Autodesk Announces Vancouver, British Columbia as Third City of its Digital Cities Initiative
Posted: Monday 20th April 2009
City to Use Digital Cities Technology to Visualise a 3D City Model of the Future, Aid Sustainability Efforts, Prepare for Future Development and Improve Public Participation.
Autodesk has designated Vancouver as the third pilot city of its Digital Cities initiative. A Digital City provides a way for the public, city government, construction and business communities to combine mapping, building, civil engineering, and utility information into an accurate city model that can be used to simulate the future impact of decisions at a city-wide scale. Autodesk previously announced two other pilot cities in its Digital Cities program: Salzburg, Austria and Incheon, Korea.
The City of Vancouver is renowned for its innovative and sustainable approaches to urban development. The City of Vancouver plans to use Autodesk technology to aid its sustainability efforts; interact and share information with its residents and businesses; and prepare for future development and improved public participation. The goal of this pilot program is for Vancouver to be able to bring together 3D models of above and below ground features in an open platform that supports secure and robust integration of CAD, building information modelling (BIM), geospatial, civil engineering, and infrastructure data over a wide geographic area. By combining this data with realistic visualisation, analysis and simulation tools, the City of Vancouver can deliver an intuitive and compelling way to understand the impact of plans and proposals from any point in time and from any point of view.
The City will be working with Autodesk to develop and deliver technologies that can best meet the needs of Vancouver’s citizens and build on the City’s existing resources like VanMap, a web-based map system that pulls together information and data from a variety of sources including street names, property lines, zoning information, and locations of sewer and water mains.
“Urban design at a city-wide scale is the next great design challenge. Our Digital City technology provides cities like Vancouver with a comprehensive approach to create a sustainable city that balances economic and engineering demands with environmental and social needs,” said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president, AEC solutions, Autodesk. “Autodesk is uniquely positioned to help cities meet and overcome the challenges to visualise and simulate their future growth. While Salzburg plans to use Digital Cities technology for helping manage an aged and prized infrastructure and the city of Incheon will focus on how to build—from the ground up—a city of the future, the City of Vancouver will use Autodesk technology to extend its leadership role as one of the most liveable and progressive cities in the world.”
