The NSW Digital Twin

By Spatial Services | Service NSW

Spatial Services, a division of the Department of Customer Service, provides New South Wales’ spatial and land information services.

The NSW Spatial Digital Twin is upgrading the existing two-dimensional creating a digital real-world model of our cities and communities which will facilitate better planning, design and modelling for NSW’s future needs.

In addition to upgrading the actual FSDF content, a new four-dimensional visualisation platform (Digital Twin Visualisation Service, DTVS) is being developed in conjunction with Data61.

The first stage of the Digital Twin MVP is creating a high-resolution four-dimensional model based on three-dimensional aerial imagery and LiDAR, integrated with the state’s digital cadastre (record and location of land parcels). Transport, utilities, planning, natural resource management, environmental management and emergency management data is being progressively added. The platform also integrates Digital Engineering assets, Building Information Models, and live API feeds for public transport, air quality, and energy production. The platform is also designed to integrate with the NSW Spatial Collaboration Portal that provides a central point to search, discover and share spatial information.

While primarily focused on supporting infrastructure planning and delivery, this platform has benefits at national, state and local government levels, for industry and for the community. Its benefits are also broad, spanning all sectors – infrastructure planning and delivery, planning, service delivery, environmental management, natural resource management, as well as emergency management and counter-terrorism.

Further engagement with local, state, federal government agencies as well as industry bodies will see further development and refinement of the platform.