May - 2021CONSTRUCTIONTECHREVIEW.COM9construction, maintenance and the user experience of our urban environments and green places.Street GreeningBIM provides solutions on how to integrate new features into existing assets. Take a typical city centre street: the pavements cover the complex mix of utilities from electric supplies, water to fibre optic broadband and gas supplies. Integrate this with the need for different traffic modes, drainage, street furniture, street trees and the different user demands of people and there is a truly complex system. Through digital twins, we can provide a virtual representation of our cities to establish how to interface with each of these assets.This model would provide the optimum locations for street greening, where there is space for new trees and where they have opportunity to thrive. This can be correlated with data on the societal demands for additional space and inform positive change across our towns and cities.VU City have started to map this with 3D models for planning and design. Taken further, the functions of our roads, crossings, movement and our green infrastructure can be integrated and city-wide strategies developed.An economic caseUnderlying all of this is a strong business case for green space. The Natural Capital study for the GLA showed that for every £1 spent on parks there are £27 of benefits, on everything from property prices to water management and drainage, biodiversity and wildlife, improvements to air quality and benefits to our health and wellbeing.The future of digital greening sits beyond the traditional benefits of driving efficiency and deliverability ­ it provides an opportunity to deliver greener and more sustainable landscapes in the heart of our cities. The strong economics behind green space, not to mention the added social value, mean our investment is more than justified, as is our incentive to bring in new technology. DIGITAL GREENINGIt is difficult to bring 2D plans to life, but by using 3D visualisations and augmented reality we can inform and engage a wider audience at public consultations
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