Planning Authority Steps Into The Blue Lagoon: Through Virtual Reality And A Digital Twin
Architect and designer Jonathan Mizzi, founder of Mizzi Studio, delivered a presentation at the Planning Authority’s Digitalisation in Spatial Planning Conference titled “Digital Twins: Seeing the Truth, Building Trust,” unveiling Malta’s first immersive Digital Twin of the Blue Lagoon.
During the session Planning Authority officials, along with other local authorities and attendees, were invited to step inside the Blue Lagoon in virtual reality (VR), experiencing a fully layered, real-time immersive model of one of Malta’s most sensitive Natura 2000 sites. Through VR headsets loaned by local NGO, Zibel, the audience were able to explore the digital landscape of both the existing site conditions and proposals of the Rehabilitation of the area first hand.
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A Digital Twin is a virtual model of a real-life object or place. Digital Twins play a powerful part in understanding a place in order to best protect it. Acting as a new tool for evidence-based planning, The Blue Lagoon Digital Twin integrates high-resolution scanning & photogrammetry that was created in-house by Mizzi Studio’s Media, Communication and Research and Development team in collaboration with Unreal Engine artist, Francis Ghersci. It is a walkable, immersive, millimetre-accurate replica of the site, built from over 4,500 drone photos, 30 hours of footage, and 2 billion data points.
This unified model offers planners, policymakers, conservationists and researchers an unprecedented level of clarity and situational awareness locally.
“Digital Twins allow us to see a place clearly – ensuring clear communication and transparency and understanding for the public. When everyone can view the same factual layers, we build stronger confidence in decisions. Clarity strengthens trust, and trust strengthens good planning.
The Digital Conference was a great opportunity to be a part of the conversation, share knowledge and also learn about the planning authorities’ hard work on upgrading our Geomaps server, giving architects and the public full access to Digital Twins across both Malta and Gozo. We cannot wait for the final version to be released so that we can continue to use these tools on more of our projects and in planning the future of developments on our islands,” Founder of Mizzi Studio, Jonathan Mizzi said.
Collaboration With Żibel on Marine Protection
The Digital Twin initiative is being supported by Żibel, Malta’s leading marine conservation NGO. Żibel has been collecting waste and data along the Maltese Coastlines over the last 10 years, with intentions to collaborate further on the Blue Lagoon project from a marine and waste perspective. Beginning through conversations on the possible integration of their most recent project, Project Icarus, funded by the Malta Environment Foundation. This would allow the extension of Mizzi Studio’s Digital Twin beyond the coastline to build underwater insights of the marine ecosystems, in order to share a clearer understanding of marine pressures in the area as well as the possibility of introducing regenerative reefs for local marine ecosystems.
Their involvement reflects a growing collaborative approach between design, conservation, and planning.
Digitalisation: The Next Generation of Planning
The Digital Twin enables the study and safeguarding of the Blue Lagoon’s unique ecology with millimetre precision to better plan sensitive interventions alongside the opportunity to share the model openly with stakeholders and the public for agreed collective action.
The panel discussions at yesterday’s event opened up possibilities for further collaborations and extended data collection of both the Blue Lagoon Rehabilitation and within the larger scope of Malta & Gozo through the Digital Twin and Geomaps Planning Portal, shared by Omar Hili. How can these digital twins be used for further modelling such as biodiversity heat maps and simulations of the regeneration of the garrigue over the years?
As the Studio shares an intergenerational learning approach, from recent sixth form and undergraduate graduates to architects and extended professionals, supporting the R&D of these technologies, they are keen to work further with University of Malta Professors and students to test the boundaries of these technologies for the benefit of the island’s projects.