For centuries, urban areas have been at the heart of human growth and progress, yet they remain particularly vulnerable to the forces of nature. Now, these areas are at a crossroads, and urban infrastructure is taking a hit. The effects of climate change are keenly felt on city infrastructure, and as urban populations continue to rise, those effects are doubly impactful.
Urban planners and city officials need to urgently rethink how they build and maintain urban infrastructure to manage these factors.
For such complex projects, virtual twin experiences offer cities a way to ensure infrastructure resilience, making critical components of a city’s physical inner workings prepared for the stress of natural disasters. These highly detailed digital models transform urban planning and disaster resilience by combining data, technology and foresight.
The urban impact of natural disasters
Natural disasters, from hurricanes and earthquakes to floods and wildfires, strike urban areas with devastating intensity, often leaving behind widespread destruction and long-term economic impacts. The very aspects that make cities hubs of activity, such as population density and interconnected infrastructure systems, also increase their vulnerability.
Take flooding, for example. Cities like São Paulo, Brazil, face regular floods due to their high population density, unplanned urban layouts and aging drainage systems. Without careful planning, a single flood can paralyze transportation networks, disrupt water supplies, damage homes and displace thousands of residents. Similarly, earthquakes can collapse bridges and buildings, while hurricanes wreak havoc on power grids and communication systems.
What’s most striking is not just the immediate destruction but the ripple effects. Disasters increase economic inequality by disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations, delaying critical public services and straining already limited resources. To combat these challenges, urban developers must pivot from reactive disaster-response approaches to proactive disaster-resilient designs.
Strengthening urban infrastructure for resilience
Urban areas worldwide are racing to adapt their infrastructure to withstand the growing forces of climate change and natural disasters. Cities have begun revitalizing aging assets and integrating new technologies to increase resilience and sustainability. For instance, flood walls and levees are being reinforced in flood-prone regions, while earthquake-resistant materials are now a standard feature for new constructions in seismic zones.
At the core of these modernization efforts lies one unifying aim: to build smarter infrastructure systems capable of anticipating, withstanding and recovering from disasters more efficiently.
Real advancements are being made with real-time data collection through IoT devices and sensors, offering insights into critical infrastructure conditions. Predictive analytics powered by artificial intelligence allows municipalities to identify vulnerabilities before they evolve into full-blown failures. Yet, what’s lacking in many current efforts is an overarching framework to unify all this data into actionable plans.
This is where virtual twin experiences offer a revolutionary shift. Going beyond traditional modeling techniques, virtual twins knit together data from disparate sources to simulate urban environments at an unprecedented level of detail and accuracy.
Harnessing virtual twins for disaster preparedness
A virtual twin experience is more than a digital twin or virtual representation of something. It is a real-time, multi-faceted simulation of an urban environment that integrates infrastructure, transportation systems, energy grids, water resources and more. Using advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and IoT, virtual twins form a “what-if” laboratory where planners can simulate disasters and their impacts without real-world risks.
For instance, with flooding as a recurring threat in São Paulo, city planners have begun using virtual twins to better predict how intense rains might affect neighborhoods. By simulating flood scenarios based on rainfall projections, soil conditions and urban layouts, local governments can identify which neighborhoods are at the highest risk and take steps to improve drainage infrastructure or designate safe evacuation routes.
A similar example can be found in Japan’s Smart Keihanna Project, where Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform facilitated the creation of a virtual twin for analyzing flood risks. Through a combination of data that included building structures, population density and emergency response workflows, the virtual model provided a holistic view with life-saving insights such as optimal evacuation procedures during flood events.
Virtual twins are also making headway in post-disaster response efforts. By digitally reconstructing disaster-stricken cities, governments can better plan recovery efforts and develop sustainable rebuild strategies. In Ukraine, the ongoing war has resulted in vast destruction of cities and their infrastructure; in the city of Chernihiv, Dassault Systèmes’ virtual twins are being deployed to map, simulate and plan reconstruction efforts . A virtual twin of the city is aiding authorities in visualizing this process while factoring in resilient designs to mitigate future destruction.
Why virtual twin technology is transformational for preparedness
Unlike conventional urban planning tools, virtual twins are dynamic and interconnected digital ecosystems. Their ability to generate actionable insights in real-time offers unparalleled advantages for any urban environment. Their usefulness for disaster preparedness is practically unparalleled.
