Dive Brief:

• Singapore has engaged Dassault Systèmes to create a multilayered, data-rich, 3-D virtual model of the city-state for officials, architects and urban planners to use in modeling and monitoring infrastructure, according to Wired.

• Information sets featured in the navigable model include transit and traffic data, public health information, and weather forecasts. Built-environment data includes building size, energy usage, engineering and material specifications, occupancy and rental prices per square foot.

• The project joins efforts in Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles, among other metros, to create smart city dashboards for data collection and analysis that can contribute to development efforts and disaster mitigation planning.   

Dive Insight:

Investment in smart city technology is on the rise, poised to reach $25 billion by 2021, and dashboards that offer real-time data visualization are becoming popular among project aficionados. Less impressive than the 3-D modeling of a complete city but still on trend is Kansas City, MO’s public smart city dashboard that measures and optimizes traffic flow through a $15.7 million sensor array adjoining the city’s new light rail system.

When complete, the Singapore experience created by Dassault (maker of the Mirage supersonic jet fighter) will put the dashboard concept on steroids, incorporating massive amounts of real-time pedestrian, vehicle, environmental, infrastructure, weather and financial macro data in an interface that only seems to be begging for virtual reality immersion.

In February, Dassault announced the expansion of its 3DExperience business unit to North America with the opening of its Fab Lab technology and fabrication space created in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Bits and Atoms. Elsewhere at MIT, the Real Estate Innovation Lab, which launched in November 2016, is at work exploring 3-D printing, modular construction and data design and analytics for buildings and cities.