02 February 2022
You would be forgiven for not immediately thinking of Las Vegas when it comes to urban hubs of sustainability, but an ambitious efficiency project is underway in the US city.
What is The Las Vegas Digital Twin project?
As part of Cityzenith’s “Clean Cities – Clean Future”, a program designed to help drive down urban emissions, a seven sq km area of downtown Las Vegas is being used to demonstrate a net-zero carbon emissions future.
The Las Vegas Digital Twin project will leverage the city’s advanced 5G networking and IoT sensor network to analyse air quality, noise pollution, water management, and emissions from major buildings.
The base twin is now completed, and soon, stakeholders from across Las Vegas will be invited to join the project, including real estate owners, government agencies, university researchers, data partners, architects, and casino operators.
Alongside Cityzenith, project partner Terbine brings together and contextualizes IoT data from local government agencies, building operators, transportation systems, vehicle manufacturers and more, to provide the high volumes of sensor information needed by the urban Digital Twin.
Cityzenith’s Digital Twin platform, SmartWorld, manages and reports emissions performance and analytics across assets in real-time to ensure on-going operational metrics and compliance goals are maintained.
The company’s “Clean Cities – Clean Future” initiative has projects underway in major US cities, including Los Angeles and Phoenix, with more than a dozen major cities and building owners in queue to follow soon.
Cityzenith CEO and Founder Michael Jansen said: “We are honoured to be working with the City of Las Vegas, providing the market’s only end-to-end decarbonization solution for buildings in cities, to ensure Las Vegas’ buildings achieve net-zero emissions in the years to come quickly or without risk.”
Terbine CEO and Founder David Knight said: “Transitioning our home city into a clean, sustainable, and more attractive place to live and visit is a fantastic opportunity, and we’re delighted with our progress so far on this project. What we’re building here represents a model for how other cities can enable sustainability and a better quality of life for their citizens.”
What is a Digital Twin?
Digital twins act as a testing environment, to gain data on a building’s operational performance and sustainability. It allows facilities managers and building owners to gather insightful data about the inner workings of a building, with the aim of saving construction and operational costs.
It can help with planning and forecasting, with everything from waste management to occupancy
According to Forbes, 500 major world cities will rely on digital twins for daily operations by 2026.
