INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING
THE FUTURE OF INFRASTRUCTURE
WILL BE SMART by Leona Frank, Senior Industry Marke ng Manager for Infrastructure, Autodesk With the global popula on expected to increase to 9.7 billion people by 2050, and with 6.4 billion people expected to live in ci es, the world must look at city planning and infrastructure in fundamentally different ways. With the changing urban landscape, ci es must transform to be more accessible and produc ve to serve their ci zens’ rising needs. Technology is a cri cal ingredient for ci es to address the con nued demands they will face over me. Through access to data and leveraging technologies such as Building Informa on Modeling (BIM) and Geographical Informa on Systems (GIS), ci es can become smarter to foster community engagement, make work easier, and urban life be er. With connected and smart ci es becoming more prevalent, what role does smart infrastructure play? Autodesk, a world leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment so ware, and Esri, a world leader in GIS, announced a strategic alliance in November 2017 to enable improved interoperability between BIM and GIS pla orms and so ware. But why does this ma er? There is a natural convergence between BIM and GIS happening in the industry. BIM is best suited in the project planning, design and engineering, and construc on phase, while GIS is best suited to scale ac vi es, such as urban planning and asset management. Bringing the two together will provide industry and city planners the ability to design in the context of the real world and build more connected ci es and infrastructure with a focused eye on sustainability. Dr Ken Henry, former Secretary, Department of Treasury, Australia said, “The role of technology is central to the task of making sure that infrastructure investment has something to do with the kind of society, and the kind of capabili es we need to provision, in order to combine the growth, sustainability, inclusion and innova on that the ‘world of the future’ demands”.
ac onable. We support smart city ini a ves by providing the pla orm to create, communicate and evaluate those op ons that result in a more connected, sustainable and resilient community. The management of data aids quicker project design concept crea on and faster ve ng and approval, while suppor ng community and city development. Smart infrastructure will benefit growing communi es and ci es, now and into the future, in a number of ways. Some of the possibili es are presented below. • More people create more strain on our infrastructure - roads, highways etc. By incorporating sensors, we can understand how infrastructure is being used and how often maintenance needs to be performed. With more than USD 218 trillion worth of existing infrastructure assets requiring care and upkeep in the world’s top 32 countries, the need to do things differently is critical. • IoT is already improving our lives through intelligence around parking and transporta on - but there is so much more poten al. With IoT, infrastructure can ‘talk’ to infrastructure for be er decision-making. When you put enough sensors on structures, they can tell you about the environment around it and how people are
An example of smart infrastructure is the MX3D bridge - the world’s first 3D printed steel bridge. Equipped with sensors, the bridge streams data to the cloud where it is then processed and interpreted to visualise intelligence about bridge traffic, structural integrity and the surrounding neighbourhood and environment. Ci es are o en overwhelmed with big data and the ability to make it 34
THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER January 2020
The MX3D team presen ng the finalised bridge project. Image by MX3D.
