DIGITAL TWIN

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE NEW

DIGITAL REVOLUTION
HOW MAPPING LAND RIGHTS
ADVANCES PEACE
FIT FOR PURPOSE CASE IN COLOMBIA

DIGITAL CITIES - 4D CONSTRUCTION

- GEOTECNNICAL ANALYSISIS -
DIRECT FROM THE INFRASTRUCTURE 2019

INTERVIEWS AT BENTLEY SYSTEMS YII 2019

EDITORIAL
WELCOME TO TWINGEO MAGAZINE 3RD EDITION
BENTLEY SYSTEMS YII 2019
Another year, more fascinating stories around infrastructure
YII 2018 in London, was a phenomenal
experience with exceptional interviews
with the top executives of Bentley Systems,
Topcon and others, dynamic conferences
and highly informed sessions, and YII 2019
took the knowledge, skill and engagement
to a new level. Bentley Systems has revived
the concept of “digital twins” and YII 2019
provided a first hand view of the benefits the
concept is bringing world over. The event
brought together leaders of almost every
industry and the exchange of knowledge,
networks and collaboration that happened
was beyond words.
During my time there, from digital
advancement academies to use cases, I
wanted to capture everything, store the
learning and create unique stories. The
location, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
perfectly complemented the scale of
the magnanimous event, making every
moment spent all the more special. The
Press Conference, the ACCELERATE sessions,
the Industry briefings, the demonstrations
at the expo, everything was a memorable
experience in itself.
Interviews with the senior executives of
Bentley Systems, Microsoft, Topcon,
Siemens and other top notch names in
construction was an exhilarating experience
that broadened my knowledge around
Digital Twins, Geotechnical Engineering,
Structural Engineering, Digital Cities and
a lot more. Networking, connecting with old
THE TEAM
Editor-in-Chief
Golgi Alvarez
editor@twingeo.com
Consulting Editor
and new friends over lunch and tea breaks
Shimonti Paul
made every moment enjoyable and special.. indiaoperations@twingeo.com
I am glad to share few of the enriching
interactions I had with the industry leaders,
Spanish Journalist
present at Bentley Systems YII 2019 here.
I am sure these will help you gain new
Laura Garcia
insights into digital twins, 4D construction, editor@geoingenieria.org
geotechnical engineering, smart cities and
a lot more. Happy reading! Graphics Designer
Adams Kazeem
datasoftsolution500@gmail.com
Published by:
ZatocaConnect
Bogota, Colombia
Phone: +57 312 279 6581
E-mail: info@zatoca.com
Disclaimer
TwinGeo does not necessarily subscribe to the views
expressed in the magazine. All views expressed in
this issue are those of the contributors. TwinGeo is
not responsible for any loss to anyone due to the in-
formation provided. TwinGeo aims to create aware-
ness about everything Geo-engineering in an unbi-
ased way. We do not claim to be experts, so feel free
to correct us if something needs correction.
Shimonti Paul
Consulting Editor
CONTENTS
NEWS
• ESRI enters into licensing agreement with European commission
• ESRI releases smarter government book By Martin O’malley
• DJI introduces ZENMUSE XT S, a new high frame-rate thermal
imaging camera
• Airbus-built CHEOPS SATELLITE successfully launched on Soyuz
• NSGIC releases findings from biennial geospatial maturity
assessment survey.
• Radiant Earth Foundation releases world’s first open repository
for geospatial training data.
• UAVOS’S ROBINSON unmanned helicopter extends application
range
INTERVIEWS
VALUABLE INSIGHTS ON BIM, GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING,
SMART CITIES, DIGITAL TWINS, AND MUCH MORE FROM
INDUSTRY LEADERS AT BENTLEY YII 2019
EXCEPTIONAL INSIGHTS ON DIGITAL CITIES
Bob Mankowski, VP Digital Cities;
Benoit Fredericque, Director, Product Management-Reality
Modeling &
Ton De Vries, Senior Director, Business Development, Digital
Cities
LET’S KNOW ABOUT 4D CONSTRUCTION MODELLING
from the experts- Richard Humphrey, Senior Director, Project
Delivery & Construction & Scott Eustace, Senior Marketing
Manager
STRUCTURAL AND GEOTECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Interview with Raoul Karp, VP Design Engineering Analysis,
Bentley Systems;
Cindy Ross, Manager, Product Marketing, Geotechnical,
Bentley Systems;
Erwin Beernink, VP Marketing, Sales and Services, Plaxis
Page (6-13) CASE STUDY 1 Page (36-37)
HOW DRONE INSPECTION WA ACHIEVED A RESOLUTION OF 2CM/PIXEL
COVER STORY Page (38-49)
DIGITAL TWIN: PHILOSOPHY FOR
THE NEW DIGITAL REVOLUTION
Nobody can guarantee the shape of the new digital landscape
– industry leaders suggest a mature, pragmatic approach will
Page (14-32) stand us in good stead. There will be opportunities for those
with vision and scope to take advantage of this revolution.
Governments, always mindful of re-election, may also move
with an eye on the short-term. But, in the long term, it is,
ironically, common users, interested in their own needs who
will have the last word.
CASE STUDY 2 Page (50-55)
HOW MAPPING LAND RIGHTS
ADVANCES PEACE
By the time the Colombian government and the Revolutionary
Armed Force of Colombia (FARC) finally brokered a peace
agreement in 2016, their 50-year-old civil war had claimed
260,000 lives.
Land reform was always at the heart of the conflict. As in
many Latin American countries, most land in Colombia is
concentrated among an elite group. Just 14 percent of all
landowners control 80 percent of the land, a strong indicator
of inequality.
During the war, some rural areas were effectively cut off from
the rest of the country,..
 ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO-NEWS
ESRI ENTERS INTO LICENSING
AGREEMENT WITH EUROPEAN
COMMISSION
On December 20, 2019, Esri, announced
that it has entered into a four-year general
master agreement (GMA) with the European
Commission. The agreement will enable
the European Commission and selected
Executive Agencies to use Esri software and
deploy the full suite of its ArcGIS products in
an open, scalable, and standards-based GIS
architecture.
Implemented and deployed by Esri’s
European distributors, the GMA also
provides terms and conditions which several
other EU institutions, agencies, and bodies
can leverage to have access to Esri products.
Esri’s European distributors will provide local
support, services and training.
“We look forward to working with the
European Commission as a part of this
agreement,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri
founder and president. “It is a priority for
us to support the European Commission
6 7
Directorates General and Agencies with
our latest geopatial technology, for their
important policy work in the EU.”
The use of Esri’s GIS technology will enable
the European Commission and its Executive
Agencies to easily share and analyze
geographic information and use them to
make better-informed, data driven, policy
decisions.
ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO-NEWS
ESRI
RELEASES Smarter Government: How
to Govern for Results in the
SMARTER Information Age is available
GOVERNMENT
in print (ISBN: 9781589485242,
332 pages, US$39.99) and as an
BOOK e-book
(ISBN: 9781589485259,
US$39.99).
BY MARTIN O’MALLEY
On November 5, 2019, Esri announced
the publication of a new book by former
Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, Smarter
Government: How to Govern for Results in
the Information Age. The book proposes
new ideas about leadership and applying
technology in a way that encourages
openness and public collaboration.
Smarter Government is a discussion
and demonstration of a fundamentally
entrepreneurial way of governing that’s
about the data, mapping, and method for
achieving dramatic public sector progress.
According to O’Malley, government
should work to make complex problems
more transparent while delivering better
outcomes and results. Smarter Government
makes the case for a new and better way
of governing that is simple, demonstrable,
and understandable for every citizen.
O’Malley’s book also includes study and
discussion questions and links to online
exercises for readers to experience these
tech-enabled methods.
 ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO-NEWS
DJI INTRODUCES
ZENMUSE XT S,
A NEW HIGH
FRAME-RATE
THERMAL IMAGING
CAMERA
DJI, the world’s leader in civilian drones and
aerial imaging technology, has introduced a
new thermal imaging camera, the Zenmuse
XT S, for DJI’s Matrice 200 Series drones.
The camera features an infrared thermal
imaging sensor with high thermal sensitivity
and resolutions for clear and detailed
thermal imagery. The Zenmuse XT S enables
firefighters, police officers, inspectors and
more to gather intel beyond the capabilities
of visual data, and act on them quickly to save
money, time and lives.
The Zenmuse XT S will make high resolution
and frame-rate thermal imaging cameras
more affordable and accessible around the
world.
“By offering Matrice 200 Series and Matrice
200 Series V2 pilots the ability to capture
thermal data that is invisible to the human
eye, the Zenmuse XT S will help introduce
drone technology into more applications,” said
Christina Zhang, Senior Director, Corporate
Strategy at DJI. “Specifically, thermal imagery
enables drone operators to see through smoke
or fog, locate missing persons at night, identify
overheating electric elements, and more.”
8 9
The Zenmuse XT S was developed to
handle even the toughest thermal imaging
applications, such as long-range inspections.
This is enabled through the 19mm lens on a
640×512, 25Hz refresh rate radiometric sensor,
and improved further with 2x and 4x digital
zoom capabilities.
A live view of thermal data is streamed
directly to the operator on their mobile device
through the DJI Pilot app, where they can
access intelligent features that can quickly get
insights from the thermal data.
The Zenmuse XT S is compatible with DJI’s
leading Matrice 200 Series and Matrice 200
Series V2 drone platforms when used with the
DJI Pilot flight control app.
AIRBUS-BUILT
CHEOPS
SATELLITE
SUCCESSFULLY
LAUNCHED ON
SOYUZ
On December 18, 2019, the Airbus-built
CHEOPS satellite was successfully launched on
a Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport
in Kourou, French Guiana.
CHEOPS is the first exoplanetary mission of
the European Space Agency (ESA). It is also
the first satellite built by Airbus in Spain for
ESA. CHEOPS will characterize exoplanets of
nearby stars, observing known planets in the
size range between Earth and Neptune and
precisely measuring their radii to determine
their density and understand what they are
made of. The satellite uses proven technologies
to pave the way for bigger and more ambitious
missions – with the aim of verifying if any
exoplanet may be capable of supporting life.
ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO-NEWS
The Soyuz launcher took off as scheduled
with its five passengers allocated on the
multipayload dispenser also built by Airbus.
CHEOPS separated after two hours and
23 minutes from lift-off. After the in-orbit
commissioning, CHEOPS will start its
operational lifetime of at least 3.5 years and will
operate in a Sun-synchronous Earth orbit at an
altitude of 700 km.
Phillipe Pham, Head of Earth Observation,
Navigation and Science, Space Systems said:
“CHEOPS, a pathfinder for future exoplanets
missions, is a very important programme for
Airbus as it is the first Science mission primed
from Spain. With the expertise and the strong
engagement of our team and our 24 partners
from 11 European countries, we were able to
deliver the satellite perfectly on time to ESA and
contributed to this success. We look forward to
the next ESA Science mission, Solar Orbiter.”
 ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO-NEWS TWINGEO-NEWS

