South Korean internet conglomerate Naver Corp is launching a digital twin project with the Saudi Arabian government
The five-year agreement with the Saudi Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs & Housing and the National Housing Company will see Naver develop a digital twin platform for the capital, Riyadh, and four other major cities, the Korea Economic Daily reports.
The project marks Naver’s first venture in the Middle East.
Modelling smarter cities
Naver will create the digital twins through mapping and precise 3D modelling of the five cities.
It will then work with two Korean state-backed companies, the Korea Water Resources Corp and Korea Land & Geospatial Informatix Corp to develop smart city infrastructure, urban planning initiatives and simulating responses to natural disasters such as flooding.
The project follows Naver signing a $100m deal last October to build the platforms in Riyadh, Medina, Jeddah, Dammam and Mecca based on its cloud technology.
Naver’s solutions create virtual cities through the use of aerial photography and artificial intelligence.
Through its digital twin platform, virtual reality offers a high degree of accuracy, with an error margin of around 10cm.
Naver said it aims to use the Saudi project to identify prime use cases for digital twin platforms. The platform could also provide the infrastructure for diverse new services, such as urban water management, service robots, autonomous mobility, lane-level traffic information and more.
Smart cities, urbanization and infrastructure driving Saudi’s digital transformation
Saudi Arabia’s investment in megaprojects, smart cities and urbanization projects are driving robust growth in construction software, according to a recent study.
Research & Markets said the value of the market will grow from US$34m in 2023 to US$39.8m by 2029.
The market is being primarily driven by increasing adoption of BIM, cloud-based technologies and mobile applications, as well as a greater focus on sustainability, AI and predictive analytics, the report said.
