The City of Helsinki has won the top prize in the Digital Cities category at the global Year in Infrastructure awards, organised by infrastructure engineering software company, Bentley Systems.
It won the award for its Digital City Synergy project, which is helping the city improve collaboration and get more value from its city models.
The annual awards programme recognises the work of Bentley users advancing design, construction, and operations of infrastructure throughout the world.
Sixteen independent jury panels selected the 57 finalists from more than 400 nominations submitted by more than 330 organisations from more than 60 countries.
Developing a digital city
The main theme of Helsinki’s Digital City Synergy project is to specify the roles of various city operators and the benefits of cooperation in the development of a digital city. Digital urban development and the utilisation of modern analytic methods enable the city to simulate the end results of decision alternatives in a variety of ways before any decisions are even made.
The method based on information models also enables data analysis and system monitoring to improve future planning and anticipate possible issues.
Helsinki uses MicroStation, ContextCapture, and OpenCities Map to generate and update a reality mesh and information model of the 500-square mile city area for its digital twin, which includes CityGML.
The main theme of Helsinki’s Digital City Synergy project is to specify the roles of various city operators and the benefits of cooperation in the development of a digital city
It established a connected data environment using ProjectWise with OpenCities Planner as the visualisation and collaboration platform for all stakeholders, including the public. The open, digital solution enables better decision-making by connecting the right information to the right stakeholder and provides a reliable digitalised data infrastructure to support sustainable smart city initiatives.
The Kalasatama Digital Twins report is an example of the benefits gained from the Digital City Synergy project. Helsinki has been piloting the digital twin model especially in the Kalasatama district, preparing high-quality 3D city models in great detail and offering them to all operators and partners in the form of open data.
Among other details, the Kalasatama Digital Twins report includes the technologies used by Helsinki, which makes it an accessible way to assist other cities interested in digital modelling.
The City of Helsinki hopes that its city model platforms promote diverse product development, research, education and innovation in the field, and contribute to increasing awareness and understanding of the vast potential of digitalisation in urban development.
Runners-up in the Digital Cities category were the joint venture Skanska-Costain-Strabag for work undertaken as part of the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project, and Systematica Srl for its Mind: Testbed of New Mobility Paradigms for Milan.
