Digital technologies, digital twins

[The video opens on a slide show. Text on screen reads "Workshop: The potential for Digital Twin technology to accelerate the transistion to a circular economy. Welcome."]

[A video of a person presenting at a podium in the upper right corner of the screen.]

James Griffin: So to those in the room and we have a number of people online as well. This is the workshop of the potential for digital technology to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. My name is James Griffin and I lead the circular economy work at Sustainable Business Network and together with Callum Blackburn from Aurecon and the host of facilitators and experts from Aurecon and ThinkStep we are going to lead you through the next two hours of insights and discussions.

[Slide reads:

• Introduction and context
• Digital Twin use case
• Q&A session
• Group work
• Sharing insights
• Wrap up]

James Griffin: This is an overview of the agenda. So I’ll give a little bit of context in a minute, and then I will hand over to Callum to take you through the digital twin use case and highlight some examples of what’s happening in New Zealand currently. And then we are going to have a Q&A session both here in the room and online. And I’d really encourage you to ask questions because we have some real digital twin experts in the room here, and virtually, and they are really keen to answer any really difficult questions. Then we are going to have some group/ facilitation work, where we’re really interested to hear from you about how you think that digital twin technology might fit into your environment, whether that is a business, sector or NZ Inc. We will then share some insights, we’ll see what has come up from the breakout sessions, and then we will be wrapping up by 11.30.

Just a bit of context around this workshop. This is part of a wider piece of work and research that a consortium of organisations including SBN, Aurecon, ThinkStep as well as The Connective, Arup and Project Moonshot are working on to provide insights to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to feed into a national circular economy and bioeconomy strategy as part of the emissions reduction plan. And so it is quite important work, and a big opportunity for everyone to input into that work. There are lots of streams happening and we are really keen to get your input.

So, this is our first question, I’ll activate this on Slido and then I will hand over to Callum.

[Slide shows a QR code and reference number underneath a Slido rating scale. Text reads: "What level of understanding of digital twin technology do you have? 1 is 'None' and 5 is 'I build them'."]

Callum Blackburn: Thank you very much James. Slido is very easy to use, hopefully you can all manage to get into it either through the QR code or the reference number. But we’ll give you a little while to respond.

James Griffin: It is coming through now, we are averaging 3.1, right down the middle. We have some people who have no idea, which is fine. Because Callum will tell you about it. But we have some people who are building digital twins. So that’s the experts we have in the room. But primarily it is: “I have some knowledge or a bit”.

Callum Blackburn: One of the learnings of these polls is never play the middle option.

Thanks very much James. I am Callum Blackburn from Aurecon, and my background is in sustainability in the last 20 years, latterly in the circular economy. So, you’re going to be listening to someone who is non-technical on digital twins that’s very deliberate because we want to try and get across to the widest audience possible about what the potential is. And as James says, in the room and online, we have loads of digital twin experts that can answer any difficult questions that I can’t answer or James can’t answer.

[Slide reads: "What is a Digital Twin? A digital twin is typically considered a digital replica mapped onto a living or non-living entity. It is a dynamic and interconnected digital representation of a physical asset or system, enabling comprehensive insights and informed decision making.

The essence of a digital twin lies in its ability to synchronise data between digital and physical realms. The fosters a 2 way data flow. It facilitates feedback mechanisms for effective interventions in the physical system."]

Callum Blackburn: We’re very much aiming at keeping it very easy to understand. So that’s the way we will go through it. So, since most of us have taken the middle of the road option, it's probably worthwhile revisiting what the definition of a digital twin is. There isn’t actually a very formal definition, we did a little bit of research and it actually is something that is constantly evolving with the technology. As you can imagine as we get more technology it allows us to do more things, and then that changes what is possible with the digital twin, so the definition tweaks. What we’ve got up on the slide is a representation of what that is. So it is a ‘Dynamic interconnected digital representation of a physical asset or system’.

