Tainan City Government did a digital twin project trial run at Anping Fort and its surrounding areas last year (2022) and plans to expand the project during its second phase in 2023. A digital twin platform will be set up to show real-time traffic and energy-use statuses within Shalun Green Energy Science City, the new designated venue and this project is expected to move Tainan forward in its smart city transition.
Mayor Huang Wei-che expressed that from a city-level perspective, a digital twin is like a virtual Tainan City that is in sync with the actual city, but with additional AI, big data, and data security protection features. The platform can help government agencies handle the large amount of complex and ever-changing city issues swiftly and efficiently.
Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission Chairperson Chen Shu-tzu remarked that in the future, the digital twin platform will include major areas in all administrative zones. The platform can be used to test out the strengths and weaknesses of policies concerning urban development, large-scale public infrastructures, disaster prevention and rescue, and tourism. Government agencies can understand the risks in advance and revise the policies accordingly before they are rolled out, and the visualized results generated by the platform can help facilitate better communications.
The digital twin technology is composed of 3D modeling, VR technology, IoT sensors, communication technologies, and high-speed computing resources. The objective of the project is to present real-life situations or statuses in the virtual world in real time. When paired with the popular generative AI technology, the technology could, for example, represent and connect Taiwan’s past four centuries with the coming 400 years in the virtual world.