{"id":9852,"date":"2022-06-08T18:47:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T01:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/?p=9852"},"modified":"2022-06-08T18:47:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T01:47:00","slug":"los-angeles-pilots-digital-twin-project-to-aid-building-decarbonization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/los-angeles-pilots-digital-twin-project-to-aid-building-decarbonization\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles pilots digital twin project to aid building decarbonization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cityzenith, a Chicago-based digital twin platform, announced last week that it is partnering with the Los Angeles branch of the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019sBetter Buildings Challenge<\/a>to help construct a digital twin, or virtual replica, of a section of the city to help make its buildings more sustainable and reduce carbon emissions.
\nThe project is part of Cityzenith\u2019s \u201cClean Cities \u2013 Clean Future\u201d<\/a> initiative, which provides cities with a digital twin free of charge, allowing potentially costly decarbonization efforts to be tested virtually before a data-driven decision is made in the real world.\u00a0
\nThe endeavor will initially focus on Los Angeles\u2019 downtown neighborhood, Bunker Hill. The partnership will also help Los Angeles work toward its Green New Deal goal to achieve zero net emissions by 2050 across its building sector, which accounts for 43% of the city\u2019s emissions.<\/p>\n

From Chattanooga, Tennessee<\/a>, to Las Vegas,<\/a>an increasing number of cities across the U.S. are turning to digital twin technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chattanooga, for example, has used data from 500 different sources \u2013 including 911 data, traffic cameras and weather stations \u2013 to feed into the city\u2019s digital twin and ultimatelyreduce traffic flow by up to 30%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cityzenith has also implemented digital twin technology in New York City and Phoenix as part of \u201cClean Cities \u2013 Clean Future.\u201d The company intends to bring digital twins to ten cities through the initiative as its first benchmark, according to Cityzenith CEO Michael Jansen, with potential announcements soon to come in Chicago and Houston.<\/p>\n

This technology has \u201cthe potential to be a tremendous help to decarbonize existing buildings,\u201d said Aaron Taxy, director of government and public affairs at the Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Los Angeles. \u201cThrough the data it sources and the 360-degree picture it paints, building owners will have the capacity to develop a realistic roadmap to decarbonize in a strategic, cost-effective way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The benefits of such decarbonization are two-fold, according to Taxy. \u201cBuilding decarbonization is often both good for the planet and a wise business decision,\u201d he said. \u201cDecarbonization can lead to major long-term savings on a building\u2019s operating costs if done strategically. And many companies now make building sustainability a priority when leasing new workspace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, the Los Angeles project will focus on data related to decarbonization efforts from a major public building and the surrounding area. Data for a project like this typically comes from energy or building management systems, occupancy readings, and architectural information, among other sources, according to Jansen. He added that some of the issues Los Angeles is hoping to address are heating and cooling strategies. The depth of the digital twin will then be expanded to encompass the rest of the city, he said, as well as to address other city planning issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no limits to the number of use cases a digital twin will serve,\u201d Jansen said. \u201cThere really isn\u2019t anything quite like it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A trial of the digital twin will be conducted \u201cin the first part of next year,\u201d\u00a0 according to Jansen. He also said that a \u201cbaseline digital twin\u201d has already been built with \u201ckey assets\u201d and that his team is in the process of gathering the data necessary to complete the project.<\/p>\n

The sheer scale of the Los Angeles project also makes it unique, according to Jansen, as does the potential to study microclimates \u2013 atmospheric conditions that are different from ones in surrounding areas \u2013 in the city\u2019s neighborhoods. It could also lead to work that would decarbonize entire districts as well as individual buildings.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bunker Hill was chosen because of its \u201cfascinating history,\u201d according to David Hodgins, executive director of the Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge, which is funded by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.\u00a0Originally<\/a> a wealthy area with mansions and luxury hotels, the government deemed it a slum by the mid-20th century. The neighborhood was redeveloped starting in the late 1950s into a commercial business district and cultural center.<\/p>\n

A district energy system also sits below Bunker Hill, which Hodgins said creates the potential to increase the number of buildings in Los Angeles that can be decarbonized.<\/p>\n

This item was originally posted here: Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cityzenith, a Chicago-based digital twin platform, announced last week that it is partnering with the Los Angeles branch of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1066,457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-posts","category-construction-dive","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}