Breathing Cities: A Living Model of People and Place

The vision for this project is in the name: Breathing Cities. "_The Covid-19 lockdown has led to cleaner air but will do little to address the issue of air pollution in the long run_ \[and\] _world leaders now have a chance to plot a different, cleaner future_" \[1\]. Slingshot Simulations plans to use this project to help city councils to not only develop their resilience to the influx of traffic and people returning to work but help them find sustainable methods of positively impacting people working and living in cities. Our mission would be to use the data we have as a society and maximizing its potential through our Simulation-as-a-service platform to encourage healthier, breathing cities coming out of Covid-19\.

Our main objective is to brace city councils for the impact on, and as a result of, the traffic and people flow as we return to work following the pandemic. By using existing data to forecast and then iteratively, in real-time, update those forecasts, we want to support councils by informing them of the Pandemic situation from multiple environmental and economic angles thus helping them monitor developments and adapt their strategies in an agile manner.

The focus will be on working to significantly accelerate our existing partnership with Leeds City Council to find solutions surrounding, transport (including couriers and delivery) and people, specifically how transport and citizens will move around the city following the wake of Covid-19 with the aim for councils to view all possible "what-if" scenarios of traffic and people flows and plan accordingly. For example, helping them with their Clean Air Zone Strategy \[2\], which is due to be enforced from mid-2020 and could have a further impact on local business, particularly couriers and delivery systems.

Our truly original Simulation-as-a-Service platform, has been developed over seven years of R&D at the University of Leeds:

* It runs in real-time, allowing businesses and organisations to act immediately
* It can produce results within days not months using just flowcharts
* And most importantly it uses a "no-coding" approach that both accelerates and democratises the benefits of high-end simulation for businesses big and small.

This fresh approach of interactive forecasting, multi-objective optimisations, and "what-if" analysis could lead to a world first: A real "Digital Twin".

1. [https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/the-deadly-link-between-Covid-19-and-air-pollution/][0]
2. [https://www.leeds.gov.uk/business/environmental-health-for-business/air-quality][1]

[0]: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/the-deadly-link-between-covid-19-and-air-pollution/
[1]: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/business/environmental-health-for-business/air-quality

--ADDITIONAL INFORMATION HERE--

Once we have demonstrated the first Digital Twin of a city at scale integrating data from a wide range of sources the project will change focus towards:
1) Enterprise deployment on AWS (through our AWS Activate partnership membership)
2) User adoption, aiming to drive 1,000 users to the platform during by Q2 of 2021
3) Automated replication in other cities across the UK and North America deployed in the SaaS platform
By making the solution more widely available, and initially at zero cost, the platform will be accessible to those organisations and businesses who desperately need access to these tools to help them respond to and recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. This project also has the potential to completely revolutionise the Digital Twin market landscape.