Construction productivity is a challenge in the world's advanced economies. Globally, labour productivity growth in construction has averaged only one percent a year over the past two decades, compared with growth of 2.8 percent for the total world economy. In the Unites States labour productivity in construction has actually declined. A recent report from the UK Government Infrastructure and Projects Authority, "Transforming Infrastructure Performance", provides evidence for stagnant productivity in the UK construction industry and outlines the government's plan to address this problem including development of a digital twin.
A recent McKinsey study revealed that construction is one of the least digitized industries in the world. McKinsey Global Institute’s Industry Digitization Index combines 27 indicators to measure the digital assets, digital usage, and digital workers in each sector. Construction is among the least digitized sectors in the world, at a level comparable to agriculture and hunting. According to the McKinsey index construction comes second to last in the United States and last in Europe. Wipro, Booz Allen Hamilton, Aconex, Jacobs, McKinsey, Hexagon, Trimble, Bentley, Autodesk, and many others believe that the construction industry is poised for a digitization revolution and are investing heavily in technology to enable this to happen including geospatial, BIM and full lifecycle BIM, machine learning, drones, mixed reality, big data, analytics, automation and hyperautomation. There are an increasing number of technology startups in the construction industry. There are also promising signs of interest in underground detection and information sharing.
The Transforming Infrastructure Performance report reiterates the widely held view that the UK construction supply chain "as a whole is under‑achieving. It has low profitability and invests too little in capital, research and development and training.” Transforming Infrastructure Performance (TIP) is the UK government’s plan to increase the effectiveness of investment in infrastructure including transport and energy networks, and social infrastructure (schools and hospitals) by improving productivity in the way assets are designed, built and operated.
The Digital Built Britain program is a key part of the government’s plan to develop the UK's digital data capabilities which included developing a ‘digital twin’. In the UK it is estimated that new assets add less than 0.5% each year to the value of existing infrastructure, which highlights the importance of improving the performance of existing assets. It is expected that a national digital twin of the real world estate will help inform government decisions to maximize full lifecycle performance and benefits of assets.
A digital twin includes above and below ground assets. Key dimensions of a digital twin are location and condition of each asset. The UK has two research projects focused on the underground part of a national digital twin. Mapping the Underworld aimed at developing technology to locate in 3D all buried utility assets without excavation. One of the key outcomes of this project was estimated direct, indirect and social costs of utility strikes during excavation by researchers at the University of Birmingham. The second phase Assessing the Underworld focused on geophysical tools to assess the condition of buried pipelines and cables, and of the ground in which they are buried, and of the surface transport infrastructures beneath which they are buried.
Combining above and below-ground information into one national single data model/data exchange framework will provide a foundation for the development of smart cities. Project Iceberg is an exploratory project undertaken by the British Geological Survey, Ordnance Survey and the Future Cities Catapult to investigate ways to integrate data and services relating to the underground with other city data. To date two reports Market Research into the Current State of Play and Global Case Studies and Defining the problem space for an integrated data operating system above and below ground have been published.The medium term objective is to take these concepts forward with project partners to develop new digital data demonstrator projects.