NSGIC RELEASES
FINDINGS FROM
BIENNIAL GEOSPATIAL
MATURITY ASSESSMENT
SURVEY
National States Geographic Information
Council (NSGIC) has released its biennial
comprehensive Geospatial Maturity
Assessment (GMA) report, which provides
NSGIC members and other partners
with a summary of geospatial initiatives,
capabilities, and issues within and across
state governments. For the first time, NSGIC
has modified the GMA survey to produce
report cards for each state on central data
themes and coordination topics.
BANNER AD
The 2019 GMA, augmented with individual
state report cards and framework data theme
analysis, is an authoritative resource on the
status of state geospatial programs. This
deeper dive can assist states in setting goals,
identifying peer states for collaboration,
pinpointing areas requiring attention, and
connecting states with opportunities and
resources. It also provides an important tool
for federal partners to identify areas for key
coordination, cooperation, and collaboration,
and for the private sector to build software
and services that comprise the tools that
make it all work.
This report and corresponding
resources can be found in a PDF
format on the website,
nsgic.org/2019-NSGIC-GMA.
RADIANT EARTH FOUNDATION
RELEASES WORLD’S FIRST OPEN
REPOSITORY FOR GEOSPATIAL
TRAINING DATA
To make geospatial information more
accessible to data scientists who are working
on global priorities like food insecurity,
Radiant Earth Foundation has launched
Radiant MLHub, the world’s first cloud-based
open library dedicated to Earth observation
training data for use with machine learning
algorithms, it announced today.
Over a quarter of the global population —
26.4%, or approximately 2 billion people
— experienced moderate or severe levels
of food insecurity in 2018, according to the
United Nations (UN), which cites as major
causes increasing food prices and decreasing
food production, not to mention trends like
climate change and population growth,
which could boost agricultural demand by
50% by 2050.
This first training dataset released on Radiant
Despite significant challenges, data from MLHub is funded by The Patrick J. McGovern
satellite imagery could help the global Foundation
development community achieve the UN’s
goal of zero hunger by 2030 by supporting
the flow of social and economic resources
to individuals and communities that need
them most.
There’s just one major problem: Although
there’s an abundance of satellite imagery,
there’s a shortage of training data and tools
to advance applications of machine learning
on them.
Enter Radiant MLHub, an open digital data
repository that allows anyone to discover
and access high-quality Earth observation
(EO) training datasets and machine learning
models. In addition to discovering others’
data, individuals and organizations can use
Radiant MLHub to register or share their
own training data, thereby maximizing
its reach and utility. Furthermore, Radiant
MLHub maps all of the training data that
it hosts so stakeholders can easily pinpoint
geographical areas from which more data is
needed.
Distributed under the Creative Commons
license (CC BY 4.0), training datasets hosted
on Radiant MLHub give data scientists
and other machine learning enthusiasts
benchmarks they can use in order to train
and validate their algorithms and improve
its performance.
Despite
significant
challenges, data
from satellite
imagery could help the
global development
community achieve
the UN’s goal of zero
hunger by 2030

10 11
 ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO-NEWS TWINGEO-NEWS

UAVOS’S
ROBINSON
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12 13
 ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO - INTERVIEW TWINGEO - INTERVIEW

VALUABLE INSIGHTS ON
- BIM
- GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
- SMART CITIES
- DIGITAL TWINS
- AND MUCH MORE
FROM INDUSTRY LEADERS AT