Now, a digital twin could be a digital twin of a human body, it could be of a living thing or it could be a non-living entity, a whole city or a country, it really could be anything. So that’s the way we need to think as we go through the day, keep your minds very open. And it doesn’t have to be physical thing sitting static, it could be a supply chain for example. We do know people that are looking at digital twins and supply chain management.

At the bottom of the slide, you will see a definition in inverted commas. This is from some engagement work. We talked to a lot of stakeholders in this space and as based on talking to them we came up with this definition, which is what we feel is right in a New Zealand context. So a digital twin is ‘a dynamic and interconnected, digital representation of our physical asset or system’. 

[Slide reads: "What is a circular economy?

A circular economy is based on 3 principles, driven by design:

• Eliminate waste and pollution
• Circulate products and materials at the highest value
• Regenerate nature"]

Callum Blackburn: James told me that you all know what circular economy is. So, we don't really need to go into that in detail. But just to recap quickly, there are three principles of circular economy. Trying to eliminate waste and pollution through better design. We really want to circulate products and materials in the economy at the highest value for as long as possible. So, we're looking at whether it's the material, like as simple as a piece of wood, can we reuse that wood? Can we retain that wood for longer and look after it? If it's a product like a computer, how can we keep that going for as long as possible? And then at the end of the life, how can we take the materials that are left behind and put them back into the next production line? And by doing so we protect nature because we're not continually extracting material from nature. We're using the material that we have in our economy already as much as possible. So, we help to regenerate nature. And of course, if there's anything that's biological in that process, whether it be food or anything else, we return that to nature to help grow the next crop, whether that's a forest and apples or vegetables, etc. So that's the circular principles, just a recap and a reminder.

[Slide reads: "Use case walk through CE focus"]

Callum Blackburn: Now, we're going to go and talk through a use case. So what we've looked at is a scenario where a digital twin could be used as a case in New Zealand. And we've chosen the built environment. And the reason for that is in the digital twin space, what we're seeing is, that's probably the area where digital twins are becoming adopted, probably most quickly. Not exclusively, but the advantages of the digital twin are being seen in built environment spaces more quickly than other areas.

So, we're going to walk through an example that the Aurecon digital team have created. And it's a hypothetical example, but it gives us the opportunity to say to you, here's some of the things that could be in this digital twin. And here's some of the aspects that it could help with and get your brain juices going as to what the opportunity might be for you and your own particular area.

When we're looking through this, we're actually thinking about now, all the way to 2075 - 2100, as long as we can really. And we're thinking about how over time these things will shape. So, we'll be starting the use case at the beginning, which is now. And with the technology we have here and now, and the current systems and economy we have, but obviously we'll be going ahead right up until maybe the end of the century and what could that mean, how can we envisage how things could develop?

From the initial engagement that we've done we have seen that the circular economy is not the prime reason why people use digital twins. It is more about efficiency and cost saving. That's the key driver for digital twins and also better management of resources. So being unashamedly admitting here, that circular economy is almost like a byproduct of the ability to do more circular things, a byproduct of that drive for efficiency and cost savings and better management that the digital twins created. We are going to use some slides from the digital team at Aurecon just to show the hypothetical example for you. And we're looking at optimising building asset management.

[Slide shows a decorative graphic of interconnected globes and city buildings in desaturated primary colours. The connections evoke brain synapses. Slide reads: "Optimising building asset management: The role of Digital Twin" above the aurecon logo "Bringing ideas to life".]

Callum Blackburn: So, we have chosen an area in Wellington and what we have envisaged is that there's being a new complex built in a part of Wellington. It's a complex that has residential development, it has business spaces in it, and it has public spaces, perhaps a medical centre or something like that.

[Slide shows the bottom of the North Island with a circled blue city symbol over Wellington.]

