The Development of Digital Twin Technology Based on the CIM Platform Is Accelerating the Construction of Smart Cities

The core of CIM is the management and application of urban spatial data. It is a process, not a simple result. CIM is equivalent to continuously integrating the BIM data that is being updated, as well as the technical data that is constantly updated. More precisely, CIM should be followed by ING, that is, CIMMING, to continuously enrich the city's data so that our city can be better optimized.  

Reporter from IFENG.COM

Nowadays, digital technology is developing rapidly and has been integrated into various fields in all industries. The world has also launched the construction of "smart cities" supported by digital technology. At present, what stage are we at in the development of “smart city” construction in China?

Mr. James Liu, Senior Vice President of Glodon Company Limited

With the continuous evolution of digital technology, the development of "smart cities" faces several main contradictions in different stages. In its first stage of development, the focal point for "smart cities" was solving problems in governance and everyday life; in the second stage, more front-line and first-hand fresh data was able to flow freely with the emergence of IoT technology, which includes cloud computing technology, and it was at this time that the city brain emerged. Nowadays, "smart city" mainly refers to the foundation platform based on digital twin technology to form the future development of "smart city".

CIM platform, in this way, can integrate the past physical and temporal information, and form a digital twin of the city's operation, as well as the physical perception of the city and the digital space, so that they can co-exist and develop together, promoting optimal development and management of the city.

Reporter from IFENG.COM

What characteristics do you think the new smart city proposed in recent years should have?

Mr. James Liu, Senior Vice President of Glodon Company Limited

The primary feature of the new smart city is the digitalization of the city. Every person, every activity, and every space can be truly digitalized. Secondly, the city is online: The real city is online, which means that the level of governance of the city is highly improved while management is continuously optimized. Finally, the future development of the city is intelligent: Through our intelligent analysis, intelligent management can be realized, as well as intelligent decision-making for future urban development. The new smart city must be based on the very good integration of industry and life, the balance of the planning, construction management process, and the future of the city's operation and maintenance are effectively connected to form a smart city development. 

Reporter  from IFENG.COM

CIM is becoming a hot topic in the field of information technology and urban planning, design, construction, and management. What is the role of CIM in the digital transformation of cities?  

Mr. James Liu, Senior Vice President of Glodon Company Limited

The core of CIM is the management and application of urban spatial data. It is a process, not a simple result. CIM is equivalent to continuously integrating the BIM data that is being updated, as well as the technical data that is constantly updated. More precisely, CIM should be followed by ING, that is, CIMMING, to continuously make the city's data richer so that our city can be better optimized.

Reporter from IFENG.COM

In recent years, BIM technology has created enormous change in the construction industry, and BIM also has strong relevance to the construction of smart cities. How do we find the right entry point in order to introduce BIM in smart cities? 

Mr. James Liu, Senior Vice President of Glodon Company Limited

In the past, when integrating BIM and CIM, we actually needed to find entry points from different business fields and fully combine macro and micro. In the future, when building cities, especially in the urban renewal and the renovation of old neighborhoods, we need to have a clearer understanding on urban data, so we need to start from the perspective of urban operation and maintenance, and combine urban micro and macro data, so that the city can be operated and maintained, and the city can make decisions and adjustments very quickly in the renewal.  

Reporter from IFENG.COM

Has the sudden appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic had any impact on the construction of this field? Or has it inspired any reflection in the field?  

Mr. James Liu, Senior Vice President of Glodon Company Limited

On the demand side, it is obvious that there is not enough housing for people, because we want bigger and more intelligent rooms, and also higher and higher expectations for house quality, so the demand side will definitely be upgraded.

On the supply side, some projects had to be suspended in the early stages due to the pandemic. When work resumed, traditional methods were not quite able to help meet the requirements for projects that needed to be delivered immediately. If we want to improve duration, reduce costs, and deliver the whole project well while  ensuring quality, then we must adopt a digital approach, which is almost like equipping an external brain for the company, which can help it to continuously optimize management and production operation methods, so as to improve overall project management effectiveness and efficiency.

Reporter from IFENG.COM

What has Glodon done to help "smart city" construction

Mr. James Liu, Senior Vice President of Glodon Company Limited

Currently, when building smart cities, we start with parks and neighborhoods, including some new city districts as entry points. For example, when building Fuzhou Binhai New City, we used the CIM platform to build an integrated platform for planning, construction, and management; when building Qingdao's Central Business District, we used the CIM platform to upgrade the old city into a new type of park that can continuously use digitalization to optimize operation and maintenance management; when building a new terminal building in Beijing, we effectively integrated BIM and CIM to realize the optimization and management of large space areas.  

In these ways, the micro-management of our buildings and the relative macro-management for cities are organically and effectively integrated to form a business connection and overall management.