Gerpho 3D Generates Digital Twin of Les Mureaux, France
Published on : Sunday 02-07-2023
Gerpho 3D generated a single deliverable capable of multiple purposes, says Sharada Prahladrao.
This article describes how Bentley’s reality modeling and digital twin technology allowed Gerpho 3D to generate an accurate, adaptable, and accessible 3D model.
Client and Background
Gerpho 3D aimed to provide residents, media, and businesses a better understanding of the city of Les Mureaux in France and its environment. Les Mureaux is located 40 kms west of Paris along the banks of the Seine. Although 50 percent of the city is green space, it has the reputation of being highly urbanised. The mayor says that this image of the city is unjustified as the older areas of the city have been renovated, leading to the creation of the first eco-district in France. The city hired Gerpho 3D to create a 3D panoramic view that demonstrated its natural beauty. A few years later, the city asked Gerpho 3D for a more realistic digital representation to help residents, the media, companies, and developers better understand the city, promoting local development and smooth integration of new projects.
Objective
The objective was to achieve 360-degree communication. This meant Gerpho 3D needed to expand on their original 180-degree aerial panoramic city view and create a city digital twin that ensured accessibility and intelligent navigation to a variety of users for different purposes. The virtual city tour needed to provide residents with a better understanding of their city and the services that it offers, tackle the media’s preconceived notions, and highlight the attractiveness of the area for new business and developers to promote local employment and the economy. Gerpho 3D realised that their 3D model had to serve as the premise for a visual city communication and marketing campaign.
What needed to be done
Faced with developing an accurate, accessible, and adaptable model, Gerpho 3D wanted to combine their photogrammetry techniques with integrated reality modeling and city planning technology. They strived to dematerialise the communication channel across a broad target audience through 3D digitisation. This capability required user-friendly applications where Gerpho 3D could create the digital twin and then have the model viewed, manipulated, and customised by a specific user via an internet browser on any type of device - without the need to install any specific app. To achieve these objectives, Bentley Systems was chosen as the preferred partner to deploy state-of-the-art technologies.
Digital Twin
The solution framework to establish an open intelligent digital environment: Gerpho 3D selected Bentley’s ContextCapture to generate a 3D reality mesh of the city and imported the model into OpenCities Planner, creating a digital twin for intelligent navigation by various users. Using Bentley’s integrated applications, Gerpho 3D established a 3D city model in an open platform, making the model accessible via a web browser at a resolution to suit varying customer needs. This enables the digital twin to be adapted to the user, whether they are a resident, developer, company, or a city, region, or state official. Anyone can easily navigate to their different points of interest, thanks to the different layers. Working in an open, intelligent digital environment using the same 3D model, and OpenCities provides a customised virtual tour for each type of user by filtering desired data and information.
How it works
Bentley’s technology solution supports powerful 3D renderings and detailed configurations via a simple web browser for broad, remote accessibility. Gerpho 3D relied on these features to communicate a realistic city image, refuting unjustified claims and ensuring a better understanding of Les Mureaux’s offerings. The tool is user friendly and promotes interest among all stakeholders. It helps companies that are setting up new business to immediately visualise the environment and its assets.
Accrued benefits
Beyond serving as a communication mechanism and providing an accurate depiction of the city, the digital twin supports multiple purposes and can be updated periodically to reflect future works or the results of an urban renewal project. Having a digital city replica allows for the integration of architectural or roadway infrastructure projects, driving future city development and smart holistic lifecycle management.
1. Bentley’s reality modeling and digital twin technology allowed Gerpho 3D to generate an accurate, adaptable, and accessible 3D model.
2. Leveraging ContextCapture and OpenCities Planner provided a customised virtual city tour via a web browser.
3. The digital solution facilitated remote accessibility, dematerialising communication to save printing costs while offering an interactive city experience.
4. Gerpho 3D generated a single deliverable capable of multiple purposes, supporting future integration of city projects and city development.
Sharada Prahladrao is editor and public relations manager at ARC India. She edits ARC's Global Market Outlook studies and co-authors ARC Strategy Reports and Insights. She has the innate ability to understand complex concepts and express them lucidly.