BENTLEY YII 2019

SHIMONTI PAUL
14
interviewer 15
 ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO - INTERVIEW
EXCEPTIONAL So, it is basically having a digital
representation of a physical asset, like a
INSIGHTS ON
process plant. A geometric and visually
accurate representation of the plant.
DIGITAL CITIES
And then combining with that physical
geometric and visual representation,
the engineering technology like analysis
or simulation applications, information
technology so things about work orders
and inspection histories, and financial data
Bob Mankowski, VP Digital Cities; with operational technology like IOT sensor
Benoit Fredericque, Director, Product data, temperature data, occupancy data for
Management-Reality Modeling & rooms, vibration, electrical voltage.
Ton De Vries, Senior Director, Business
A digital twin is then a virtual representation
Development, Digital Cities
of the plant, that can provide visibility on the
current status of the plant, and then can also
be used to simulate, changes to the plant.
The physical asset could be a plant, a road,
a rail system, a water system or it could be a
process like a construction process.
In simple terms, the Digital City is basically
a digital replica of the physical assets and
infrastructure in the city. It is digital replica
that represents the real-life situation in that
city.
Is there a difference between digital
cities and smart cities?
Yes definitely. For Bentley, the difference is
that a Digital City is kind of a prerequisite
in order to get to a smart city. Around the
world many cities have different views and
focuses when it comes to establishing a
smart city program in the city, it’s simply
Please define Digital Cities in simple
because the needs and the requirements
terms.
in Singapore are different than they are in
Rio de Janeiro or in Mumbai or in Munich.
A digital twin is a digital representation
But all of these use cases or many of these
of a physical asset, process or system that
use cases will benefit from having a digital
acts as a bridge between the digital world
twin of a city available because the city is
and the physical world. It also includes the
conceived basically out of three major things.
engineering technology that’s necessary to
model and understand the performance of
the asset or the process or the systems.
One is of course the city government. If
you have no government, there is no city.
16
ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO - INTERVIEW
The second thing is the people. If you don’t
have the people you have no city and the
you know many cities need to grow in order
to accommodate the growing population
third thing is the infrastructure. If you have in those cities. So that means they need to
infrastructure, you have people you have build new infrastructure, new buildings,
a government, you have a city. So, having new shopping malls, new everything. That
that infrastructure available as a digital city requires a planning process and traditionally
as a digital twin of your city helps you to a planning process; what cities did was they
create the smart city and realize the smart printed a brochure, they informed some of
city use cases in order to create a better the people, they invited them to a town hall
living environment for the citizens and the meeting. But only a very limited subset of
stakeholders. everybody who’s involved got informed and
got actually included in that process.
Smart cities in the industry typically refer
to cities which use communications Now with a digital city and our Open Cities
technology, basically sensors to estimate planner, our cities are able to actually use
the status of infrastructure assets and make the web, mobile, tablets, big displays in city
decisions. hall and so forth to inform the public about
all those upcoming changes or plans and
A smart city is a digital city, but a digital capture input from them in a digital way. So,
city doesn’t necessarily have to be a smart actually what we are introducing is a kind of
city. For us in a digital city, there are lots of crowdsourcing for infrastructure. And that
opportunity to improve the efficiency and makes the whole process way more inclusive
resilience of cities by going digital in various for all the citizens involved. So that’s a benefit
workflows. It’s about automating and for the citizen and it’s also a benefit for the
connecting digital workflows together and city because they get a way more balanced
replacing some existing manual or paper view on how the public is thinking about
based or disconnected workflows. So, it can their plans on expanding the city. And that
be digital without being smart, but there’s leads to basically happier citizens because
still a lot of value in being digital. they are better informed, they know what’s
going on. And, on the other hand, it quite
How do digital cities help in urban often leads to shorter procedures because
planning? people are better informed and there is on
average less resistance against those plans.
Frequently, a digital city includes the city
model as well as a platform to support How Digital Cities are adopting
communication with cities. So, typically technologies like AI and Drones?
during the design phases of urban planning,
the city model combined with the GIS enable I think it depends on city by city. The cities
the urban planner to integrate different as we say are going digital, and you see
sorts of information and then to optimize many cities around the world who are
the design process. experimenting with those technologies. I
think drones have become mainstream and
What kind of experience a digital city are in use all over the world and everywhere.
provides to its citizens, how it enhances Machine learning, artificial intelligence, I
their experience? guess that’s the next step. And by going
digital, by creating the digital twin you
A good example is what we do or what our create the basis to actually, do that machine
users do actually in the planning process. As learning on those digital models of the city.
17
 ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO - INTERVIEW
You can apply machine learning and you can
automatically start to recognize potholes,
manholes, streetlights and so forth. So,
changes over time or put particular objects
that you would like to identify, that’s where
the machine learning on those digital city
models come into play and can help identify
certain situations in a city way easier,
compared to sending all these survey crews
out on the streets.
We know digital cities provide a lot of
advantage. But how good has been the
adoption so far? Is it happening at the
desired pace?
Sort of depends a little bit on how you
look at it. If you look at it from a let’s say a
complete digital twin of a full city, I think
we are at the starting point over there.
There are some cities around the world that
actually are working on that or have that.
Many cities already have parts of the city as
a sort of digital twin available, but most of
the cities actually will have the data in silos
in disperse systems available and with the
introduction of a digital twin, what we do is
we separate that data and that allows them
to create the digital twin for them based on
what they already have. They don’t need
to replace systems, they might want to do
some additional data creation but in many
cases 60, 70, 80 percent of the data is already
somewhere available either within the city,
18
or within the ecosystem of the city. So, the
step, in order to get there shouldn’t be too
big.
If we talk about regions or geographies,
where do you see the maximum adoption
of this transformation?
I think this is a global thing. And every city
is doing it at their own pace, but there are
leading cities in Asia, they are leading cities
in Latin America, leading cities in North
America, Europe all over the place. I think
there’s a little bit of difference between let’s
say what’s happening in North America or in
Europe where there’s more focus on, I would
almost say keeping the systems of a city
running and creating a better environment
of life, whereas in China they are building new
cities with a pace that is incredible, so the
focus is a little different. But it’s happening
globally.
So, that brings me to my next question.
What do you think is easier - building
a new digital city or transforming an
existing city to a digital city?
I’m hesitating here because I think the
steps you have to take are not that different.
In almost all situations. there is existing
infrastructure. And the city can be small
and expand heavily. Like what’s happening
in China or you have a city like Long Island.
ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO - INTERVIEW
They are close but not at the same pace as perspective, you need to get the data from
the cities in China. But all of them, they have the Oracles to IBM and so forth from the
data available and or are creating digital IOT system from all the IOT vendors, so
data, because of all those expansions and we work closely with both Microsoft and
the step to creating the digital twin is to we Siemens on those projects, where Siemens’
look at that data federated, aggregated and IOT is actually the system integrator for us in
create a digital twin and make that available many of these cases. Microsoft of course is
to serve all those smart city use cases. So, the generic platform and the cloud platform
a sort of borderline answer is I think that it with all the government-based security
makes no difference. levels so that they can provide service to
each and every country around the world.
If you have to pick your best case study So strategic partners are enormous and
or best use case in terms of digital twins, very important for us in that respect, and
which city will it be? also third parties that we sometimes even
consider our competitors are part of the
I would say for us it would be Helsinki. They whole journey.
have adopted the digital twin starting with
3D modeling back in the 80s. Now they’re What’s the role of reality modeling in the
serving more than hundreds use cases concept of Digital Cities?
throughout the city internally, but also
making them available externally, so the IThat’s an interesting one. Reality modeling
use of their digital twin throughout their can play an important role. The reason why
operations on a day to day basis is massive. I say “can” is that it’s not necessary, but it
They recently have won many awards. will add a very important layer in terms of
making a real time connection, or near real
How do your strategy partners fit into time connection to the reality possible. So I
the whole picture of enabling creation of think many cities can start without a reality
digital twins? modeling part, because they can start
based on their existing datasets that they
If you look at Smart City concept, Digital City have right now, but they will realize that
concept it’s not something that we believe with the creation of the reality models and
anyone can do on their own, we cannot do it the continuous update of that reality model,
on our own, we need the data coming from they will have such a level of fidelity to add
other systems like from Autodesk systems, to that digital twin, and that it’s almost a no
from Esri GIS systems, from small world brainer of not doing it. So, it’s a little bit the
systems, for the utility side from Hexagon, icing on the cake, a very important icing on
so from an engineering perspective, we the cake.
need it from different systems from an I.T.
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TWINGEO - INTERVIEW
LET’S KNOW ABOUT 4D
CONSTRUCTION MODELLING
from the experts- Richard Humphrey, Senior Director, Project Delivery & Construction
& Scott Eustace, Senior Marketing Manager
What is 4D construction modeling in
simple terms?
At the most basic level, 4D is taking a
3D model project and creating a living
breathing representation of what’s actually
happening.
In the evolution from 3D modeling to 4D,
what elements have been added, and
what are the enhanced features?
From a technology perspective, the
enhancements are around how do you
go about the classes while taking the 3D
design models, and turning them into
4D construction models, how do you
decompose the models into a construction
performance. 4D data is not just time and
tasks, it involves adding quantities of work
breakdowns, schedules and pushing 4D
scheduling into production planning etc. 4D
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Do we have enough skilled workforce to field management etc. We also have a
implement such models or to understand partnership with Topcon, which allows the
and analyze data from those models? users to have a smoother and more efficient
workflow, creating significantly less waste,
The lack of skilled workforce in construction loss of resources and data and generating
in general is a problem. We’ve seen success higher quality work.
in adoption of our simple 4D technology in
rather large organizations, which don’t have One of our goals is to be able to ingest data
the skilled labor problem. They are pretty from a lot of different sources, including
sophisticated in technology. competitors. We want to connect data
workflows with people-do it within our own
Smaller engineering construction firms broad portfolio and connect the dots with
are innovating and invested in those skills. the rest of the vendors and technology
As a technology software company, it’s our supply chain.
strategy to be able to deliver the ability to
create 4D models for construction and How good you find people in sharing
make the usefulness of the model available data?
to more than just the technologists. We’re
creating ease of use in workflows, which
can be leveraged by more people than
In some cases, there are concerns, but many
vendors are open to partnership.
technologists or the engineers inside the
construction. How can integration of AI make things
better in construction?
Are you providing training?
There’s a huge amount of investment going
Yes. We provide some training to people into AI and we’ve built on a pretty big AI team.
who want or need. We also provide training Actually, that has grown partly organically
modelling is more than just an evolution of
in implementation services. internally with the people involved. We have
3D modelling, it is combining 3D modelling
also made an acquisition this year. Lot of the
with a schedule as well.
Is Bentley partnering with any other construction is task driven, and AI can help
company for this for 4D construction in achieving more effective results in those
Are companies able to move to 4D easily
modeling, or any other acquisition? tasks. For instance, AI could be trained to
or they are facing issues, what are the
recognize different assets in a photo and
challenges?
Yes. SYNCHRO software is an acquisition index issues. This will lead to faster resolve of
of this year. With SYNCHRO, 4D finally issues. Use of drones in construction is also
The challenges in some respects are
going from planning into operations, and bringing in more efficiency.
very much the same as any other kind of
getting connected with cost management,
technology change brings in. It is not just
about the technology; it’s about changing
the processes as well. When it comes to the
technology adoption itself, it’s really about
the people involved seeing the value, once
they see that they can improve schedules
and will be able to get insights into how
well the job is progressing faster, once they
can see those benefits, then they try the
adoption. Usually, we see a lot more adoption
where the contractor and designers are on
the same team.
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STRUCTURAL AND
GEOTECHNICAL
ANALYSIS
Why geotechnical analysis is important?
Geotechnical Engineering is the branch
of engineering that merges geology and
physics to model soil mechanics and
rock behavior. Geotechnical engineering
ensures safety in buildings and prevents
catastrophes arising out of building
collapses.
For instance, consider buildings built on
areas close to waterways where there is lot
of sediment. Buildings built there are not
safe since slowly they are likely to become
heavier and eventually sink. Geotechnical
engineers can prevent such a catastrophe
by investigating and making calculations
about the soil beforehand.
For today’s infrastructure demands,
geotechnical considerations are coming to
the fore. Urbanization, for instance, drives
growth both vertically and underground,
with emphasis on the capacity of foundations
22
Interview with
Raoul Karp, VP Design
Engineering Analysis, Bentley
Systems;
Cindy Ross, Manager, Product
Marketing, Geotechnical,
Bentley Systems;
Erwin Beernink, VP Marketing,
Sales and Services, Plaxis
and tunnels. And new infrastructure projects
of every type depend upon constructed
dams, embankments, dikes, levees, and
reservoirs to improve their resilience.
Because infrastructure assets are crucially
linked to subsurface environs, they are
vulnerable to geo-environmental risks
including seismic activity, subsidence,
and weather impacts. Leveraging new
digital workflows which incorporate real-
time monitoring and analytics during
infrastructure operations, geotechnical
professionals can play the increasingly