Callum Blackburn: And what we've assumed is that the people that are in the design phase or developing this are going beyond using Building Management information systems and digital engineering. And they're thinking actually, because we've got a complex here, that's got multi users and a lot of different moving parts, a digital twin would be a really good way to manage this and ensure we get cost efficiencies. We can try out things before we actually do them in the virtual environment. We can test out things and so they're seeing the benefit, developers are seeing the benefit of the potential for digital twin and this complex that they're trying to create. And again, we're seeing efficiency savings.

Cost reductions really are the key driver. But managing a complex environment with multiple users is also. It's also worth pointing out here as well that digital twins don't suddenly just appear. What happens is that there's a use case or a business case. And so, I want to make the point clear that what normally happens is that somebody looks at a range of data they have and they go wow, wait, if we can pull them together into something that's practical, and we can use in a better way, there's going to be a lot of potential. So it usually starts with that and it builds up over time. So it doesn't suddenly just magically appear. 

As you can see at the top of the slides, we've got various phases through the life of this complex with the design phase, procurement, construction, the usage phase, and then end of life phase. When we are going through all that, then things might be building up over time, as each business case is presented then they may be thinking that will be really useful to have inside the digital twin.

[From the bottom center screen, a graphic of a blue hand reaches up, pointed finger extended, and clicks on the Wellington city symbol. The next slide is labelled "Design phase" and shows a 3D isometric cityscape appears with the central building highlighted in blue. The city building change in size and shape as Callum talks.]

Callum Blackburn: Now we have entered the design phase. So, we have a lot of options. As you can see some fancy little cartoon type of buildings appearing and disappearing and moving. So this is really just to emphasise that what we'd be looking at with the use of the data that we're going to be putting into this digital twin is to look at what options might work.

Now the advantage of having all that is probably an easier consenting process. It's also easier to talk to the various users and users of the building. But also with the complexity of the range of users here, it also means that a lot of things can be simulated and tried out. When you look at things like energy efficiency, the carbon impact sustainability of the materials, longevity of the materials, going a bit beyond digital engineering and looking at a number of different things.

[Next slide is labelled "Procurement phase" and shows a desktop dashboard. The dashboard is divided into sections showing the isographic building from the previous slide, building material options such as modular steel, a comparision between materials and a simulation of the structural impact. The user profile reads "Hi Mary Jane, have a great day."]

Callum Blackburn: So we've decided on our design, we've gone for that and looked at a number of cost efficiencies, utilising the data in a digital twin context and we've come up with a design we like. We are able to share that with all the users, and we're able to share that with all the stakeholders. And this slide here is a kind of representation of when we are in the procurement phase. So, we're looking at a range of different things that we can change in the procurement phase or select.

So, on the bottom of the slide on the right there you've kind of got like a digital passport for a range of materials. So we were looking at the steel construction and we're saying well okay, well if we use this material or that material what are the opportunities and the procurement. Some of it might be higher carbon but more long life. We have to make that decision choice and some of it might be better performing and give us other potential. So really in that procurement phase, we can look into these things. We can also have a digital twin linked to the supply chains. So that information could potentially come straight into a form of data storage that we have. And then we've got that for the future as we construct this building.

And then of course if there are any changes in there we have to agree with any stakeholders we can virtually show them and that should be able to help make the change easier.

[The next slide is labelled "Construction phase" and shows a recording of a desktop window. A cursor selects a button labelled "BIM compare" and a "handle" slider splits the screen between a photograph of a building under construction and a building model. Text on screen instructs users to click and drag the "handle" to compare the in progress construction with the model of the same building.]

[The recording continues, showing a calendar and timeline options. Text reads: "Calendar: The BIM calendar highlights milestones in the 4D timeline and selects the closest one." "Timeline: Use the timeline on the bottom of the screen to see progress".]

