

Agenda Highlights

Esri Showcase

If you will be joining us at the San Diego Convention Center, you can find the dedicated product areas and a focused infrastructure zone on the main show floor(Ground Level, Exhibit Halls ABC).  Visit us to speak with industry and product experts, see demonstrations, and learn more about creating a connected Digital Twin across all infrastructure Industries

Infrastructure Showcase Hours

Tuesday, July 12: 9:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, July 13: 9:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, July 14: 9:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m.

The Esri Infrastructure Showcase is in exhibit halls ABC on the ground level of the San Diego Convention Center (SDCC).

Special Interest Group Session

GIS in the Digital Twin

Attend this SIG to meet and engage with other users who are focused on deploying Digital Twins in their industry. Esri will have experts on site to hope facilitate conversations and connect you with like-minded peers.

Matt Piper, Esri | Kathleen Kewley, Esri | Micah Callough, Esri | Dan Issacs, Esri | Steven Anderson, Esri

Complete this Survey before this meeting to help guide the conversation and share your insights:

Customer Digital Twin Sessions

Best Practice for Imagery Data Management

This session will highlight how two organizations are managing, working with, and sharing imagery and 3D data to support greater decision-making. Details specific to buildings are vital pieces of information related to both urban and rural populations and are fundamental to planning and policymaking. Critical infrastructures, such as public transport, electricity, water distribution networks, and emergency services, rely heavily on accurate building maps. It is a natural progression for our GIS data to evolve to a 3D representation. Esri’s newest software technology enable Digital Twin visualization-based GIS system integration

Yoko Myers, County of Santa Clara | Jason Caldwell, The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.

Best Practice for Imagery Data Management

Increasingly airports are building 3D models of their facilities and digital twins to support a wide range of activities related to airport operations and management. These two presentations represent leading edge examples of how 3D GIS is helping airports be more efficient, and provide a safer and smoother customer experience including the implementation and integration of the Dallas Fort Worth Airport (DFW) Digital Infrastructure Platform

Mark Edwards, Moye Consulting | Howard Shotz, Parsons

The Utility Network as a Digital Twin

Esri’s ArcGIS Utility Network moves utilities from a strictly mapping view of their grid to a model view. This session examines how utilities are using the utility network in new ways. Elvia uses the Utility Network for their digital twin of the grid. They have created an advanced migration engine continuously migrating network information from two different legacy solutions and into a consolidated UN. This allows an agile transition gradually adding complete process support with new products and integrations

Svein Arne Rakstang, Elvia | Jens Dalsgaard, Volue

Precision Conservation Planning with 3D and Field Engineering

Conservation planning requires context and understanding. Integrating available data and services into a digital twin of the landscape can aid in understanding complex dynamics and support effective decision making and management. This session will feature new visualization and integration approaches to advancing conservation planning at scale.

John Wolf, United States Geological Survey

Digital Twins Delivering Real Value for AEC

The need for one bird eye overview on the reality, unlock the unseen, and mimic the future inspires K&A to geo-enable a reality model using Esri technology. Join this session to learn from real-world examples showing how GIS is enabling Digital Twin delivery in AEC.

  1. predicting affected areas out of environmental changes such as flooding to prevent loses,
  2. enhancing security, site seen analysis and response to alerts
  3. discovering routes and alternative paths in case of emergency, and accessibility to red zones in optimized ways

Rouba Zantout, Khatib and Alami

Using UAV’s and Deep Learning in Public Works

Public Works agencies are some of the first within government to leverage the latest technological trends to save time, reduce costs while improving services, and revenue capture. Make sure to attend this session and see how the two of the largest jurisdictions in the country are collecting and analyzing drone imagery to assess the conditions of their assets and using deep learning algorithms in ArcGIS Pro to identify the square feet of impervious surfaces for every parcel in their community.

Todd Buelhman, LOGIC Solutions Group | Cheryl Harris, City of Houston | Christine Lam, GIS Manager, County of Los Angeles Public Works | Raj Shah, Systems Consultant/IT Projects, City of Houston | Steve Loo, Managing Engineer, Houston Public Works

Tanu Hiremath, Houston Public Works

Delivering Facilities Digital Twins with ArcGIS Indoors

If the goal of an organization is to have access to historical accuracy, view current performance, or predict future state of their built environment, then a Facilities Digital Twin of the real-world system benefits from the inclusion of GIS data. Join this session to hear how ArcGIS is combined with various data and collection devices to produce Facilities Digital Twins and improve insights and improve total cost of operations.

