| Singapore | Programme launched 2014; completed 2022; ongoing real-time updating
What was done
Virtual Singapore is the world's first national-scale digital twin: a three-dimensional, data-rich virtual model of the entire country. The project, led by the National Research Foundation, Singapore Land Authority, and Infocomm Media Development Authority, used airborne LiDAR, aerial photography, vehicle-mounted laser scanning, and satellite imagery to capture the built and natural environment at centimetre-level accuracy. The 2019 partnership with Bentley Systems yielded 25+ terabytes of geospatial data captured through 160,000 high-resolution aerial photographs in 41 days. Virtual Singapore models buildings, roads, vegetation, underground infrastructure, and real-time sensor data from the urban environment (traffic, energy, environment). It is used for urban planning scenario simulation, shadow and solar radiation analysis, noise modelling, emergency response planning, and infrastructure management.
Key Outcomes
- Enables planners to simulate the effects of proposed developments on sunlight, wind, flooding, and traffic before decisions are made.
- Supports integration of environmental assessment directly into the planning process rather than as a post-hoc exercise.
- Provides a single, authoritative spatial data platform shared across all national agencies, eliminating data duplication and inconsistency.
- Supports Singapore's broader Smart Nation initiative, enabling data-driven public service delivery.
- Established as the global benchmark for national digital twinning; studied as a model by the Netherlands, UK, South Korea, and others.
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