Naver completes digital twin of 3 Saudi cities

This image shows a 3D model of Saudi Arabia’s Makkah on Naver’s digital twin platform for the kingdom. Courtesy of Naver

Internet service giant Naver has completed its digital twin platform for three Saudi Arabian cities, laying the groundwork for Riyadh’s effort to establish smart city infrastructure for the region.

Naver said Tuesday it has completed the digital twin platform for Makkah, Madinah and Jeddah, as the first phase of its project to establish virtual copies for five Saudi Arabian cities.

Digital twin is a technology mirroring real-world entities in a virtual environment. Naver’s digital twin platform provides high-resolution 3D images of the cities as well as real-time data on their infrastructure, serving as a tool for urban planners and engineers.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to set up the digital twin platform as part of its effort to build a future city using innovative technologies and position itself as a leading country in the smart city sector. The project is led by Saudi-based Balady and NHC Innovation, with Naver providing technological support.

Balady is Saudi Arabia’s mapping service provider and NHC Innovation is a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company.

The total area of the three cities exceeds 6,800 square kilometers, which is more than 11 times the size of Seoul, and includes over 920,000 buildings.

This combined image shows the operation screens of Naver’s digital twin platform for Saudi Arabia. Courtesy of Naver

The digital twin platform provides a variety of urban planning tools and analytical features based on 3D modeling of the cities. It allows users to assess terrain for earthwork volume and slope calculations, and also supports skyline and sunlight analysis to evaluate views and landscape conditions in designated areas.

The platform also enables engineers to input pre-construction design data to check whether a building violates regulations. Simulations for natural disasters such as floods are also possible as the platform allows for the integration of historical flood data and urban waterway information. It also allows users to monitor the movement of rain clouds through real-time rainfall radar visualization.

Balady plans to expand the digital twin platform to additional cities and eventually scale it into a national platform, creating new use cases across both public and private sectors.

“The platform bears extra significance as Naver can support Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation project, which will be a global model case of a smart city,” a Naver official said. “The platform will continue to be enhanced in collaboration with local partners, and Naver plans to expand its coverage and explore new use cases.”

Naver was contracted for the digital twin project from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Municipal Rural Affairs and Housing in October 2023, with the project commencing in July last year.

On May 28, Naver Cloud and NHC Innovation signed an agreement to set up Naver Innovation, a digital twin joint venture.