Yavuz Eren, MipMap Technologies | Mike Colosimo, IndoorVu Inc | Felicity Cross, Yurok Tribe

Esri Demonstration Sessions

3D Analysis for Defense and Intelligence Workflows

In this workshop, users will learn how to leverage 3D capabilities across the entire Esri ecosystem to better understand their mission space and support their users on the front lines. This workshop will cover 3D defense and intelligence workflows in ArcGIS Earth, ArcGIS Pro, and ArcGIS Enterprise including the use of the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension, Empirical Bayesian Kriging 3D (EBK3D), various geoprocessing analysis examples (e.g., line of sight, viewsheds, volumetric analysis), exploratory 3D analysis techniques, and sharing 3D web applications.

Max Ozenberger, Esri | Stuart Penninger, Esri | Christopher Lee, Esri

ArcGIS CityEngine: Integrating with other Systems

ArcGIS CityEngine is an advanced modeling software that can be used in conjunction with other tools to enhance 3D workflows. This session will provide an overview of how to leverage the power of Twinmotion, Game Engines and NVIDIA Omniverse, and how to take advantage of CityEngine Plugins as well as PyPRT, a Python binding for CityEngine Procedural Runtime.

Taisha Fabricus, Esri | Jonathan Meier, Esri

ArcGIS: Using BIM to Support Infrastructure GIS

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a known process to develop attribute-rich digital models of buildings that can be brought into ArcGIS. However, did you know infrastructure is also modeled through this process and can be directly brought into your GIS? Learn how ArcGIS Pro reads various infrastructure BIM into features, including IFC, and how sharing these as hosted services can help your teams visualize assets with robust attribution that are useful in web applications.

Anthony Renteria, Esri | David Alvarez, Esri

Partner Demonstration Sessions

Climate Action & Pollution Prevention: Recycling ‘Traceability as a Service’ with Digital Twins

Climate action and ocean plastic pollution are central components of business and policy conversations globally. Industries are being pressured to utilize material recovery and recycling to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in product manufacturing in support of a low carbon circular economy. This talk will demonstrate how to track and verify the profound environmental upsides of plastics recycling efforts and how benefits multiply when recycling rates are improved.

William Robberson, President / CTO, Kamilo, Inc.

Build a Telecom Digital Twin for Passive and Active Infrastructure on Esri

Learn how TIER1 telecom operators build a Telecom Digital Twin for active and passive infrastructure and learn about its benefits for the engineering, operations, monitoring and sales teams – powered by the Esri stack. A true Telecom Digital Twin provides a single-source-of-truth, supports incident simulations and faster root-cause analysis – reducing the number of reports, ETL’s and meetings between the different teams that work on your network. This presentation highlights the learnings from a TIER1 telecom customer of Marlin Digital Twin.

Luc De Heyn, CCO, Merkator

Digital Twins from the Air Down

A digital twin is a valuable tool to model, collaborate, and test many scenarios in the built environment, but creating one requires significant data. So how do you start? High resolution and precision 3D aerial imagery can serve as the foundation and fabric for a digital twin of the built environment. Automated feature extraction from AI uniquely identifies critical infrastructure and can be used to grow an urban digital twin—removing guess work and shortening development time. You’ll learn how to use Nearmap 2D/3D/AI and Esri tools to build a digital twin and the use cases it can support.

Jeff Saunders , Nearmap, Inc.

Technology Workshop Sessions

ArcGIS Pro: Integrating BIM Designs

Building Information Models (BIM) are attribute-rich digital models of buildings and infrastructure. ArcGIS Pro can now help you not only visualize this information, but also access the rich attributes and 3D content in your GIS by directly reading IFC and Revit files. This session will show how you can use your Building Information Models (BIM), used for architectural designs, as part of a broader geospatial environment earlier in the design process.

David Alvarez, Esri, Karen Hodge, Esri | Jeff Reinhart, Esri

Diving Into the Autodesk® Integration with the Esri Platforms Using CAD and Civil 3D®

GIS workflows rely on CAD and Civil 3D data generated by outside survey, engineering, and architectural sources. In this session, we show how to leverage your AutoCAD® and Civil 3D data using proper techniques along with exploring workflows to easily position these files to be used in your work. You will learn how to insert and append them into a Geodatabase to subsequently publish it in ArcGIS Online and make them available to the whole organization.

Richard Horrocks, Esri | Jeff Reinhart, Esri | Prasanta Bhattarai, Esri

Integrating GIS and BIM for Project Operations

Improvements to 3D capabilities in ArcGIS, direct integrations of BIM files, and cloud-to-cloud integration with ArcGIS GeoBIM enable AEC consultants and owner/operators to visualize, monitor, and gain value from a wide assortment of project datasets. Get an overview of how ArcGIS connects with design, construction, and operations workflows, discuss Esri’s BIM connectivity in ArcGIS Pro, learn about GeoBIM workflows, and hear about other roadmap advancements.