valuable role they deserve in achieving geo-
environmental resilience.
Cindy Ross, Bentley Systems
shares, “Earth is not man made and
as infrastructure assets are crucially
linked to subsurface environments,
they are vulnerable to geotechnical
risk”.
Bentley is proud to expand its portfolio, with
the latest acquisitions - Keynetix, PLAXIS
and SoilVision; together we are helping
engineers play a valuable role in keeping
infrastructure safe.
Our mission is to produce the world’s most
accurate and accessible geotechnical
analysis solutions, backed by world class
geotechnical expertise, to produce safer
structures and environment for all.
How collaboration of Bentley and Plaxis
taking geotechnical analysis to new
levels?
“This is a good marriage, shares Raoul. It
will help in moving the data between a
geotechnical and a structural engineer more
efficiently. The collaboration of Bentley and
Plaxis, not only does it help in the design
efficiency, it adds value to this digital twin
that overtime can be used and reused to
improve that asset.”
Plaxis is a global market leader in
geotechnical engineering software based
on the finite element method, offering
its applications to users in more than
100 countries worldwide. With a well-
established reputation as the industry
standard for geotechnical design, Plaxis
software serves project owners, contractors,
and consultants in civil engineering, oil and
gas, offshore industries, and governmental
organizations.
PLAXIS is one of Bentley’s core analysis tools
being used across its global geotechnics
practice. When used by experienced
specialists, PLAXIS can analyze many of
Bentley Systems’ most complex ground-
structure interaction problems. We can
accomplish more through digital workflows
made possible through integration of PLAXIS
technology with Bentley’s comprehensive
modeling environment—workflows that
are compatible with Mott MacDonald’s
ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO - INTERVIEW
commitment to connected thinking and
solving complex infrastructure challenges.
“Plaxis is a great name globally. Bentley
Systems. has a global presence; it has a
strong structural experience. With Plaxis,
Bentley has a strong geotechnical base.
The collaboration is a great marriage of
efficiencies and improved performance for
our users. There would be lot of benefits,”
reinforces Erwin Beernink, Plaxis
How Bentley and Plaxis is helping in
solving the problem of lack of skilled
workforce?
Plaxis pays a lot of attention to geotechnical
engineering education. With some of the
solutions, they not only provide product
training, but also training on the science of
geotechnical engineering. Bentley Systems
also delivers in-product learning. These steps
help in creating a skilled workforce. There’s
no doubt that the industry lacks skilled
workforce and this is where academies like
Bentley Systems Academies are playing a
vital role.
In which geography do you see the
maximum awareness about the concept
of geotechnical engineering? Is the
adoption of technology happening at the
desired pace?
The adoption definitely needs a thrust. It is
picking up. The Europe region is doing quite
well when it comes to adoption of latest
innovations.
What’s next?
Sensor data is coming a big way. With
sensors live calculations are available, and
it becomes easier to analyze whether the
building is still strong due to new load etc.
That’s where the next step is.
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Rahul Savdekar, Director - Industry Solutions (Asia Public Sector), Microsoft
Please tell us about Microsoft and
Bentley’s collaboration and how is it
helping the construction industry?
Both Microsoft and Bentley have actually
been partners for pretty long. We actually
complement our special technologies,
special in the sense that they really are
unique in their own niche. Microsoft is more
of a platform. We are technology providers.
Bentley is also an OEM but they actually work
with us on our platforms. They leverage our
platforms and technologies to build specific
vertical solutions. There are a couple of
Bentley solutions that have been really very
successful on Microsoft platforms. One of
them is ProjectWise, and we have a really
successful reference of this coming out in
the Malaysia MRT systems, when they have
actually used ProjectWise for planning and
operations, which is actually on the backend
posted on Microsoft as well as a technology
platform.
So, this is just one example, but there are
so many other areas that we are working
together on. The whole event is around
digital twins and the construction industry
is actually now looking at the Industry
Revolution 6.0 and not Industry 4.0 with
digital twins and simulations coming in
picture. So, we actually partner with Bentley
24
on their digital twin platform as well where
we provide the technology and they have
their own simulations around data and IoT
side, which they use around cities, smart
buildings, all kind of scenarios. Their use
cases are phenomenal.
Tell us a bit about Bentley Systems’
SYNCHRO and Microsoft’s collaboration.
We have multiple collaborations. One of the
things that got announced almost a year
ago, is a product-based collaboration and
code development effort that Microsoft and
Bentley will jointly take up in the coming
years. There was a formal release by our
Product Head and one of the Bentley
executives.
What’s with ‘City Next’? What the
industry can expect?
‘City Next’ is getting rebranded, because
there are multiple aspects of the cities that
we want to cover including the economical
side, not only the digital side. We are
augmenting the program. The collaboration
between Bentley and Microsoft, from
the Smart Cities point of view is really a
humongous opportunity, especially from
the perspective of ASEAN countries.
Tell us something about Hololens 2. How
is it difference from the previous version?
The biggest difference is that, this is very
concise in size. It actually been modified in
a smaller kind of a frame and with a lot of
enhanced features. We are actually bringing
in a lot of artificial intelligence features,
inside the Hololens itself, which basically
help things from a better virtualization &
management perspective. It’s a phenomenal
product. The use cases that we really see on
Hololenses are really amazing and we know
that Bentley has a good practice around
Hololens 2 as well. We are looking forward
to what they come out with.
What’s next with the collaboration?
What’s coming up now?
As of now we want to scale up what we
have built-on, and obviously there are many
more things to come up as a part of the
joint engagement. I think what we need
to do now is scale this more and more and
make it more beneficial for the cities. My
focus at this point of time is to work with
the Bentley teams to really define the use
cases which the cities can take up, work
on the comments and develop solutions
which are more easily consumable by cities
and beneficial for the citizens. That’s the
approach that Microsoft and Bentley share.
How do you see the adoption of
technologies happening? Is it going
good, the way you had expected?
I think it is going well, obviously we are still
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in the initial stages of this whole journey of
digital twins. We are getting onto the next
level. The readiness of their data is very
country specific, so the countries would
have to do that. Our work from Microsoft
and Bentley is to actually help countries
and cities define the maturity, help them
accelerate their journey towards digital
transformation, around digital twins and
take the whole concept of technology
adoption very quickly.
Do you think, training and creating
awareness are equally important?
The biggest challenge which I personally
see from a digital transformation view
is about how we are really building the
change management process, and people
are the most critical aspect of change
management. So how are you building
up skilling of people, what are you doing
differently from the program portfolio. I
think that’s the most critical part.
We have dedicated efforts. Microsoft has
launched an AI Business School which is
actually an artificial intelligence education
program for business decision makers, and
it’s not a technology program, it’s more
of a business decision maker program,
which basically helps people from various
industries in the top management level. It is
helping them to understand how they can
use artificial intelligence as a part of their
portfolio. I’m personally doing that myself.
It’s a great start for people who really want
to know the depth of use of AI in Business.
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How is Siemens enabling the world to
have smarter cities? What are its core
offerings that is enabling this?
• Cities face challenges due to the changes
brought about by the megatrends
of urbanization, climate change,
globalization and demographics. In all
their complexity, they generate huge
volumes of data which the fifth megatrend
of digitalization can utilize to get insights
and optimize the systems that support
urban infrastructure.
• In Siemens, we leverage MindSphere, our
cloud based, open IoT operating system
to enable this “smart city”. Mindsphere
is ranked as the “Best in Class” platform
for IoT by PAC . With its Open Platform-
as-a-Service capability, it helps experts
to co-create smart city solution. Through
its MindConnect capabilities, it enables
secured connection for Siemens and third-
party products and equipment to capture
for real-time data for big data analysis that
ERIC CHONG, enables various smart city applications.
The collected city data in aggregate can
President & CEO, Siemens Ltd
also turn into insights for city planners
26
and policy makers to outline future smart
city development. With the continued
development of artificial intelligence and
data analytics, it will further advance the
process of turning data into knowledge
and generate new insights for smart city
applications that can help tackle urban
challenges raised by megatrends and
maximize smart city potential.
Are cities becoming smarter at the
desired pace? How do you see the
progress? How can companies like
Siemens help accelerate the pace?
The world is getting more awareness in
smart city development. Stakeholders
like government, infrastructure providers,
industry leaders are acting proactively
to drive the change. In Hong Kong, the
government launched the excellent Smart
City Blueprint in 2017 which set the vision
for the development of our Smart City with
the Blueprint 2.0 on the way. Apart from
setting clear directions for the industry, the
government also offers financial incentives
such as funding and tax reduction to
support the development and diffusion of
innovations in this fast-growing topic. More
importantly it is taking a lead with smart
city initiatives such as Energizing Kowloon
East where proof of concepts are being
tested. We are very happy to contribute our
expertise in such PoCs, for instance:
• Kerbside loading/unloading bay
monitoring system: Innovation to
optimize the valuable kerbside space
and help direct users to available loading/
unloading bay with AI.
• Energy efficiency data system: Installing
smart electricity sensors in household for
real-time electricity consumption data for
users to track consumption patterns with
mobile applications to improve electricity
consumption habits
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Apart from bringing in our global expertise,
we believe we can also contribute to build
a thriving innovation ecosystem. For this
purpose, we invested in the Smart City
Digital Hub at the Science Park to provide a
platform for start-ups, technological experts
and infrastructure providers to create their
digital portfolio and develop smart city
applications.
Our efforts in Hong Kong echoes our efforts
elsewhere to help cities get smarter. For
example, in Great Britain, we are working
with London on building an “Arc of
Opportunity “. This is a a Smart City model
Driven by the private sector in the region
and in collaboration with Great London
Authority where a series of smart city
initiatives are being carried out focusing on
energy, transport and buildings
In Vienna, Austria , we are working with the
city of Aspern on a smart city demonstration
living lab that tests designs and systems
for intelligent cities, focusing on energy
efficiency and smart infrastructures and
develop solutions for renewable energy, low
voltage grid control, energy storage and
intelligent control of distribution networks.
What made you think of establishing a
smart city digital hub?
Our vision for the Smart City Digital Hub is to
accelerate smart city development through
collaboration and talent development.
Powered by Siemens’ cloud-based IoT
operating system MindSphere, the hub
is designed as an open lab that enables
R&D in buildings, energy and mobility. By
enhancing IoT connectivity, our digital hub
aspires to help stakeholders to identify
the pain points of our city and support
companies to scale up their business with
digitalization.
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BUILT
JUNE 3-5, 2020
We hope that the hub will nurture future
McCormick Place
talents in Hong Kong to support the growth
CHICAGO, IL
STRONGER
potential that smart city brings. For this
reason, the hub initiated the MindSphere
Academy to provide training and also
collaborates with Vocational Training
TOGETHER
Council to help meet the manpower needs
and encourage entrants to this industry.
What are the primary functions of this
hub?
Our Smart City Digital Hub has a goal to co-
create a smart city innovation ecosystem
in collaboration with local partners such
as infrastructure providers, educational
institutes and startups. The hub aims to
acts as a connector to share knowledge
on advanced IoT technologies, encourage
With conference programs full of rich content and a vendor-neutral sectors to open up data for smart city
expo hall floor – AEC Next, SPAR 3D and USIBD collide to offer applications, generate insights for a holistic
a diverse learning experience built to provide business solutions, view of city infrastructure, and explore
unparalleled networking and the latest technical advancements.
smart city applications. The eventual aim is
to build smart city Hong Kong and enhance
The future of AEC and 3D technology is here. our city’s livability and efficiency.
In which region do you see maximum
USE CODE SAVE100 progress in going digital?
for $100 off any conference pass
and/or free exhibit hall entry. We see progress in the building, energy and
mobility sectors which benefit the most
from going digital.
Buildings are major energy consumers in
the city as it consumes 90% of the electricity
in Hong Kong . There is a great potential
to improve building energy efficiency,
Register reduce their impact on the environment
Online @ and manage the indoor space intelligently
aecnext.com or through smart technology increasingly
spar3d.com/event driven by A.I. For instance, our “AI Chiller”
management system provides 24x7
Produced by
condition based monitoring of the chiller
Diversified plant that delivers recommendations
Communications
instantaneously to the building facilities
team to optimize its operations on a
continuous basis. Another example are
“buildings that can talk” that communicates
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seamlessly with the energy system to create
an ecosystem that responds to the needs
of the buildings and its occupants while
ensuring that the valuable energy resources
in the city are utilized in an efficient and
dynamic manner.
In a densely populated city like Hong
Kong, there is a great potential to scale
up on smart mobility innovations to
enable a seamless travel experience for
its residents. Innovations in V2X (vehicle-
to-x) enables constant communication
between vehicles and the infrastructure
supporting applications such as intelligent
control solutions to manage complex
traffics situations at urban intersections.
Such technologies when deployed at
scale are also key to enabling the safe and
reliable operation of autonomous vehicles
throughout the city.
Please tell us about collaboration of
Bentley Systems & Siemens - How is this
collaboration helping the infrastructure
sector?
Siemens and Bentley Systems have a track
record of complementing their respective
portfolios through the licensing of each
other’s technology to provide solutions
in the digital factories arena. The alliance
was further advanced in 2016 to realize
new growth opportunities in industry
and infrastructure through integration of
complementary digital engineering models
with joint investment initiatives. Focusing
on digital twin and leveraging MindSphere,
the alliance utilize digital engineering
models for visual operations and connected
infrastructure asset performance that
enables advance applications such as
‘Simulation as a Service’ solution for the
entire asset lifecycle. This reduces the
overall lifecycle costs since optimization in
design, implementation and operations
can be achieved through simulation in
the digital twin with implementation only
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starting when it meets all expectations How is Siemens helping in building a

