Ryan Hood, digital highways leader UKIMEA, Arup looks at embracing technology in the transport sector.
Transport infrastructure is increasingly at the forefront of conversations around the consequences of climate change, necessitating the need for our transport networks to be optimised, efficient, resilient and seamlessly integrated.
To deliver on these needs, we must look to embrace technology, including concepts such as ‘digital twins’. Though we’ve seen agencies including NASA apply such concepts to remote operation in extreme environments for decades, and the introduction of live road status and route mapping through apps like Waze, the idea of digital twinning is still frequently regarded as a future state to be achieved.
Digital twins of national infrastructure and urban environments are already in action; however, to scale the benefits, we need to scale our thinking. ‘Connected’ digital twins can link transport agencies across modes – highways, rail, maritime and aviation, across local and national geographies, with the environment, and with sectors on which transport and our users depend such as energy and telecommunications. For example, major Port cities like Portsmouth are monitoring ferry performance and undertaking anomaly detection, to inform real-time management of approach roads.
Through improving the sharing of appropriate data at the right time, for instance modal network performance, power outages, or flooding, we can increase shared situational awareness, understand wider system dependencies, and improve responsiveness and resilience when disruptions occur. Over time, we expect to see a national mosaic of connected digital twins, providing more than the sum of their parts. This will lead to the optimisation of the performance of an integrated transport network, locally and at national scale.
It's crucial to ensure developments are based on solid foundations, recognising the economic and human value in data and digital infrastructure. A key example of this thinking and technological innovation in action is the Surface Intelligent Transport System (SITS) programme developed by Transport for London (TfL).
As part of the initiative, a digital twin has been created for surface transport operations to enable data-led improvements. Key areas addressed include incident management, congestion relief, air quality and road safety, also enabling the prioritisation of bus services and active travel modes across the capital. Evidencing the potential scale of the economic opportunity related to digital twinning, the programme expects to generate a Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) exceeding 7:1, with savings of £1bn from 2028, meaning broader benefits can be unlocked for more people across the city engaging with its multimodal transport networks.
Elsewhere, Arup is working with the US Virginia Department of Transport Regional Multi Modal Mobility Programme (RM3P) to implement its Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) initiative. This multi-agency, multimodal approach to transport corridors has demonstrated a BCR of between 10 and 20:1, aiming to minimise disruption through a multi-agency coordinated response, enhance connections between modes, and reduce road collisions by a potential 20%.
Committed to sustainable development, we at Arup believe that complex challenges require complex solutions. This requires holistic and multidisciplinary thinking, considering the interrelated capabilities of digital infrastructure alongside physical engineering solutions. Digital twinning can only strengthen the power of connection – the foundation of the transport sector.