Los Angeles pilots digital twin project to aid building decarbonization

Source: Smart Cities Dive By Melissa Goldin

Dive Brief:

Cityzenith, a Chicago-based digital twin platform, announced last week that it is partnering with the Los Angeles branch of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge to help construct a digital twin, or virtual replica, of a section of the city to help make its buildings more sustainable and reduce carbon emissions.
The project is part of Cityzenith’s “Clean Cities – Clean Future” initiative, which provides cities with a digital twin free of charge, allowing potentially costly decarbonization efforts to be tested virtually before a data-driven decision is made in the real world.

The endeavor will initially focus on Los Angeles’ downtown neighborhood, Bunker Hill. The partnership will also help Los Angeles work toward its Green New Deal goal to achieve zero net emissions by 2050 across its building sector, which accounts for 43% of the city’s emissions.

Dive Insight:

From Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Las Vegas, an increasing number of cities across the U.S. are turning to digital twin technology.

Chattanooga, for example, has used data from 500 different sources – including 911 data, traffic cameras and weather stations – to feed into the city’s digital twin and ultimately reduce traffic flow by up to 30%.