and specifications. The Connected Data
Environment essential to this provides an
end-to-end digital innovation that creates a
comprehensive and precise digital twins of
the process and physical asset. In the latest
collaboration, both parties launched Plant
sight to Connect, contextualize, validate
and visualize the data from a plant to create
a live digital twin for users to discover new
insights. In Hong Kong, our smart city digital
hub is exploring similar topics with Bentley
to create customer values and accelerate
smart city transformation.
smart city developer community through
focus on education?
The Siemens Smart City Developer
Community (SSCDC) was established on
Jan 24, 2019 as an extension of our smart city
digital hub to leverage and scale up the power
of MindSphere. SSCDC engages business
partners, technological experts, SMEs and
startups in smart city development through
knowledge sharing, collaborative ideation,
networking and partnership opportunities.
It has 4 key objectives:

What do you mean by the Connected • Education: provide advanced IoT

City Solutions?
Connected City Solutions (CCS) integrates
Internet of Things, cloud computing and
connectivity technologies to support
smart city management and enable
public convenience. With data collected
by embedded intelligent sensors and
devices and driven by MindSphere,
connected city solutions optimize city
operations by enabling IoT connectivity
and city data collection and analysis. The
proliferation of IoT sensors in the city can
enable the collection of environment data
including ambient brightness, road traffic,
environmental data including temperature,
humidity, pressure, noise, vibration level and
suspended particulates. The collected data
can be analyzed with artificial intelligence
to provide insights or predict futures
for various urban challenges. These can
generate transformational insights for city
planners to tackle urban challenges, such
as public safety, asset management, energy
efficiency and traffic congestion.
trainings, collaborative workshop and
market-focus seminars to support local
talents, engineers, academia and CXOs
on developing scalable digital solutions
• Networking: build professional networks
by forming special interest groups with
startups, SMEs and MNCs with networking
opportunities in various conferences
• Co-creation: leverage MindSphere as an
online platform for collaborations with
like-minded people to transform industry
concepts into real-world applications
• Partnership: opportunities to refer
potential startups and SMEs to global
startup network and industry connections
to equip the members the know-how and
investments to scale up the solution with
MindSphere
The community also foster a close-knit
innovation ecosystem for companies to
withstand the technological disruption
brought by IoT, scale up their business and
tackle the urgent emerging city challenges.
In less than a year, SSCDC are having 120+
members with 13 community events held
ranging from hands-on IoT workshops to
MindSphere Solution Day, unleashing the
potential of IoT and spark dialogues in value
co-creation opportunities.
Any message you want to give to the
construction industry/users.
• Digitalization brings disruptive changes
to many industries which can be a threat
if ignored but an opportunity if embraced.
In the construction industry which is
challenged by decreasing productivity
and increasing cost, the entire lifecycle of
a project can benefit from digitalization.
• For instance, Building Information
Modelling can simulate a building virtually
then physically, with construction only
beginning after the virtual one meets
all expectations and specifications. This
can be enhanced with MindSphere
that enables real-time data collection,
consolidation and analysis across the
entire building cycle that opens up further
opportunities centered around a digital
twin of the project. This further allows
the integration of technologies such as
Additive manufacturing that can aid the
creation of building components from
the digital twin to accelerate the adoption
of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC)
for a more efficient construction process.
To transform the construction certification
and supervision process currently still
heavily paper based, innovations in
blockchain technology can enable digital
project management and supervision,
ensuring transparency, record integrity and
improving efficiency. Digitalization presents
far-reaching opportunities and transforms
the way we build, collaborate and operate –
greatly improving construction productivity
and reducing overall project cost while also
generating measurable advantages over
the entire building’s life cycle.

30 31
 5G IS HERE…
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AND THE ENTIRE

Is Siemens collaborating with other
companies to build state of the art
technologies that enable creation/

GEOSPATIAL
maintenance of smart cities?

• Siemens is always open to work with other

companies and not limited to enterprise

COMMUNITY WILL BE
companies.

• Siemens has signed MOUs and forged

TALKING ABOUT IT
various alliances in Hong Kong to
accelerate the smart city development for
instance:

• Smart City Consortium (SCC):

connect MindSphere to HK’s smart
city community to showcasing how
MindSphere can serve as a city’s IoT
platform.

