Creating efficiency and sustainability in construction with Digital Twins

Last year 73,300 new houses were built in the Netherlands, which is the second-highest production of houses in the past decade. Nevertheless, this pace is insufficient for achieving the national target of constructing one million new houses before 2030. At the same time, new construction projects struggle to get started due to environmental considerations. A ruling of the “Raad van State” in late 2022 put an end to the possibility of obtaining construction permits without the prior study of nitrogen emissions. These developments have led to the construction sector looking to accelerate innovations in new technologies.

The challenge

Since May 2019, European rules require calculation of nitrogen emissions for both the construction and usage phases of building and infrastructure projects. In 2021 these rules were relaxed by the Dutch government, however a ruling of the Raad van State bought an end to this relaxation in 2022, after which the original European rules came back into force. 

This required better capabilities to be developed for calculating nitrogen emissions before a project starts, and for designing a project's setup so that nitrogen emissions are minimised through more efficient vehicle logistic planning.

Research revealed that in the construction sector a good digital infrastructure was considered a core factor for innovation towards sustainability. However, the required digital transformation to integrate digital technologies, process data, and create platforms is moving forward slowly. 

To address this challenge, Royal HaskoningDHV, along with a research consortium including VolkerWessels Materieel en Logistiek, the University of Groningen and BuildingSMART, are collaborating to move towards a significant innovative breakthrough that will enable the construction sector to accelerate digital transformation. This includes enabling real-time insights, improving planning and lowering emissions.

The solution

Due to the challenges facing the construction industry, the research team set out to develop a digital twin that serves as a virtual real-time representation of the construction processes, providing tactical and operational planning and optimisation of activities.

This digital twin integrates seamlessly with Building Information Models (BIM) to provide real-time insights into the status of a construction project by collecting and processing available data, and leveraging advanced analytics and simulation to provide holistic planning advice based on the current status of a construction project. 

The digital twin deployment will be tested in a ‘Living Lab’ based in Groningen where construction projects are ongoing due to earthquake damage. The construction projects are composed of sites of various sizes, allowing us to develop and analyse our digital twin solution at both smaller and larger construction sites, with houses and office buildings, and with newly built structures and renovations.

The result

This is an ongoing research project, and the full potential and impact is yet to be realised, however consortium partners VolkerWessels and Royal HaskoningDHV are committed to the working version of the digital twin, and to continuing development even after the project ends.

With a fully functional digital twin which integrates with BIM, the project will support construction logistics , as well as minimise the environmental impact of construction, which includes fulfilling the material flows to the renovation projects by working with VolkerWessels own construction hub solution. The digital twin will also support shortening lead times and crucially, make carbon dioxide and nitrogen calculations to help in the reduction of emissions.

One of the preliminary findings from the research is that using a digital twin can support a lean construction process, with the twin able to give insight into the Takt times of activities as well as continuous input on possible issues. In the future, Royal HaskoningDHV would also like the digital twin to use previous projects, and the operational results obtained, to advise on future project planning.

Tangible benefits in the short term will be realised within the Living Lab, where costs for project partners should be reduced as their construction vehicles will be used more efficiently as the digital twin highlights optimised logistic routes, as well as a reduction in nitrogen and carbon dioxide emissions through the use of low emission vehicles.