Callum Blackburn: We then have a little example here which is when we are at the end of the construction phase. And this is another opportunity where we can use the digital twin to look at timelines, we can try and manage the build in a much better way. This little video is just a representation of how we can transform from the digital plan into the actual construction and see how we're matching in terms of performance and timeline. But again, as you know with construction, things don't always go to plan. Maybe we want to change some materials; say we've spotted a really new recycled flooring that we want to use and it ticks a lot of boxes for the stakeholders and so we can swap things in like that and then see what's the difference to the building. How does it affect air quality, how it affects emissions, what's the lifetime of that?

[The cursor selects '4D' from a drop down menu that includes 'architectural' and then 'structural' options. Text on screen reads: "Switch between the layers of your BIM model"]

Callum Blackburn: So there's a whole lot of opportunities there to manage the build and the construction, but also manage any changes that happen. And of course, sometimes with supply chains, particularly now we might get to the stage where we just can't get some material and we have to swap it out and tweak the design. And so we're in a good place to do that with all the information we've gathered already.

[The next slide is labelled "Usage phase" and shows Mary Jane's dashboard again. The dashboard now shows a larger version of the isometric building image with the roof highlighted in red and the word "Usage" circled. A stock photo of pink bats is to the left above 2 graphs showing data on the wear and tear of insulation in the building and comparing materials.]

Callum Blackburn: So I’m not Mary Jane, by the way, you may be wondering who she is. Mary Jane is a fictional character who's trying to see the facilities in this building now that we are in the usage phase. So, we've actually constructed the building. We're in there we're using it. And we know when things are going to wear out because we've got all these data built into the digital twin.

We've come to this example here. It's like oh, it's actually time to replace some of the insulation and we've got a better biobased product to put in there that performs better. So we can put in the change. And then we can see what impact that will have. And, you know, it gives us an opportunity to look at different materials and swapping in different equipment as we as we go. And then we can adjust things. But obviously, we know so much about that building, we've captured a lot of the data, we know what the materials are, we've got predictive maintenance. So that's really helpful from a cost management point of view and just managing the building.

[Next slide shows the dashboard on a mobile app instead of a desktop computer. The isometric building is now circled in green.]

Callum Blackburn: The other aspect is we've got the potential to link the digital twin, all the users of the building to an app, or some other thing they can access very easily, probably a mobile app is the easiest. But if you've got a complex there, there might be things like the recycling system or notifying the community about some changes, or making people aware of some maintenance or what things are working, what things aren't, and users the building can notify of repairs, etc. So there is the potential to link in the users with the digital twin and maximise the kind of information and the flow of information that we have for people. And then that might allow people to manage their energy better, or the water use. Or maybe maximise or use their recycling systems better.

[Slide shows just the isometric building.]

Callum Blackburn: Now we're on to stage in the use where we've decided to change things. So in the design phase, we've got to build this building. We know the weather is changing, but we also know that people are getting older and we might have to provide the opportunity for extra accommodation or increased access for people with difficulty in mobility. So at this point in the building, at let’s say 2050, we've decided right okay, let's add on some extra stuff here. So, we got some nice apartments on the roof with some nice trees and let's just say the medical centres becomes outdated and the equipment is so advanced now we have to rebuild it.

So, then we've got the ability to take these adaptions and add all that information into the digital twin. But at the same time, when we're taking anything out, we can reuse it, we know what the materials are, we know what the equipment are, is, if there's any equipment that needs to be replaced, we've got details of that, you know, a digital representation, which allows things like maybe we could replace a part with something that's 3d printed, because we've got all the specs, we don't have to go and look for paper manuals to work out who actually supplied this 20 years ago.

So, there's a lot of ability there to make that that building more adaptable and keep the cost down when we do change things. So that's an example of what we might do. And obviously we were trying to make sure that we use things at highest value possible.

[Isometric building image zooms out to an isometric city with various building highlighted in blue. Blue circles with city symbols appear over each district.]

