Dublin City University’s campuses are currently being used to trial and refine digital twin applications in a bid to improve real-time decision-making during emergencies. Part of the Digital Twins for Emergency Management project, the pilot scheme is testing the technology before deployment across the wider Dublin City Council area, and subsequently on a national scale. ‘Council Review’ gets the lowdown.

DCU Business School, DCU Insight and Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) are pioneering the next generation of smart emergency management solutions. By harnessing their combined expertise, these strategic partners are spearheading ground-breaking innovations in digital twin technology, setting a new benchmark for risk assessment, pre-incident planning, and emergency management.

The Digital Twins for Emergency Management (DT4EM) project is revolutionising traditional emergency management practices, particularly in terms of pre-incident planning with Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB). Historically, these procedures have relied on paper-based methods, requiring extensive time and effort to create and retrieve critical information during emergencies.

The DT4EM project now aims to fully digitise this process, drastically reducing the time needed for pre-incident planning. With this new framework, all essential data will be accessible on a digital device, significantly enhancing the speed and efficiency of emergency response.

This collaboration between DCU Business School, DCU Insight and DFB is now poised to transform emergency management, enhancing real-time decision-making and operational efficiency through cutting-edge digital solutions.

A key objective of the DT4EM project is to improve real-time decision-making during emergencies. By creating a dynamic 3D model of emergency sites, digital twin technology integrates live data from multiple sources, providing emergency responders with instant access to crucial information such as building layouts, hazard locations, and resource availability.

This enhanced situational awareness allows for optimised resource deployment, helping first responders and campus managers make quicker, more informed decisions in critical situations.

The DT4EM project is driven by a multidisciplinary collaboration between DCU’s Insight Centre, Smart DCU, Bentley Systems, DCU Business School and DFB. By combining academic research with emergency management expertise, this partnership fosters innovation and ensures the technology is both practical and impactful.

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Pat Leahy, former Garda Assistant Commissioner, explores the potential of the digital twin technology using Virtual Reality at the EMII breakfast briefing at DCU Business School.