• Hong Kong Science and Technology

Parks Corporation (HKSTP): Prompt
collaboration on smart city solution
development with IoT and data
analytics

• CLP: Develop pilot projects for

the energy grid, smart city, power
generation and cybersecurity. 7-9 APRIL 2020, AMSTERDAM
• MTR: Create digital solutions to
optimize rail operations through
analytics

• VTC: Nurture next-generation talents

to ensure the sustainability of the
innovative ecosystem and contribute
new ideas for future innovations
| Platinum Sponsor | | Corporate Sponsors | | Associate Sponsor | | Co-Host |
• In Jan this year, Siemens also participated
in the GreaterBayX Scalerater Program, a
joint initiative with startups and leading
corporations such as Greater Bay Ventures,
HSBC and Microsoft to help scale-ups to | Produced by |
| Co-Sponsors | | Strategic Partners | | Supporting Organizations |
realize their smart city vision and tap into
the growing opportunities in the Greater
Bay Area with our domain know-how.

w w w. g e o s p a t i a l w o r l d f o r u m . o r g
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https://aulageo.com
 ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO - CASE STUDY
HOW DRONE INSPECTION WA
ACHIEVED A RESOLUTION OF 2CM/PIXEL
THE CHALLENGE
Companies are looking to automate
the inspection workflows of their larger
infrastructure assets, such as buildings,
silos, hangers etc. Manned inspections of
such assets are expensive, dangerous and in
most cases incomplete, as due to the asset’s
complexity, it is seldom possible to achieve
all required visual vantage points for a
complete inspection. The introduction of
drones to the industrial site has the potential
to solve these problems, granted that the
process can be streamlined and automated.
In a recent project, Drone Inspections
WA was contracted to provide a structural
survey of the roofs of grain silos in Western
Australia’s Wheatbelt, to determine if
structural deformations have occurred.
These structures have conical roofs held
up by wooden beams that are prone to sag
and/or expand as the heat and gases inside
the silo expand or contract. The required
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ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
TWINGEO - CASE STUDY
output was a CAD file that would be overlaid
with the structural drawings to determine if
deformations had occurred.
CHRIS of Drone Inspection
WA commented:
“We were required to provide a resolution
of a minimum of 2cm/pixel. Only an
automated flight could achieve this. The
sites were challenging to set an automated
flight path for, as the roofs were conical,
and had many obstacles to navigate
around. Drone Harmony was used as it
allowed a very specific flight path, of unique
parameters to be designed and to have the DRONE HARMONY
camera manipulated independently as well
by the program for the points of interest Luzern, Switzerland
as required. Drone Harmony proved itself
admirably, and we achieved in automated
flight what would have taken enormous MAIL:
risk and complexity in manual flight.” contact@droneharmony.com
WEBSITE:
droneharmony.com
BLOG:
blog.droneharmony.com
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TWINGEO - COVER STORY TWINGEO - COVER STORY

Some terms of the previous digital
revolution:
PC - CAD - PLM - Internet - GIS - email
- Wiki - http - GPS
Each innovation had its followers, which, when
applied, transformed different industries. The
PC changed the way we manage physical
documents, CAD sent the drawing tables
to the wineries; email became the default
method of formal communication. All of
them ended up following globally accepted
standards – at least, from the perspective
of the provider. The transformations in the
previous digital revolution added value to
geographic and alphanumeric information,
which individually helped boosted modern
businesses. These transformations all relied
on global connectivity; that is, the “http”
protocol that we still use today. The new
Nobody can guarantee the shape of the new
digital landscape – industry leaders suggest
a mature, pragmatic approach will stand us
in good stead.. There will be opportunities
for those with vision and scope to take
advantage of this revolution. Governments,
always mindful of re-election, may also
move with an eye on the short-term. But, in
the long term, it is, ironically, common users,
interested in their own needs who will have
the last word.
And although the new environment may
offer better coexistence, with free code living
side by side with private coding according
to sustainable standards resulting from a
consensus; nobody guarantees that actors
such as government and academia will live
up to their role in good time. Nobody can
predict how it will happen, we only know it

DIGITAL TWIN
initiatives took advantage of the information, will happen.
the inter-connected world and turned them
into new businesses like Uber, Airbnb,
Udemy and Netflix that have become a p[art
Digital Twin -
of modern culture.

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE NEW DIGITAL REVOLUTION

The new TCP / IP?

BY GOLGI ALVAREZ
A NEW PROTOCOL
Half of those who are reading this article were born with
technology in their hands and used to a digital transformation as
fact. The other half are those who witnessed the computer age
come without asking permission. It kicked down the door and
transformed what we did in books, on paper or at
primitive computer terminals that could barely
respond to alphanumeric records and linear
graphics. It is simply fascinating to discover the
BIM-focused software currently does, with real-
time rendering, each connected with geospatial
context, responding to business processes linked to interfaces operated on
mobile phones, is the evidence of how far the industry was able to go in
understanding, and meeting the user’s needs.
But today, we are at the doors of a new digital Since we know it will happen, even if we do
revolution, which will change all this. not perceive the gradual changes, we need
to be prepared for change. We know acting
New terms: with caution will be necessary for those who
Block Chain - 4iR - IoT - Digital Twin - understand the sensitivity of a globally-
connected market where added value not
Big Data - AI - VR
only appears in the stock market indicators
but also in the response of increasingly
Although the new terms appear to be influential consumers with regards to the
acronyms like hashtags, we cannot deny quality of services. Undoubtedly, the market
that the fourth industrial revolution is at will play a role in ensuring balance between
the door, materializing separately in many industry’s supply of creativity and the
disciplines. Now the Internet can be much demands of the end users.
more; taking advantage of everything
achieved so far, and breaking paradigms no
longer impregnable in a market connects
The Digital Twin aspires
computers and mobile phones as well as to position itself in the
human beings even as they continue their
normal activities. philosophy of this new digital
transformation.