Callum Blackburn: So the next thing is, how we can connect the twin to a wider city? So the potential is that we could connect our complex into the wider digital twin in the city. Maybe that could mean sharing information about transport links, and what's working and what's delayed. It could be about water, or management or even energy, you know, maybe the building's generating energy and we are swapping it back into the city and managing our energy and our costs in a different way. There's lots of opportunity there for a wider digital twin for the city. And for the users of the building that can be really helpful because if they've got an app or something, they can actually see what's happening around them and get local community information.

[Next slide is labelled "End of Life Phase". Drawings of brick, wood and a computer chip are superimposed over the isometric building and all feed into a recycling symbol. There's a symbol of a crane and wrecking ball in the upper right corner, next to the video of the speaker.]

Callum Blackburn: And then, it's a very rapidly moving simulation, as we get to the end of the useful life of the building. I'm hoping this is the end of the century, but we don't know for sure how things will develop. But what we've got is basically a material bank from the digital twin, we know all the materials in the building, we know all the equipment in the building. We can probably use online platforms to find really good sales for any materials that are there for any product, some of them might want to go back to the original manufacturer, we've got all that information. So we can maximise whether it's wood, or it's concrete or steel or any other material or some of the digital equipment, we can actually get the best value for it. Not only that, while we're in this process, we can actually see for insurance purposes and for depreciation, for any kind of accounting thing. We can see what the buildings actually worth at any point in time and our views.

[The next slide is labelled "Summary" and shows a map of New Zealand. 5 circled symbols appear around another circle of 3 arrows feeding into each other. The 5 symbols are a pencil over a drawing of a cog on paper, a cog, location symbol and a person linked in a triangle, a crane and building under construction, completed city buildings above half an underground cog and the crane and wrecking ball.]

Callum Blackburn: To summarise, we went to design phase, we went through procurement, we went through construction, we went through a long usage phase over many decades and then we’ve come to effective end of life of the building. All throughout that time, the digital twin helped facilitate cost efficiencies, savings, better stakeholder engagement, it has done quite a lot. I would say four things stood out for me: reduced environmental impact overall, economic savings, community engagement, but importantly data driven decision making. We’ve got a lot of data in there that’s actually real data that’s deciding maybe we should do this or we should do that. And obviously we probably have lots information on performance of the building.

[Next slide is labelled "Examples"]

Callum Blackburn: And before we go to questions, we've got some examples here. Just to tell you this, this is real. It's not just hypothetical, it's happening. I'm going to go through these quickly for the sake of time. So some of these are kind of imagined digital twins or real digital twins.

[Slide is titled "Current state of Digital Twins - Examples." The text "User Engagement and behaviour analysis" is next to a map of the Auckland region with swimming areas highlighted.]

[Slide text reads: "Safe Swim is a collaborative programme providing real time advice on the level of risk associated with swimming at specific locations, allowing beach users to make informed decisions about when and where to swim. Safe swim is a partnership between Auckland council and other regional councils, Surf Life Saving New Zealand, Surf Life Saving Northern Region and Auckland Regional public health service."]

Callum Blackburn: So this one here is Safe Swim. And this is looking at safe swimming for surfers. And as you can see, one of the aspects for it is the range of collaborations between different bodies to make this digital twin happen. And that's one of the things that with a digital twin, there'll be lots of people want to access the data, and for different purposes, so it's very much a collaborative.

[Slide is titled "Current state of Digital Twins - Examples." The text "Interaction with city structure" is next to a map of the Welington region with a side panel showing live transport data.]

[Slide reads: The Wellington City twin has the purpose of showcasing the multitude of real-time activity and to create a platform where decision making could be enhanced. It uses smart city technologies, with real time data to provide transportation statistics; air traffic visualisations; cycle sensor data; and car park availability.]

Callum Blackburn: And then we've got the Wellington digital twin, here, where I'm not going to go into detail on that one. But obviously, Wellington City already has a digital twin for some areas of use for utilities, etc.

[Slide is titled "Current state of Digital Twins - Examples." The text "Emergency response and safety" is next to a map of the Christchurch region with flood risk areas highlighted in red.]

