HYBRID AERIAL SENSOR DATA AS BASIS FOR A GEOSPATIAL DIGITAL TWIN

Abstract

More and more cities declare themselves to be a smart city or plan to be the same. Smart cities require a solid data source as basis for all further actions and the urban digital twin is the basis on which all information is collected and analysed. The urban digital twin is much more than just a 3D city model, but often this together with GIS data is the starting point for the urban digital twin. The basis of the urban digital twin is formed by geospatial data in the form of the geospatial digital twin. The digital twin hereby acts as a kind of hub into which all relevant and available information is included and analysed. To generate a geospatial digital twin aerial sensors that collect multiple data simultaneously, hybrid sensors, are perfectly suited for this task. In aerial data acquisition a new era started with the introduction of the first real hybrid sensor systems, like the Leica CityMapper-2. Hybrid in this context means the combination of an (oblique) camera system with a topographic LiDAR into an integrated aerial mapping system. By combining these complimentary sub-systems into one system the weaknesses of the one system could be compensated by using the alternative data source. An example is the mapping of low-light urban canyons, where image-based systems mostly produce unreliable results. For an LiDAR sensor the geometrical reconstruction of these areas is straight forward and leads to accurate results. The paper gives a detailed overview over the development and technical characteristics of hybrid sensor systems. The process of data acquisition is discussed and strategies for hybrid urban mapping are proposed. Furthermore, the paper provides insights into the advantage of LiDAR data for the 3D Mesh generation for urban modelling and on the possibilities to generate new products from the combination of the single products with the help of GeoAI. Finally, the use and some use cases of the hybrid sensor data and the derived products in the context of the urban digital twin is discussed and with the infinite loop of data, analysis, and action it is shown, that all data from the urban digital twin can only be a snapshot at a given point in time and the data recording and analysis is a permanent loop.