Smart city digital twins for safer, more resilient infrastructure
Model transportation, utilities, public spaces, and emergency scenarios as living digital twins—so city teams can plan confidently, coordinate effectively, and respond faster when it matters most.
Cities are managing more risk, with less margin for error
City and infrastructure leaders are responsible for keeping essential services running while facing aging assets, climate-driven disruptions, population growth, and rising public expectations.
What's increasing complexity
- Aging transportation, energy, and utility infrastructure
- Increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events
- Fragmented data and coordination across agencies
- Limited ability to test emergency or disruption scenarios safely
- High public and political scrutiny when things go wrong
The smart city advantage
- Understand and manage system interdependencies
- Test emergency scenarios and response plans safely
- Coordinate decisions across agencies and domains
- Plan infrastructure investments with confidence
- Build resilient, responsive city operations
From reactive response to proactive resilience
For smart cities and critical infrastructure, an intelligent digital twin provides a living model of how urban systems behave together.
It continuously represents:
- Transportation networks and traffic patterns
- Energy, water, and utility infrastructure
- Public facilities and critical assets
- How disruptions cascade across systems
With an intelligent digital twin, city teams can:
- Simulate emergencies and disruptions without risk
- Coordinate responses across departments and agencies
- Identify vulnerabilities before failures occur
- Support long-term planning with evidence, not assumptions
Smart city use cases powered by intelligent digital twins
Safety & Emergency Simulation
Prepare for rare but high-impact events.
- Simulate floods, outages, accidents, or evacuations
- Practice response and coordination in a risk-free environment
- Improve readiness and response times
Mobility & Transportation Optimization
Improve flow and reduce congestion.
- Model traffic patterns and transit operations
- Test signal timing, routing, and policy changes
- Understand the impact of construction or incidents
(Often combined with supply chain and logistics visibility)
Infrastructure Resilience Planning
Plan for climate and growth.
- Stress-test infrastructure under extreme conditions
- Identify weak points in networks
- Support investment and upgrade prioritization
Utilities & Services Coordination
Break down silos between systems.
- Understand how power, water, and transport interact
- Coordinate maintenance and response activities
- Reduce unintended service disruptions
Supporting decisions across city roles
Emergency management & public safety
- Practice response scenarios before real events
- Improve coordination across agencies
- Reduce confusion during live incidents
Urban planners & infrastructure teams
- Evaluate long-term development and infrastructure plans
- Understand trade-offs between cost, risk, and service levels
- Support transparent, data-backed decisions
Operations & control centers
- Monitor system health across domains
- Identify emerging risks early
- Coordinate actions across departments
What cities typically aim to improve
While outcomes vary by city and scope, teams often target:
- Faster, safer emergency response
- Improved coordination across agencies
- Reduced service disruption during incidents
- Better visibility into system-wide risk
- Stronger confidence in long-term planning
The biggest gains come from understanding the city as a connected system—not a collection of silos.
Start with one scenario or district. Prove value. Expand city-wide.
1. Start
Choose a high-risk scenario, corridor, or critical asset cluster.
2. Prove
Use real data to validate insights and response improvements.
3. Scale
Extend the twin to additional systems, districts, and scenarios—reusing proven approaches.
Common questions from city and infrastructure leaders
Ready to build resilient smart city infrastructure?
Start with one critical system or emergency scenario. Prove value with real data. Scale to city-wide coordination.