South Korea’s Naver has completed its digital twin platform for the Saudi Arabian cities of Makkah, Madinah, and Jeddah.

This project is the first phase in establishing digital twin infrastructure for five cities in the kingdom.

The platform provides high-resolution 3D images and real-time data on urban infrastructure, which can assist urban planners and engineers.

It features tools for terrain assessment, skyline analysis, and simulations for natural disasters, such as floods.

The three cities cover an area exceeding 6,800 square kilometers and contain over 920,000 buildings. The platform also facilitates pre-construction design testing to ensure compliance with local regulations.

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🔗 Source: The Korea Times

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Digital twins represent a 60-year technology evolution now transforming urban planning

Naver’s implementation in Saudi Arabia marks a significant milestone in the journey of digital twin technology, which originated in the 1960s with NASA using physical duplicates for spacecraft simulations 1.

The concept formally gained its name “digital twin” in 2003, introduced by Michael Grieves at the University of Michigan, but remained primarily limited to manufacturing and aerospace applications for decades 2.

The shift from industrial to urban applications represents a significant expansion of the technology’s capabilities, with cities now leveraging what was once exclusively an industrial tool 3.

Digital twin adoption for urban planning has accelerated dramatically since 2019, with the technology evolving from simple 3D modeling to sophisticated platforms integrating real-time sensor data, IoT connectivity, and AI-driven analytics 4.

This evolution explains why Saudi Arabia is investing now. The technology has reached a maturity point where it can effectively manage the complexity of entire cities, not just individual products or manufacturing processes.

2️⃣ Saudi Arabia’s smart city investments represent a strategic economic diversification

The Naver project is part of a much larger smart cities initiative within Saudi Arabia, where the market is projected to grow from $3.55 billion in 2019 to $14.75 billion by 2027, representing a compound annual growth rate of 19.6% 5.

This investment aligns with Saudi Vision 2030’s goal of reducing oil dependence by developing knowledge-based economic sectors, with smart infrastructure development being a key pillar of this transformation 5.

The choice to develop digital twins for Makkah and Madinah—Islam’s two holiest cities—reflects a dual strategy of modernizing both religious tourism infrastructure and urban centers simultaneously.

Saudi Arabia’s approach follows a regional pattern of smart city development that began with Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City in 2008, with Gulf states consistently using technological innovation as a vehicle for economic diversification 6.

The establishment of the Naver Innovation joint venture suggests Saudi Arabia is pursuing not just technology implementation but also knowledge transfer to build domestic capabilities in digital twin development.

3️⃣ Digital twins provide crucial decision-making tools for complex urban challenges

Naver’s platform delivers specific capabilities that address unique urban planning challenges in Saudi Arabian cities, where rapid development must balance with environmental constraints and cultural preservation.

The digital twin enables simulation of flood scenarios, which is particularly valuable for Saudi cities that experience rare but devastating flash flooding. The platform can integrate historical flood data with urban waterway information to predict and mitigate future disasters 3.

Urban planners can use the digital twin to test multiple development scenarios virtually before committing resources, reducing the risk of costly planning errors across the massive 6,800 square kilometer area (11 times larger than Seoul) covered by the project 7.

The platform’s ability to assess terrain for earthwork calculations addresses a significant challenge in Saudi Arabian development, where cities are often built in challenging topographical environments including coastal areas, mountains, and desert terrain 8.

By providing tools for sunlight analysis and skyline visualization, the platform helps preserve important cultural and religious viewsheds in historically significant cities like Makkah and Madinah while accommodating necessary modernization.

Recent Naver developments

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