Anthony Renteria, Esri | Erika Bocian, Esri

Product Introduction Sessions

ArcGIS Pro: An Introduction

Are you new to GIS or to ArcGIS desktop software? GIS allows people to visualize and analyze data to help solve spatial problems and make smarter decisions. In this workshop we will learn the fundamentals on how to get started with ArcGIS Pro. No prior experience is required. Learn about how to create maps and layouts, edit your data and perform analysis using ArcGIS Pro

Kory Kramer, Esri | Timothy Stoebner, Esri | Doug Harris, Esri

ArcGIS Indoors: An Introduction

In this session, learn how to transform CAD and BIM floor plans into an information model in the geodatabase for authoring and sharing floor aware maps of your building interiors. Also learn how to leverage these indoor maps to power Indoors apps for space planning and offering employees, building occupants, and visitors a web and mobile experience for way-finding, workspace reservation, location sharing, building incident reporting, and more.

Marco Viola, Esri | Mohd Faraz Siddiqui, Esri | William Isley, Esri

ArcGIS GeoBIM: An Introduction

ArcGIS GeoBIM delivers an easy-to-use web-based experience for project teams to explore and collaborate on BIM projects using data from multiple systems in a geospatial context. AEC and Operations teams can work with their linked data from multiple systems in configurable web apps that simplify communication and collaboration with stakeholders. Come learn how to create apps in ArcGIS GeoBIM that reduce file conversion, increase access to evolving data, and share project information securely for better decision making. Find out about recent product updates and what’s coming next on the ArcGIS GeoBIM roadmap.

Anthony Renteria, Esri | Stephen Brockwell, Esri | Ozgur Ertac, Esri

ArcGIS Urban: An Introduction

ArcGIS Urban is a web-based 3D scenario planning tool for creating land use and zoning plans, and keeping track of development updates within a digital twin of your city. Traditional processes are being reorganized and every aspect transferred to online platforms. The “mainstreaming” of geospatial tools to enable adaptation and scenario planning work best if integrated into the everyday planning practice. Attend this session for an introduction to ArcGIS Urban, its latest released features and how to get started with it in your own community.

Brooks Patrick, Esri | Till Schmid, Esri

ArcGIS Network Management: An Introduction

HYBRID SESSION on July 12th | Adoption of the ArcGIS Utility Network is growing across the world. This session will provide insight into the capabilities that enable next-generation network management for any utility system. It will include updates from the development team to showcase current and emerging functionality as they apply to utility information challenges and finally, we will discuss the road ahead to provide a look into the future of network management for utilities.

Davis Crawford, Esri | Remi Myers, Esri | Mohana Krishna Punnam, Esri

ArcGIS Knowledge: An Introduction

Learn about ArcGIS Knowledge, a new capability in ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Pro, where you can extend your workflows to explore, edit, and visualize knowledge graphs. You can also perform graph and spatial analysis to discover new patterns in your data.

Ty Fitzpatrick, Esri | Megan Banaski, Esri | Yundi Yang, Esri

ArcGIS Velocity: An Introduction

ArcGIS Velocity is a real-time and big data analysis capability in ArcGIS Online, enabling organizations to ingest, visualize, analyze, store, and act upon data from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. Join the discussion on how to connect to virtually any type of streaming data, perform real-time analytics and processing, and automatically disseminate information and alert personnel when specified conditions occur. Learn how to create analytic models to process high-volume historical data to gain insights into patterns, trends, and anomalies in your big data.

Ken Gorton, Esri | Yinisong, Esri | Jeff Wisman, Esri

Still want to know more, then we have options:

Download our latest Digital Twin Ebook and resources brochure to learn from other users on how GIS has enabled their organizations Digital Twins and how the products are applied.

Digital Twin Ebook

Digital Twin Resources

Or if you are looking for guidance and feedback on how best to design, implement, and strengthen your organization’s geospatial solutions. From July 12-14, we are offering in-person attendees the opportunity to connect one-on-one with Esri experts through service appointments.

Sign up for an appointment by choosing your appointment type and completing the form. An Esri staff member will follow up with you to schedule your appointment. Please note that while appointments are complimentary, availability is limited and we are currently offering one appointment per in-person attendee.

Join us at the 2022 Esri User Conference

Register today to attend in-person, virtually with digital access, or for the plenary only.

About the author

Matt Piper

As the global industry director for utilities and AEC at Esri, Matt Piper leads the solutions teams for electric; gas; telecommunications; water; and architecture, engineering, and construction. Matt is an industry thought leader who helps to shape the role of location intelligence within organizations. He has worked extensively with global utilities to help them harness digital transformation and create enterprise-wide value through location intelligence. Matt holds a degree in electrical and electronic engineering and has worked for 20 years in the power industry, acquiring deep experience in asset management, GIS, and business intelligence.

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