Digitalization key to making YRD a world-class city c

China’s Yangtze River Delta City Cluster comprises three provinces and one municipality. Home to 200 million people and covering an area of 350,000 square meters, it ranks among the world’s most densely populated regions. More than 30 years ago, the Chinese government launched an integrated development initiative that would make the region one of the country’s strongest economic powerhouses.

Fast forward, and the region’s aggregate economic output today accounts for roughly 20 percent of China’s overall economy. That’s the equivalent of India’s total aggregate economic output. The Chinese government intends to develop this region even further. That’s why in November 2018, the government made the Yangtze River Delta Development Initiative a national strategy. The goal? Turn the region into a world-class city cluster.

Establishing a city cluster, let alone one with world-class status, is no easy feat. It requires a high level of coordination among the participating cities. Municipal governments must ensure that information is shared, that access to data is available, and that market barriers are removed.

But such measures merely provide the necessary framework for getting a city cluster off the ground. Beyond that, projects like the Yangtze River Delta Development Initiative need the support of multinational companies that can provide critical technologies in fields such as energy, manufacturing, health care, building technologies, digitalization and smart infrastructure.

Multinational companies bring unique assets to the table; They have the technological expertise and resources needed to implement large-scale projects. And they offer the digital technologies needed to effectively address urban development challenges and give cities a competitive advantage.

Manufacturing creates jobs like no other sector. It accounts for roughly 70 percent of the global exchange of goods. That’s why the competitiveness of this sector is vital to every national economy — and that’s why being part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is so important. Commonly known as Industrie 4.0 here in Germany, the Fourth Industrial Revolution evolved from the integration and rapid development of automation, industrial software, connectivity, the Internet of Things and a host of related digital technologies.

However, Industrie 4.0 is capitalintensive. And that’s why it’s a good idea to distribute costs by establishing shared Industrie 4.0 innovation centers as well as public-service platforms. This not only reduces costs for individual stakeholders; it also fosters industrial R&D, incubation, and coordinated development, thereby encouraging the broad-based adoption of Industrie 4.0 technologies by SMEs at the local level. This, in turn, attracts upstream and downstream enterprises to the region and thus results in the improvement of existing industries, more effective resource allocation, and more sustainable economic development

An example today is the concept of a “Digital Twin,” which has taken hold in many sectors. Digital Twins enable engineers to design, simulate and test sophisticated products in the virtual domain before making the first physical prototypes, setting up production lines or going into production. This allows manufacturing companies, for example, to meet diverse and rapidly changing demands, improve competitiveness, and adapt to market changes.

But Digital Twins are also used in smart infrastructure — a critical field for the creation of smart cities. In Helsinki, for example, we at Siemens used our MindSphere IoT platform to link the data compiled by the Helsinki 3D+ project with the IoT-enabled infrastructure components that spread throughout the physical city. This data on the city’s underlying physical infrastructure can then be used to analyze performance and to develop and model preventative as well as prescriptive measures.

Instead of building smart infrastructure from scratch, most cities can upgrade existing infrastructures by retrofitting them with sensors and automatic control technologies. Digital technologies make infrastructure both more efficient and more effective while signific downsides of u

Furthermo stimulates in productivity — tors and work In short: Digit a virtuous circ significantly im and thereby r for residents.

As one of the rapidly develop and a city with power and a hi Shanghai has g to live up to th idly implement Development In cultivate an op that adequate tional data com are in place, an needed to digit industry.

For the bene gies to materia information m