Abstract
The new living and urban worlds of tomorrow and the sustainable design of space and society require even more efficiency, comfort, and security. Technological progress and safe design of smart cities can only be achieved with the help of a will to innovate and technical know-how of the partnering network constituting the building project team. Digital twins, AI, machine learning, deep learning, intelligent sensor systems, intelligent networking between buildings, artificial intelligence of things, clouds represent highly efficient technologies to both optimize fire safety and fire protection and increase human and building operation safety as part of the implementation of a holistic and comprehensive building protection solution in smart cities. A model says more than a thousand words: state-of-the-art fire protection systems, a customized automatized building solution, can be designed, planned, tested, individually adapted, and adjusted with the help of digital twins and AI (e.g., to optimize early fire detection, targeted alarms, and evacuation and to reduce costly false alarms).
TopIntroduction
Architects, civil engineers, urban planners have a particularly high responsibility: to create living space with the highest level of security and comfort for people in Smart Cities environments and to use technologies such as BIM and Digital Twins in a economic efficient, resource-saving manner. On the one hand to protect resources, climate and environment and to design optimized efficient and safe building operations. On the other hand, to develop attractive buildings and smart cities that can be used for generations. They create places to live, work and meet but also predictive basis for decision-making, supported by constantly newly developed technologies (Sheikhnejad et al., 2020). Singapore, Smart Dubai, Songdo in South Korea and Shenzhen in China serve as samples of Smart Cities development.
The misuse of data and cyberattacks represent some of the diverse risks and challenges. It remains high priority to ensure security and safety of information technology, Cybersecurity of servers by supervising weak points and immediate mitigation of security vulnerabilities and the support of highly skilled partner maximizing safety. In order to ensure the efficient operation and safe functioning of networked buildings and to protect them from crises that threaten the existence of the company, sophisticated, highly modern fire protection is required (Liu, Zhang, and Wang, 2020; Fan et al., 2019).
The digital twin seems to be the all-purpose tool of the moment. In the Construction Industry in particular, BIM is the most efficient method to date, to merge technical interfaces on a single data platform and digitally map a building or an urban environment. The digital twin created in such process not only visualizes the building`s shell and interior (Figure 1.), but also all of the technical lines that run through the building and penetrate parts of the building (Figure 2.). Siemens declared ‚Simulation and Digit Twin‘to its “Company`s Core Technology” (Van der Auweraer, 2021).
The digital twin offers to everyone involved one common exchange platform, in real time and without data loss. With increasing technical feasibility, the human need for security and the desire to handle and use new technologies responsibly increases (Weber-Lewerenz, B., 2021a). The research work is dedicated to CDR in Construction (Weber-Lewerenz, 2021b; Weber-Lewerenz, 2021c; Weber-Lewerenz, 2021d, Weber-Lewerenz, 2022a).
Figure 2. Digital twin of fire protection lines in a building
Key Terms in this Chapter
BIM: Building information modeling.
Performance-Based Fire Engineering: From an engineering perspective, the performance-based fire protection design framework is valuable as it integrates scientific knowledge, performance (design) criteria, fire scenarios, the building operation and building user`s performance into the design process so that fire protection engineers can do more than rely on code prescriptions that are usually implemented as a political response, after major accidents.
IoT: Internet of Things. The term describes that the computer in the digital world is increasingly being supplemented by “intelligent objects” to “AI”, artificial intelligence. Instead of being the object of human attention itself, as is currently the case, the “Internet of Things” is intended to support people in their activities.
Ethics: Ethics deals with the prerequisites and the evaluation of human action and is the methodical reflection on morality. At the center of ethics is specifically moral action, especially with regard to its justification and reflection (ethics describes and judges morality critically). The focus of ethics is on the three questions of the “highest good”, the right action in certain situations and freedom of will.
Digitization: There is no clear definition for the term. In the original sense, digitization refers to converting analog data values to digital formats. This data can be processed by information technology. Another meaning of digitization is the digital revolution, also known as digital change or digital transformation.