Simulation precision
Virtual twins allow urban planners to test endless “what-if” scenarios. Consider the 2024 hurricane season in the United States. In late September, Hurricane Helene swept the southeast , hitting areas of western North Carolina particularly hard. While the larger region is well accustomed to such natural disasters, the city of Asheville wasn’t, and the floods that hit it were particularly devastating. As disasters like Hurricane Helene become more frequent and more deadly, it’s imperative for cities like Asheville and others to consider the “what-ifs” and build contingency plans to combat them. If a storm is predicted to hit and evacuations will be necessary, how will the local government implement a system to ensure a safe traffic flow out of a given area? If a heatwave is oncoming, how will it affect a city’s public transport efficiency and reliability? Simulations like these don’t just predict outcomes; they also help unearth the most effective solutions.
Long-term resource optimization
By identifying inefficiencies across energy grids, water distribution networks and transport systems, virtual twins prevent resource wastage while maximizing operational effectiveness. For example, they can, when outfitted with artificial intelligence, predict maintenance needs in aging infrastructure, ensuring consistent performance even under natural stresses. This aspect of preparedness also lends itself to building sustainable cities for generations to come.
Informed decision-making
For municipalities, consensus often delays disaster relief efforts. Virtual twins serve as collaborative platforms where stakeholders, citizens and local government can visualize and evaluate plans together, bolstering transparency and trust. The citizen engagement element is an especially attractive one for city officials as it brings residents into the fold, creating a layer of transparency in city management.
Cost-effectiveness
Though upfront investments in virtual twin technology can be significant, the long-term savings from disaster preparedness, maintenance reduction and improved efficiency outweigh the costs. FEMA estimates that every $1 spent on disaster mitigation can save $6 in potential recovery costs, and virtual twins amplify this return-on-investment potential by ensuring decisions are evidence-backed.
The role of collaboration in urban planning and disaster management
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it certainly wasn’t built alone. When urban areas face the potential threat of natural disasters and the havoc they can wreak, collaboration is a key component for ensuring risk mitigation. Virtual twin technology empowers cities to reimagine their infrastructure as resilient systems, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle.
Digital transformation also affords the opportunity for seamless cooperation for local government, city planners, third parties and more.
In northern California, the city of San Francisco for decades suffered disastrous earthquakes that toppled buildings and caused massive, costly destruction. The area it lies in is susceptible to such events, but mitigating the effects of them wasn’t out of the question for some imaginative architects and construction engineers. To build the earthquake-resistant buildings that dot the city’s skyline today, thousands of individuals were involved. Everything from the kind of steel used for trusses to the concrete used to reinforce those beams to the bearings built into the base of the foundation had to be meticulously considered and created. A miscalculation caused by a miscommunication through disjointed systems used by the different parties involved could render the entire project useless. The stakes are high: edifices like the city’s Transamerica Pyramid and Salesforce Tower cost north of $1 billion, and the companies housed in them are responsible for significant economic output for the city. There’s tremendous potential for something to go wrong with so many stakeholders involved; the role of seamless collaboration in erecting a disaster-resistant building, then, can’t be overstated.
The 3D EXPERIENCE platform, which serves as a unified environment, enables all parties to work together, to understand how individual changes affect an entire system and to ensure projects are executed according to carefully constructed plans. For any given project in an urban environment, there are dozens of components to consider, with requirements from any number of policies and plans. In a single platform, all these components and inputs and insights can be put together, reducing friction, redundancy and the possibility for mishaps.
Toward resilient, sustainable cities
In the future, the world will surely see more heatwaves, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, blizzards and other natural disasters. Urban areas and the infrastructure they house will fall particularly vulnerable to the effects of some of these storms. For that reason, the future truly belongs to cities that can anticipate change, adapt effectively and recover rapidly.
Putting to use powerful tools like virtual twin technology for resilient urban development and planning will be the difference between cities that succeed and those that don’t. The technologies that can reshape how urban systems, from disaster-related traffic management and public transportation to water supply, waste management, communications and more, are already widely available.
By simulating disasters and identifying gaps and opportunities for implementing more robust public services to combat them, virtual twins can enable a layer of necessary resiliency for cities. They also serve as a secure, digital ecosystem for accurately modeling and simulating ways to optimize infrastructure in an urban environment. For local government officials, urban planners and decision-makers seeking technological partners, virtual twins are one that won’t let down.
The path to resilient urban infrastructure begins with tools that enable smarter decisions. With emerging technology leading the charge, cities worldwide are preparing for a safer, brighter and more sustainable tomorrow.
Shoshana is a Senior Communications Manager on the Corporate Publishing team here at Dassault Systèmes. With experience in journalism, marketing, and PR, her work has been published around the world and across the internet.