[Slide text reads "Urban flood Digital twin (Christchurch City Council). The MBIE funded Building Innovation Partnership undertook an exploration of a common referenc eframework to bring together all the disparate information sources needed for flood modelling to test the resilience of infrastructure to flood events. The pilot is being leveraged into a Christchurch digital twin and in work by the NZ Geospatial Research Institute to democratise access to flood assessment modelling."]

Callum Blackburn: We've got one in Christchurch, which is a flood digital twin, which is looking at managing flooding. And again, we're looking at some partnerships and collaboration there to do that.

There is also another one we don't have, which is a really nice public building, that's a digital twin.

[Slide is titled "Current state of Digital Twins - Examples." The text "Machine learning and standards interoperability" is next to a 3D image render of pipes.]

[Slide reads: Nextspace. Nextspace is a cloud based platform for building mantaining and visualising digital twins. The platoform allows for different data formats and sources can easily transistion between teams as the asset moves across life stages. The whole process is governed by a GUID-based ontology, in which every component has its own unique ID, allowing proper data storage and connection with other digital twins without the need for data harmonisation."]

Callum Blackburn: Then I was going to mention Next Space here as well, because we have a range of different vendors doing things around digital twins. Next space is one of them, it's got a cloud-based platform, where you can actually connect a lot of different data streams, using AI and predictive analytics. One of the challenges with digital twins is that we have data in different formats. And by allowing that to be analysed in a way we can pull them together. So AI is really opening up the opportunity for digital twins to connect different modes of large data.

[Slide is titled "Current state of Digital Twins - Examples." The text "Bioeconomy and regeneration" is next to a graphic of a forest water cycle and a mechinal drone.]

[Slide text reads "Forest flows. The bold goal of this programme is to create a new biophysical forest hydrology model combining cutting edge remote sensing techniques with terrestrial based measurements, integrating data and enabling scale, as a digital model applicable to planted forests all over New Zealand. These extrapolations will be made possible through detailed analysis and simulation capability, and coupled with powerful tools including visualisation and enabling access to insights, achieving the forest digital twin will be a major breakthrough for hydrology research internationally."]

Callum Blackburn: And then right at the start I mentioned, you could have a digital twin of a living thing. Well, this is this is quite close to that in terms of, we're looking at a digital twin of the hydrology in a forest, and obviously that's more and more important now with flooding and managing floods.

[Slide is titled "A summary of the circular economy attributes and supporting technology"]

[Slide continues

"Circular economy attributes:

• Design out waste
• Use renewable materials
• Reuse/repurpose
• Refurbish/remanufacture
• Repair
• Product leasing
• Recycling of materials
• Use of recycled materials

Supporting technology:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Robotics and automation
• The Internet of Things (IoT)
• Software as a Service (SaaS) including mobile apps
• Online trading platforms
• 3D printing and additive manufacture
• Digital engineering"]

Some this is where we play circular economy and digital twin bingo. So when we've gone through the use case and some of the examples I wanted to highlight before you go into a workshop scenario, and this is this is designed to get your brain juices going. But on the left there on the slide, are the circular economy attributes, we've got all the things that a digital twin can facilitate. So we talked about the original design phase designing out, but maybe using different materials and being able to visualise what the impact would be if those are renewable or non-renewable.

We talked about the greater opportunity for reuse and repurposing of materials and products because we got so much information about them. That obviously allows us to refurbish and remanufacture as well potentially. Good repair and maintenance, product leasing, we could lease something because we've got all the data around. If we are leasing a flooring or releasing any other aspect of the building and some new model where we lease it and change it after a few years, then we've got all the information the digital twin that can manage that. And it facilitates the recycling of materials and use of recycled material.

