PROVIT - Planning Requirements Optioneering Visualisation Investment Tool

"Cities throughout the world face long-term strategic challenges in delivering large-scale physical infrastructure development whilst addressing social and economic changes and challenges. In delivering such major programmes efficiently and effectively it is essential that investment decisions are thoroughly assessed and their impacts properly understood. Decisions need to be taken not only in the context of the specific development area but also that of the wider city, and over the long term. Decision makers need to take account of high-level factors such as changing demographics, political, economic and sustainability drivers, advances in technology etc. They need to understand and react to impacts on existing infrastructure and services, environment and economy as well as social impacts such as health and wellbeing of residents, workers and visitors. Currently 'city systems' are often siloed and, as a consequence, investment decisions can fail to recognise that the city is more than the sum of its parts, potentially leading to errors in infrastructure development that can take decades to correct.

PROVIT will address this challenge by developing an investment simulation and optioneering platform that enables decision makers to create urban investment scenarios, interactively assess their impact on the operation of existing systems and established KPIs, and modify the scenarios in order to create an optimised solution.

**PROVIT** works by standardising the contribution of elemental insights from different data and model sources subject to a spatial context. We look to rely on the augmented visualisation of rich data. Visualisation of data is selected for its ability to focus consensus between stakeholders and allow optioneering different scenarios each on their mobile devices to gather specific views from each in connection to different specific data insights.

PROVIT will build on the recent Innovate UK-funded VISUALISE project which supports effective, efficient management of physical infrastructure assets by integrating, validating and analysing data from discrete asset systems, BIM approaches and emerging 3D mapping enabled by GIS.

PROVIT is led by UK SME UNIT9, supported by complementary SME Cartoconsult and other organisations looking to develop innovative IT-based solutions supporting improved data management, decision-making and service delivery in the built environment. Skanska and Hampshire CC (as well as others in a stakeholder group) will participate as representative end users; the potential market is global and opportunities for overseas sales will be considered throughout. Research providers BRE and the University of Cambridge will provide access to an initial pool of predictive urban system models."