The London Borough of Harrow has launched a digital twin based on drone imagery, with the aim of enabling remote building inspections and offering its residents a more immersive online experience.
Detailed 3D models of key sites such as leisure centres, parks, arts venues and other council buildings are being created using data from Esri Site Scan drone software.
This imagery enables more timely and cost-effective maintenance surveys, and is also helping to encourage residents of the borough to use green spaces, the council says.
The council is also piloting the use of drones to combat fly-tipping by creating 3D images of potential dumping sites, to add context to why some areas are more affected than others, allowing for preventative measures to be put in place.
Ben Jones, Head of Digital at the London Borough of Harrow said that rewards were already being reaped from the project, with the new approach “fit[ting] our mission to work smarter and more efficiently”.
He said: “With minimal investment, the 3D data has the potential to deliver significant financial benefits over the next few years.”
Drone imagery has so far been used to conduct roof surveys of a Grade 1 listed manor house, saving the project £12,000.
Interactive 360-degree imagery of Harrow’s parks is being put together to encourage increased use of these spaces, as part of the council’s Healthier Harrow programme. A digital replica of Canons Park, complete with a detailed legend, was one of the first examples to go live.
The new digital twin based on drone imagery adds detail to a pre-existing low resolution digital twin based on aerial and street-level imagery. The new approach works by processing drone flight data in the cloud to produce 2D and 3D outputs such as 3D meshes and point clouds.
Sam Tizzard, Head of GIS and Data Manager at London Borough of Harrow, said: “Using a drone and Site Scan gives us a faster and more cost-effective method of examining our buildings and other assets.
“The hybrid approach using high and low resolution data keeps development costs down but delivers detail where it matters most.
“It’s a low-cost, low-risk strategy for creating a digital twin to drive significant time and cost savings. The potential for ongoing savings in roof inspections alone is huge.”
The council plans to train additional staff and drone pilots in order to expand the applications of aerial data. As a next step, it will focus on automating the integration of Revit Building Information Modelling software into the digital twin, although it also envisions the incorporation of real-time traffic and weather data in the future.
Paul Clarke, Head of Government at Esri UK, said: “By making digital twins more affordable with drones and Site Scan, London Borough of Harrow is enabling smarter asset management, better planning and improved services for residents.”