Interview: Chris Andrews

Urban Design Product Manager at Autodesk

InfoGEO: How Digital Cities can help in the global warming and climate change?
Chris Andrews: A ‘digital city’ is a collaborative environment created around a detailed 3D model that allows stakeholders from the public, city government, construction, and business communities to work together in a way that is both engaging and meaningful to understand how policy and proposals could impact the urban environment by experiencing the future of the city before it becomes real. Central to Digital Cities is the concept of a ‘scenario’ that brings together visualization, analysis and simulation to provide an interactive and intuitive way for a user to experience the digital city. For example, a scenario might compare the impact of multiple different development proposals on the urban landscape over time, and allow the user to choose which combination of options to evaluate.

IGEO: What are the first results of Digital Cities projetc, in Salzburg, Incheon and Vancouver?
CA: The Autodesk ‘digital city’ provides a means to visualize, analyze, and simulate highly detailed 3D data from multiple sources, including design (CAD), building information models (BIM), and geospatial information (GIS) while protecting the privacy and integrity of the data being shared. Users can choose who can see their data and how others can interact with it.
As a result of this program, the cities are able to integrate its existing 2D and 3D city data into a highly detailed 3D digital model of the city. By combining this data with realistic visualization and simulation tools, the cities are able to view and explore their city landscape as well as analyze the impact of future urban planning, tourism and economic development projects within the city before they are built. Each of the pilot cities we are working with has different ideas and objectives about how they want to use “digital city” technology. Autodesk is working with each city to explore their requirements and find how the “digital city” technology can be most useful in the differing political, economic, and operational conditions of each pilot program.

IGEO: Does Autodesk intend to have a 'Digital City' in Latin America? And in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) block?
CA: We are intending on working with several cities worldwide, but we have only made a formal announcement about our pilot city program with Salzburg, Incheon and Vancouver.

IGEO: What are the advantages, for the citizens, to live in a 'Digital City'?
CA: The “digital city” concept that Autodesk is developing is a new and different way for city agencies, developers, and the public to visualize, analyze, and interact with information about the environment in which they live and operate. Providing a common environment for collaborating around a detailed 3D city model that allows users to experience the city at any point in time and any point of view allows for the impact of future proposals to be assessed in a highly effective way. The ability for the “owners” of data to control access to their ‘digital city’ models will help increase the confidence with which data can be shared both within and between organizations and also with the general public. In addition to ease of access, the high level of detail able to be represented in the digital city model and the powerful visualization technology that allows a user to “see it before it’s real” will enable a city agency, construction firm, or other organization to engage stakeholders in policy and proposals in a meaningful way. The ability for users to interact intuitively with complex data in a city model allows for them to better understand and comment on both the value of and any concerns in relation to a project or proposal. The ability to play through time the impact of multiple projects and proposals, and to include changes to the underlying terrain, underground features and assets, and to add, remove, or change man-made structures allows everyone engaged in the ‘digital city’ to experience change from a “human perspective”, be it looking out a window, driving along a road, or standing at street level.

IGEO: What are the data sources for a Digital City project (like maps, buildings and terrain models, for example)?
CA: Data sources include terrain, imagery, vector geometry, detailed models of buildings and other assets, and extensive attribute information for city assets.

IGEO: What are the software used in a 'Digital City' project?
CA: Autodesk tools including AutoCAD, AutoCAD Map3D, Revit, Civil3D and 3dsMax, can all be used in the creation of a Digital City model, but various other data sources can be used as well.

IGEO: Can a small city participate in Digital Cities project?
CA: At this time, we are limited to three official Digital Cities Research Pilot partner cities. Trial customer projects are being considered in many different regions, including Brazil. Small to medium cities are perfect for working with some of the recently released Autodesk Digital Cities technology, including Autodesk LandXplorer Studio Professional and Autodesk LandXplorer Server.