Visualising and analysing spatial data

As Australia’s population continues to grow, our nation’s urban needs are changing.

Cities are expanding vertically, and are growing increasingly rich in data.

The power to combine, visualise and interact with this data has never been so important, which is why CSIRO’s Data61 and the NSW Government have created the Spatial Digital Twin.

The digital twin is a powerful 3D+time live data sharing, collaboration and visualisation tool that can be used by planners, infrastructure owners, developers, policymakers and residents, to help better plan, design and manage our cities. 

Users can interact with a virtual replica of the Western Sydney region, adding and removing layers to visualise data and infrastructure, such as under- and above- ground utilities, live transport data, roads, schools and hospitals, building materials, property boundaries and valuations, strata plans, 3D trees, or any other data fed into the system.

“This visualisation service is quite comprehensive and sophisticated, and allows us to bring together data from government, from industry and from the community, place it all in the right context, and view it accurately and reliably. It's a very powerful communication tool."

"Without this Spatial Digital Twin, we can't have smart precincts, or smart cities or even a smart New South Wales, because this is the thing that actually coordinates and brings together all those different models and capabilities."

"Security is very important because we have a range of quite sensitive data, so the system is set up on a role-based user access arrangement, that allows the data owner to specify, quite specifically, who can see the data, and who's allowed to access it."

The digital twin also offers tools like a data splitter, allowing users to compare data at different times and see how infrastructure has changed.

“We’ve been working with the NSW Government to create an open-platform digital twin that can federate data from other digital twins and geospatial systems, so that previously locked away data can be made much more accessible and usable."

"The Digital Twin aggregates high-value data like planning,  property, infrastructure and environmental, straight from the owners of those datasets. This ensures that  governments and industry can use the same authoritative data to respond to many different issues in the built and natural environments.”

“This data sharing can also be used to plan for, prevent, and assist with recovery from natural disasters and climate change, and more broadly, can be used to consult and communicate with communities as these things happen.”

“This is only the beginning of the journey. Our goal is to create a national digital twin, to help understand our nation’s infrastructure and wellbeing, so that we can use data-driven decisions to plan for Australia’s future.”

See how CSIRO's Data61 can help you turn data into decisions. Visit our website to find out more.