Autodesk, a leader of design innovation software and technologies, announced it is working with the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) and the Incheon Urban Development Corporation (IUDC) to cooperate in the creation of Asia’s first Digital City for Incheon, Korea — the ‘Tomorrow City’ in Song-do City. Autodesk has designated Incheon as the second pilot city of its Digital City initiative, after announcing Salzburg, Austria in July.
Autodesk, IFEZ, and IUDC will work together to develop a Digital City — a collaborative environment created around a detailed 3D city model that allows users from the public, city government, construction and business communities to leverage technology solutions so they can visualize, analyze and simulate real-world city scenarios to improve decision making and provide a common environment for sharing information. The objective of today’s announcement is to help the Tomorrow City research a state-of-the-art city management system.
Another goal of this pilot program is for Incheon to be able to bring together 3D models of above and below ground features in an open technology platform that supports the secure and robust integration of CAD, building information modeling (BIM), geospatial, civil engineering, and infrastructure data over a wide geographic area. By combining that data with Autodesk’s realistic visualization and simulation tools, the city of Incheon would deliver an intuitive and compelling way for its citizens to experience and understand the design and management of a city’s construction, environment and traffic.
The IFEZ and the IUDC will collaborate with Autodesk to explore the full potential of U-GIS (ubiquitous GIS), possibly one of the most advanced applications of ubiquitous technology in the world. At the same time, the parties expect that the Digital City project will help promote Incheon City as a leading ‘u-city’ (a city of ubiquitous information technology). The Korean government’s u-cities initiative aims to establish a repeatable way to plan, build, and manage large urban development projects that incorporate innovative technology and design. Incheon City can serve as a future model for subsequent urban development programs in Korea and abroad.
Autodesk and the IUDC have worked together for many years, and Autodesk’s acknowledged expertise and credibility in engineering, data sets and visualization technologies will provide Incheon with an in-depth understanding of how to visualize design at a city-wide scale.
Song-Do as the Pilot Project
For the initial phase of the Digital City initiative, "Tomorrow City (T-City)" — a 100-billion-KRW-invested mini city, located in New Song-do City, off the coast of Incheon, has been selected as the pilot project.
Scheduled to be opened in August 2009, "T-City" is a six-story, mini u-city urban development project (with the total plot area of 31,697 square miles) that will feature diverse, futuristic u-services, including u-traffic and u-shopping. In this pilot program, the IFEZ will examine every potential benefit of the new 3D city management system, which will cover the whole process of the city development project ranging from design, construction, and operation to maintenance of the city after the construction.
Benefits of the Digital City
As the 3D city modeling can be used to make better informed decisions based on real data, the IFEZ will be able to communicate those decisions and options to a wide range of stakeholders. Moreover, the city government can minimize impact of the development projects over millions of its citizens and provide better administrative services to them, as the collaborative environment created around a detailed 3D model can allow IFEZ to simulate and understand the impact of plans and proposals throughout the planning and development process.
Fore more information, please visit www.autodesk.com/digitalcities