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TO WHAT DOES THE
NEW PROTOCOL
ASPIRE?
For http / TCIP to become the standard
communication protocol, still in
place today, it had to go through a
process of governance and updating
by democratic means, a a tortuous
process the common user does not
realise happened.. Users never had to
know an actual IP address, but now it
is not even necessary to include the
“http” and “www” prefixes – global
search engines obviated the need
to do that. However, despite the
industry questioning the limitations
of the elderly behind this standard,
it is still the hero that broke global
communication paradigms.
The new protocol goes beyond
connecting computers and phones.
The current cloud services, rather than
just storing pages and data, are part
citizens’ daily lives as well as intrinsic
to the operation of governments and
businesses. It is just one of the reasons
for the death of the original protocol,
based on IP addresses, since it is now
necessary to connect objects ranging
from a washing machine that needs
to send a message that it has finished
spinning the clothes, to the sensors of
a bridge where real-time monitoring
can report its level of fatigue and
therefore, need for maintenance. This
is, in an ignorant version, of what we
call the internet of things; to which a
new protocol must respond.
40
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The new protocol, if it
wants to be standard,
must be able to
interconnect more than
The digital twin
real-time information. In
its scope, it should include
aspires to be that
all of the existing and
newly-built environment,
new protocol.
as well as interfaces with
the natural environment
and social, economic and
environmental services
provided.
From a company’s point of view, the
new standard must closely resemble a
digital representation of physical assets;
like a printer, an apartment, a building,
a bridge. But more than its modelling,
it will be expected to add value to
operations; so it allows us to make better
informed decisions and therefore, get
better results.
From the perspective of a country, the
new protocol needs to be able to create
ecosystems of many connected models;
like all the assets of a country, in order to
release more value by using that data for
the public good.
In terms of productivity, the new protocol
must be able to standardize the life cycle;
to simply represent what happens to all
material things, such as a road, a plot, a
vehicle; and immaterial things such as
a stock market investment, a strategic
plan, a Gantt chart. The new standard
should simplify the cycle - each of them
are born, grow, produce results, and die...
or transform.
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WHAT DOES THE CITIZEN EXPECT OF THE NEW
DIGITAL REVOLUTION?
The best scenario of how it will be in these
new conditions, is not to think about what
Hollywood predicts, there will be people
living inside a dome governed by an elite
that controls the activity of survivors of
the post-apocalyptic world where it is no
longer possible to recognise the augmented
reality of artificial simulation; or at the other
extreme, a fantasy setting where everything
is so perfect human emotion is lost.
But we must imagine something of
the future… at least for this article.
We may see it in the aspiration of the two
most common users in a front-office, back-
office set-up. We can call them interested
parties. There’s an interested party that needs
to be well informed to make better decisions,
and a citizen that requires better services to
be more productive; remembering that this
could be an individual citizen or a group
acting in a public or private role, or a mix of
the two.
42
So we talk about services; I am Golgi Alvarez,
and I need to build an extension to the third
floor of my building that my father built in
1988. For now, let’s forget terms, marks or
acronyms that muddy the waters in this
scenario. Let’s keep it simple.
Juan Medina wants this request
approved quickly, cheaply, transparently,
and involving the fewest requirements
and intermediaries possible, while
ensuring the details are properly
recorded so each step can later
be traced.
The authority needs to have enough
information to approve this decision in
a robust way, recording who made the
submissions, what the submission was,
and when an where it was made, so the
decision is later traceable. Once it approves
the decision, it must be able to check the
change was made in accordance with its
approval, with the same traceability as
the submission.. This corresponds to the
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premise that "The Convergence of Smart
Infrastructure, Modern Construction
using a minimum of steps. In the end, what
the citizen needs is to have the authorization
Methods and the Digital Economy present and build; while the government approves
increasing opportunities to improve the
quality of life of citizens".
it according to its regulations, then gets
information back as to the final result. So,
the connection between the front-office,
back-office models is just at these three
The value that data takes in this scenario, points, and that adds value.
goes beyond having a single ultra-detailed
virtual model of the entire physical world;
rather, we talk about having models The owner carried out the construction
connected according to the purpose of the he expected, the Government checked
workflow participants: that the work was done in compliance
• the citizen who needs an answer (awith the regulations and without major
procedure), effort was able to keep his information
• the person who authorizes needs a updated. The only variant is in the
regulation (geospatial zoning), purpose.
• the designer responds with a design (
BIM to be model), Although for the executor, designer and
• a builder responds to the result (plan, supplier of materials there is added value
budget, plans), in other aspects; but in the same way those
• the suppliers that respond to a list of relationships should be simplified.
inputs (specifications),
• the supervisor that responds to the final If we see this example as a model, this
result (BIM model as built). application that we have made to a
construction could be standardized for
other procedures: a sale of property, a
It is clear that having the interconnected
mortgage, a loan application, a business
models must make it simpler for the operating license, mining natural resources,
intermediary members of the chain. They are
or updating an urban plan. The only thing
able to automate checking which even the that would vary would be the scale and the
best cases are a service to the end user. They perspective; but if they had the same domain
can maintain transparency and traceability, model, they should be able to interconnect.
Digital Twins, aspires to be the model that allows us to
standardise and connect multipurpose representations,
with different spatial scale, temporal scale and
perspectives.
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WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE
GEMINI PRINCIPLES.
The previous example is a simple case
applied to a transaction between a citizen
and an authority; but as seen in the final
paragraphs, it is necessary that different
models interconnect; otherwise the chain
will be interrupted at the weakest link.
For this to happen, it is necessary that the
digital transformation includes the entire
environment built in a general way, so
that better use, operation, maintenance,
planning and delivery of national and local
assets, systems and services are guaranteed.
It must bring benefits for the whole society,
the economy, business and the environment.
For now, the most inspiring example is that
of the United Kingdom. With its proposal
of Fundamental Gemini Municipalities and
its road map; but before we call friends
to always go against the tide and their
historical habit of always wanting to do
everything in a different but ceremoniously
orderly way. To this day, British standards
(BS) have had a high impact on standards
with an international reach; where the work
of current initiatives such as i3P, ICG, DTTG,
UK BIM Alliance is respectable.
Because of this particularity in the United
Kingdom, we are surprised by what the
Digital Framework Working Group (DFTG)
is launching. It brings together key voices
from government, academia and industry
to reach a consensus on fundamental
definitions and values – guidance necessary
to shore up the digital transformation.
With president Mark Enzer, the DFTG has
signed up for an interesting task to create
the framework that provides effective
information management throughout the
built environment, including secure data
As you can identify in this scope, you are not
exchange. This work, to date, includes two
merely thinking of the United Kingdom as
documents:
your own Brexit of digital transformation,
46
THE GEMINI PRINCIPLES:
These are a guide to the
values of “awareness” of the
information management
framework, which includes
9 principles grouped into 3
axes as follows:
Purpose: Public good , Value creation, Vision.
Trust: Security, Openness, Quality.
Function: Federation, Healing, Evolution.
THE ROADMAP.
This is a prioritised plan to
develop the information
management framework,
with 5 streams that keep
cross way with the Gemini
principles.
Each of these currents are has its own critical
path, with concatenated activities but they
are interdependent; as it is displayed on the
graph. These streams are:
Reach, with 8 critical tasks and 2 non-critical
tasks. Key as its definition is necessary to
activate the enablers.
Governance, with 5 critical tasks and 2
non-critical tasks. It is the stream with less
dependencies.
Common, with 6 critical and 7 non-critical
tasks, is the most extensive.
Enabling, with 4 critical and 6 non-critical
tasks, with a lot of interrelation with change
management.
Change 7 critical tasks and 1 non-critical.
It is the stream whose critical path is a
conductive thread.
or your taste for driving on the left lane.
If you want to promote a digital twins
connection model that has a national scope,
it is necessary to propose something that
can align the industry, especially in terms of
standards. The following elements stand out
in this regard:
ALIGNMENT WITH OTHER INITIATIVES.
The acronyms of this element are more than
enough, to respect this bet; ISO standards,
European standards (CEN), alignment with
Innovate UK, Building SMART, W3C, BIM UK,
DCMS, i3P, DTTG, IETF.
INTERNATIONAL REACH.
Here we talk about identifying and
managing a lobby with programs, initiatives
and opportunities with international
synergies. Interesting, that they have in
their consideration the learnings of good
practices in countries that are already trying;
with the possibility of consolidating an
international knowledge exchange group,
including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore
and Canada.
The document called the Gemini Principles,
to achieve the key consensus among the
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main industry leaders, would become what
was "Cadastre 2014" in the late 1990s, which
established phylophical aspects for land
administration, which later doe Consensus
works with initiatives such as INSPIRE,
LandXML, ILS and OGC, became as of 2012
the ISO-19152 standard, known today as
LADM.
In this case, it will be interesting to see how
great leaders in the technology industry
who have brought their own models
achieve consensus. Even companies like
General Electric have thieir own models and
markets, from my point of view, we hope
look interesting consensus to this groups:
• The SIEMENS - Bentley - Microsoft -
Topcon group, which in a way make up
an almost complete scenario in the Geo-
Engineering cycle; capture, modelling,
design, operation and integration.
• The HEXAGON group - which has a set of
quite similar solutions with interesting
scope in a portfolio that is segmented in
agriculture, assets, aviation, conservation,
defense and intelligence, mining,
transportation and government.
• The Trimble group - which maintains an
equivalent to the previous two, with many
advantages of positioning and alliance
with third parties, such as ESRI.
• The AutoDesk - ESRI group that in a
recent effort seeks to add portfolios of
markets in which they are predominant.
So, just as when my father took me to the
rodeo to see how cowboys dominated the
bull, from our pen we have only to notice
what we visualize. But it will surely be a great
tournament, where the one that achieves
consensus is bigger, where getting aligned
adds more value than the stock points in the
stock market.
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• As for the topographic classes of the LADM,

they must comply with the geographic
standards of OGC TC211. "The convergence
LADM is a standard specialised in land
of intelligent
information. Therefore, although the
LandInfra standard includes it, it breaks the infrastructure, modern
search for simplicity, since it is preferable to
have a standard for infrastructure and one
for land, and link them at the point where
construction methods
the exchange of information adds value.
and the digital
So, in the context of Digital Twins, BIM
could continue to be the methodology
economy is increasing
that governs standards for infrastructure
modelling; Level 2, With all the complexity of
opportunities for
detail that design and construction needs.
But the operation and integration of level improving the quality of
3, will lead to a more simplified trend for

THE ROLE OF BIM AS DIGITAL TWINS integration by added value and not a whim
that everything must be spoken in the same
life of citizens.”
language.

BIM has had a high impact and continuity Digital Twins poses is that connecting
There will be a lot to talk
in a considerable period, not because it everything is not just connecting
about the value of the
facilitates the digital management of 3D infrastructure. Thinking in interconnected
data, breaking barriers,
models, but because it is a methodology global contexts implies connecting systems
open knowledge, the
that was agreed by the great leaders of that do not necessarily have a geographic
performance of the
the architecture industry, engineering and modelling. So, we are only in a new stage
infrastructures, the
construction of context expansion, where no one will
successful creation,
take away the paper that has been fulfilled
operation ...
and continue to comply with the BIM
Again, the end user is unaware of many methodology, but something higher up will
things that happen with standards behind absorb, or integrate it.
Who manages to
the scenes. As an ArchiCAD user who could
group the key actors
say that he already did it before it was
behind this philosophy,
called BIM; partly true, but the scope as a Let’s look at examples:
understanding the
methodology at levels 2 and 3 goes beyond When Chrit Lemenn sought to bring the
importance of the public
managing interchangeable information, Core Cadastre Domain Model to a standard
good, the economy,
and aims at managing the operation and for land administration, he had to find
society and the
life cycles not only of infrastructure, but also a balance with INSPIRE guidelines and
environment will realize
of context. the technical committee of geographic great advantages
standards. So, whether we like it or not,
Then comes the question. Is BIM not • In the context of INSPIRE, ISO: 19152 is
enough? the standard for cadastral management.
Perhaps the biggest difference from what

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HOW MAPPING
people and the land in these post-conflict The Netherland’s Land In Peace project is a
ABOUT THE AUTHOR areas,” said Chrit Lemmen, a professor of
geoinformation science at the University of
joint effort with the Colombian government
to survey, map, and register small rural plots.

