A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology and University College London has found that urban digital twins help cities reduce urban heat exposure.

Facing rising populations, urban heat island effect, and climate change, major cities are facing rising urban heat effects. This impacts on both population health and rising energy use. Tackling rising urban heat is key to cutting serious health events, including cardio-vascular deaths, and spiralling use of energy for cooling.

The study, Assessing and forecasting collective urban heat exposure with smart city digital twins published by Nature in April, finds that smart city digital twins provide a new way for cities to gain localised understanding of rising urban heat and implement urban heat mitigation.

Meteorological sensors and computer vision techniques were implemented in Columbus, Georgia, to acquire temperature, humidity, and passers-by count data. These data were then integrated into a collective temperature humidity index.

A time-series prediction model and a crowd simulation were employed to predict future short-term heat exposures based on the data accumulated by this smart city digital twin and to support heat exposure mitigation efforts.

According to the researchers, ‘The results demonstrate the potential of [smart city digital twins] to enhance public safety by providing city officials with a tool for discovering, predicting, and, ultimately, mitigating community exposure to extreme heat.’