Las Vegas plans to accelerate urban transformation using an IoT-enabled digital twin.

Chicago-based digital-twin provider Cityzenith and IoT enabler Terbine are jointly developing technology to transition Las Vegas to zero carbon emissions.

A significant area of downtown Las Vegas will leverage 5G networking, plus IoT and urban digital-twin technology to improve mobility, air quality, noise pollution, water management and emissions from major buildings.

“Digital twins are rapidly becoming vital to how cities are run,” said Michael Sherwood, chief innovation officer for Las Vegas. “Now in Las Vegas we will have a city-scale digital twin that is driven by the physical environment, and ultimately letting us control key systems through it. This will give us new levels of insights and control to benefit city planners, residents and businesses. We’re setting the benchmark for cities around the world to become smarter, efficient, safer and more sustainable.” 

Cityzenith will provide the project’s digital-twin technology as part of its Clean Cities Clean Future initiative to implement its SmartWorld OS digital-twin platform in major world cities to drive down urban emissions and improve cost efficiencies for local building owners.

Las Vegas is the second city to participate in the Clean Cities Clean Future initiative after New York, with Phoenix and several other major cities expected to follow soon.

“We are excited to partner with the forward-leaning city of Las Vegas in this ground-breaking partnership,” said Cityzenith CEO Michael Jansen. “We are confident that this seminal project will demonstrate the combined power of digital-twin and IoT technology working together to transform mobility, walkability, emissions and air pollution. Among our many goals, we are keen to demonstrate how the Las Vegas digital-twin project will help local building owners of any scale dramatically reduce operating costs and emissions for little to no investment.”

Project partner Terbine brought it together and contextualised IoT data from local government agencies, building operators, transportation systems, vehicle manufacturers and more, to provide the high volumes of sensor information needed by the urban digital twin.

“Terbine’s high-performance IoT data exchange is a must-have for this kind of project, and I’m delighted the company is on board,” said Jansen.

Terbine CEO David Knight added: “Transitioning our home city into a clean, sustainable and more attractive place to live and visit is a fantastic opportunity, and we’re very excited to work with the city of Las Vegas and Cityzenith. What we’re pioneering here represents a template for how other cities can enable sustainability and a better quality of life for their citizens.”

The partners will unveil the first iteration of the project at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (January 5-8th, 2022).