But on the other side supporting technology, what's really changing is all that supporting technology that's making digital twins more powerful, shall we say. And so we have artificial intelligence, which can connect up all these different data streams into that twin structure. We have automated robotics and automation. And the more that comes in, the more that's information to feed into digital twin. The Internet of Things, more and more sensors, in objects and machinery. I've got an oven at home that's connected to the internet, which freaks me out I have to say. But my wife loves it. So those things are happening all the time.

And you can imagine for facilities management we're going to have lots of opportunity to manage things with sensors, etc. We mentioned mobile apps software as a service, we can connect into that general trend and we can interact with it. Online training platforms - when it comes to the end of the life, I think those are going to be very useful because as we get through the use phase, we're going to be selling off materials that we're not using anymore. And those platforms provide a market for that. Digital passports. These are coming from materials and products, the European Union's pushing them they're becoming a thing. When we've got more information like that we can slot that into digital twin and we could build it. I mentioned 3D printing, and of course digital engineering .

So that's going to be an aide memoire, for you in the workshops to see if there's anything that you can come up with that you think are useful things that are going to make a difference.

[Slide titled "Digital Twin timeline"]

[Timeline over 2 slides reads:

• "2018 - Building Innovation Partnership delivers a ministerial briefing on a Quake Centre initiative to develop a National Digital Infrastructure Model (NDIM).
• 2019 - Digital twin workshop hosted by Wellington City Council where the concept of a national digital twin of infrastructure is tabled and discussed.
• 2020 - Infrastructure NZ webinar on the value of a digital twin.
• 2020 - Digital twin hub Australia New Zealand launched by Smart Cities Council ANZ to provide information, resources, access to networks, and host events and forums in support of progressing the adoption of digital twin.
• 2021 - Aotearoa Digital Twin Summit hosted by Smart Cities Council ANZ and Aurecon.
• 2021 - Release of ANZ digital twin stratergy blueprint, Smart Cities Council ANZ.
• 2021 - Launch of the 2021 Digital Twin challenge across ANZ by Smart Cities Council ANZ as an 18 month immersive programme for leading councils and government agencies to develop and deliver digital twin innovation for all.
• 2022 - Aotearoa NZ Digital Twin Summit hosted by Smart Cities Council ANZ and Aurecon.
• 2023 - Digital Twin Partnership New Zealand is launched as a volunteer led industry group with a vision to accelerate the adoption of digital twin as a tool for growth and prosperity by creating deep and diverse connections between people and across organisations.
• 2023 - NZ Data and Digital Twin Summit hosted by Smart Cities Council ANZ and BECA.
• 2023 - Te Waihanga | The New Zealand Infrastructue Commission recommends that investigations into city, region and nation wide digital twins be accelerated so the technology can be embedded as a tool of choice for spatial planning development.
• 2023 - Contruction Sector Accord releases "Digital Mapping for the Contruction Sector" report, cross government review of the current state of development of a pan-sector digital North Star including with respect to digital twin."]

Callum Blackburn: And then one last thing. This is really a push for New Zealand. So on the next 2 slides there, I don't expect you to pick it up. But it's basically just showing the timeline of digital twins. And the amount of interest is building over time. It's almost like a momentum this building. I haven't put in figures here, the attendance figures for each of these events as they get bigger and bigger as more and more people are interested in the potential for a digital twin. But you can see there's been annual summits being held and partnerships created and challenges developing. And on the next slide it really shows in 2023 it's picking up even more. We have Digital Twin Partnership New Zealand launching as an industry group. And Infrastructure Commission recommending an investigation and the Construction Sector Accord.

And actually, as we've done the engagement here, we realised that one of the things which really accelerates digital twins is the incorporation of AI and predictive analytics into it. And the potential there is to get round some of the problems of different datasets and different standards. But actually New Zealand is in a really good place to lead that and we've thought that as we've gone through the work that we've done so far. So really it is over to you to see if you think that we can make New Zealand at the forefront of this. It is already perhaps at the forefront in many ways, but how do we drive that forward and be the best.

[Video fades to black.]