A tale of twin cities — and how they could transform urban governance
There are now two Varanasis
Varanasi, the ancient city of temples and crowded lanes, now shares its name with its digital counterpart—an impressive 160-square-kilometer digital replica. This twin, constructed from LiDAR, aerial, and drone imagery, along with street-level scans, offers a wealth of data that can be updated and analyzed. The purpose of this digital twin, according to Santosh Tripathy, GIS project manager for Varanasi Smart City, is to anticipate and prepare for potential natural disasters and urban changes.
The digital twin assists in predicting flood-risk zones, guiding waterlogging incidents, and identifying properties affected by flooding. Moreover, it helps in assessing the impact of road widening projects, enabling the calculation of demolished built-up areas and the accurate identification of affected buildings. By comparing the new 3D data with historical records, the city can revise property tax assessments, potentially increasing revenue by up to 50%.
Varanasi is not alone in this endeavor. Cities like Mumbai, Kochi, Kanpur, Pune, and others are also constructing their digital twins to aid urban planning, infrastructure management, redevelopment, and disaster response. The technology behind these digital twins is high-precision 3D mapping using light aircraft, backpack-mounted scanners, and vehicles.
Mumbai's digital twin of Dharavi, one of the world's most densely populated and complex urban areas, serves as a spatial baseline for the area's redevelopment. It meticulously documents buildings, lanes, utilities, and tenement details, creating an evidentiary baseline for the redevelopment process. This approach brings transparency to the redevelopment and narrows the ground for disputed claims.
Genesys, the company behind these projects, has signed an MoU with the Survey of India to build digital twins of major Indian cities. The National Geospatial Policy, notified in 2022, envisions a National Digital Twin for major urban centers by 2035. While these early applications are promising, they come at a time when Indian cities face numerous challenges such as informal settlements, large-scale redevelopment, heritage protection, flooding, and infrastructure strain.
Vivek Agarwal, country director-India at the Tony Blair Institute, underscores the importance of digital twins in bridging the gap between paper and pavement, revealing unassessed floors, encroached plots, and perennially flooding lanes. However, he cautions against calling it a revolution in governance, emphasizing that digital twins highlight the existing gaps in infrastructure, but the actual implementation and resolution of issues depend on institutional systems, incentives, and political will.
Drawing comparisons with successful digital twin implementations in Singapore and Helsinki, Agarwal observes that Indian approaches have been top-down, built by vendors for authorities, leaving residents as subjects rather than participants. The UK's National Digital Twin Programme offers a third lesson: digital twins require shared standards and interoperability.
In conclusion, digital twins have the potential to transform urban governance by providing accurate, up-to-date information on the ground, but their success ultimately hinges on effective integration with existing urban governance systems.
Written by urgent.news from Hindustan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
