Smart cities: System and tools used for the digital modelling of physical urban systems

Since several years, the concept of the “Smart City” has been meeting a large concern throughout the world. Through smart city implementation, cities aim at improving the efficiency and security of their urban infrastructures as well as the quality of life of citizens. The Smart City concept is based on collection and analysis of data concerning the urban built environment (buildings and infrastructures) as well as the natural environment and urban services. Since built environment plays a major role in the city functioning and the quality of services, a smart city project should integrate this environment in the heart of its strategy. This integration requires first the development of digital modelling for the City, urban infrastructures and buildings. The digital modeling should include the asset data, the operating data and the environmental data all over the lifecycle of concerned systems. It should also guarantee the interoperability between the different modelling tools. This paper presents a synthesis of min tools used for modelling the City, urban infrastructures and buildings and discusses their interoperability.