LAND RIGHTS
Brent Jones oversees Esri’s
worldwide strategic planning,
business development, and
ADVANCES
marketing activities for land
records, cadastral, surveying,
Twente, in the Netherlands. “That’s why it’s
so important to make a full inventory and
hand out titles whenever possible. These
people have suffered for a long time—and
now they’re waiting for the government to
formalize their land.”
The scale is massive. Cumaribo, just one of
the municipalities covered by the project, is
home to the indigenous Guahibo people. It
alone covers an area 1.6 times the size of the
Netherlands.

PEACE
BY BRENT JONES
By the time the Colombian government and
the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia
(FARC) finally brokered a peace agreement in
2016, their 50-year-old civil war had claimed
260,000 lives.
Land reform was always at the heart of the
conflict. As in many Latin American countries,
most land in Colombia is concentrated among
an elite group. Just 14 percent of all landowners
control 80 percent of the land, a strong indicator
of inequality.
During the war, some rural areas were
effectively cut off from the rest of the country,
as government troops, paramilitary groups, and
the FARC fought over territory. So many people
were driven from their land over the years that
today Colombia’s displaced population—nearly
8 million—is the world’s largest.
Even for rural Colombians who have remained on
their land, property rights are highly contingent
in the post-conflict era. People who possess
small plots of land have no official recognition
of their ownership, or even the exact dimension
of their plots.
“Without having a proper land administration
system in place, the government doesn’t
know about the relationships between the
and land administration. As a
recognized innovator, Jones
specializes in modernizing existing
land administration systems and
designing new GIS-based cadastral
management systems for small
and large governments globally.
He is a member of the URISA
board of directors, past president
of the Geospatial Information
and Technology Association and
a current member of the United
Nations Committee of Experts on
Geospatial Information Management
sitting on the Expert Group on Land
Administration and Management.
Esri creates systems that drive all
components of land and cadastral
administration, including addressing,
registration, taxation/valuation,
planning, and development.
BRENT JONES, PE, PLS
“A couple of years ago, the official
estimate was four million parcels
that need to be regularized,” said
Mathilde Molendijk, Kadaster’s
regional manager for Latin
America. “The real number now
is at least 12 million, and probably
several millions more. Only five
percent of the country’s land
has an up-to-date cadaster, and
Documenting rights to the land is a multi-step nearly 30 percent has never even
process. (Photo by Liliana Merizalde courtesy been part of a cadaster. So this
Kadaster International.) is a huge task for the Colombian
government.”
PEACE AND LAND
AFTER WAR To regularize a parcel of land, surveyors must
create a cadastral map that delineates the
boundaries and borders. Cadastral surveying
The contemporary state of land rights reveals is usually a painstaking process. A complete
much about post-conflict Colombia. survey of even a small piece of land in rough
terrain can take up to a week. With 12 million
parcels, finishing the job in under a century
Regularization—a term referring to how would require 2,000 full-time surveyors.
land owners get their ownership rights
legally recognized—is a pillar of the peace
agreement. “A substantial part of the The economic cost is even more prohibitive.
document involves implementing “In many African and Latin American
a new land administration system countries, a conventional survey could be
a year’s income for poor people,” Lemmen
that grants land rights nationwide,” said. “The measurement of the parcel can
said Lemmen, who also advises Kadaster be worth more than the parcel itself. If you
International, the international arm of the follow the usual accuracy requirements, you
Netherlands’ official Land Registry and have a system that’s only for the elite. I think
Mapping Agency. “It’s seen as a way to bring it should be there for everyone.”
peace to the country.”

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village’s board, so they know we’re coming,” The app uploads the data to the cloud for
Molendijk explains. “We discuss the idea storage and processing. At public meetings,
and whether they really want to measure the villagers examine the entire map. If
their parcels. And they always do.” neighbors on adjacent parcels agree on the
measurements, the borders go from black
to green.
After studying satellite imagery, the team
and the villagers make a general plan for
mapping the parcels in and around the In the end, we hope all the lines
village. Team members then organize short are green, but if people don’t
training sessions for the mobile GIS app. “The
agree, the line displays as red,”
smartphone app is designed so everyone
can use it, but younger people understand Molendijk said. “Once we have all
it very fast,” Molendijk said. “We explain to the information, the government
them how the connection works with the should be able to process land
GPS antenna. And then, together with the titles.”
farmers, they go to the parcel and measure
the land. They also collect any accompanying
documentation that connects the farmer “It’s kind of a magic trick,” Lemmen
to the land. And in about three days, we’ve added. “The wonderful thing is
measured the whole village.”
that they have a lot of confidence
Young people quickly learn the smartphone app that’s central to Colombia’s fit-for-purpose in the measurements because
approach to mapping parcels. (Photo by Liliana Merizalde courtesy Kadaster International.) REACHING CONSENSUS they do it themselves. And with
the equipment, they can see every
click on the screen and watch the
REVOLUTIONIZING distinct real-world features, such as lakes,
parks, or streets and parcels that are often
While the data-gatherers walk the perimeter
of a parcel, the app gathers the data and parcel build up. At the end, they
SURVEYING delineated by physical boundaries such as draws the boundaries. As people from are very happy to see the polygon
hedgerows and fences. adjoining parcels do the same, the program of their parcel.”
begins to build boundary lines, initially
In lieu of traditional methods, the Colombian displayed in black.
mapping program uses fit-for-purpose (FFP) For the Colombian Land in Peace Even when the surveys yield dimensions
surveying. A conventional cadaster strives project, the polygons are the at variance with a farmer’s informal deed
for centimeter-level accuracy. FFP surveys “It goes very fast,” Lemmen said. “As of purchase, Molendijk has found the
parcels of land that already exist.
operate on the principle that the perfect the people walk the polygons, you get discrepancies rarely create new conflicts.
is the enemy of the good. Completing an
Partly identifiable from satellite observations from both sides of the “Since the farmers measure the parcels
FFP survey requires little more than access imagery, they become what the boundaries. So each individual boundary is themselves, and can see it happening on
to a geographic information system (GIS) program’s proof-of-concept paper observed from two positions by two different their smart phones, they trust their data,
app running on a mobile device and when calls “evidence from the field.” people. And if those boundaries are within even if the result is a parcel that is smaller,”
appropriate connecting to an external GPS a certain tolerance, then you can assume she said.
device. agreement on the location.”
The FFP methodology does not require
surveying expertise. Representatives from
Conventional cadastral surveying the Colombian government and the mapping
establishes borders based on predetermined program usually begin by identifying villages
requirements such as the measurement with unregistered parcels. Many villages
of isolated points. FFP’s foundation is the have a Community Action Board (Junta de
“polygon,” GIS-speak for the shapes and Acción Comunal), a legally recognized local
blobs on maps we recognize as representing governing body. “We work a lot with the

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“For the people living in these areas,
sometimes FARC was the boss and
sometimes it was the paramilitary or
other groups,” said Chrit Lemmen, a
professor of geoinformation science
at the University of Twente. “In some
of the places where we’ve worked,
people had been living on their land
for 30 years without government
recognition. It’s such a basic thing to
have a piece of land where you can
live with your family. And if protection
of those rights is enforced, you feel
more secure.”
“I’ve talked to people from Colombia’s
Ministry of Defense,” Molendijk added.
“They say ‘you can’t have peace
without a land title—give the people
titles and then you’ll have peace.’”

This image shows the borders between neighbors in green, black and red as well as the digital
signature that relates the person to the land.

RECORDING LAND TITLES For the surveying project, the Colombian

TO PROMOTE PEACE
Colombia’s cadastral mapping effort began
in 2015 with a proof-of-concept exercise in
Tenjo, a town outside of the country’s capital
city, Bogotá. The team then moved into the
hinterlands, beginning with Apartadó and
Vista Hermosa, two sites with heavy symbolic
value in post-conflict Colombia.
Vista Hermosa, a town in Colombia’s interior,
was subject to brutal battles between the
government and FARC in the early 2000’s.
The municipality of Apartadó, on the
Caribbean coast near the country’s border
with Panama, was the site of numerous
atrocities committed during the decades
of conflict. Every family has lost daughters,
sons, parents and other loved ones.
government collaborates with Kadaster, the
Netherlands’ official Cadastre, Registry and
National Mapping Agency. Dutch Prime
Minister Mark Rutte joined Colombian
officials in Apartadó to hand out the first 17
land titles in 2018. “The prime minister’s visit
opened doors for us at the highest levels,”
said Mathilde Molendijk, Kadaster’s regional
manager for Latin America. “The Colombian
government became very interested in
our app and methodology. From our field
experience, we were able to advise them
on practical FFP solutions. Because of the
new focus on smart automatization, a land
title no longer requires 250 legal pages and
47 official signatures, as it did before. I am
particularly happy with the focus on serving
the people— the beneficiaries— instead of
internal governmental bureaucracy and the
flexibility of the precision requirements for
field measurements.

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