Satellite remote sensing began with the Landsat programme in 1972, supplying regular imagery of land cover and urban growth. Airborne and later vehicle LiDAR, maturing in the 1990s, produced precise three-dimensional point clouds of terrain and cities. Combined with GIS and building-information models, these feed 'digital twins', continuously updated virtual replicas of cities used to simulate flooding, traffic, energy and development. Singapore's Virtual Singapore is a prominent example.
Remote sensing, LiDAR and digital twins give planners high-resolution, continuously updated three-dimensional models of cities, shifting planning toward simulation and real-time monitoring.
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