In order to minimize change orders, increase efficiency, improve their return on investment and enhance the quality of their projects, infrastructure engineers and designers have turned to several new trends and technologies. 

Digital twins, for example, are creating a buzz in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, as are artificial intelligence, sustainability, resilient systems and big data. In this article, I’ll look at six trends driving the AEC industry. 

1. Digital Twins

A digital twin is a digital representation of a physical asset, process or system, as well as the engineering information that allows us to understand and model its performance. Digital twins can include 3D models, digital rendering and even animation or simulation of road traffic, pedestrian patterns and water flow.

Digital twins help stakeholders to visualize what a project will look like before it is built. When a project has begun construction, the use of reality capture through drones can help project teams monitor progress and safety, such as how much dirt per day was moved, without having to personally inspect everything. 

When working with digital twins, it makes sense to start your implementation on something relatively simple and then scale up the complexity ladder so your design teams can adjust to working with this technology and are not overwhelmed. 

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