Representatives from Korea's largest web portal Naver and the Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs on July 21 sign an agreement at a declaration ceremony on the construction of a digital twin platform in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  

By Israa Mohamed

The country's cutting-edge technology will help prevent flooding in the Middle East.

Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-Water) on July 22 said the nation's largest web portal Naver and the Saudi Ministry of Municipalities and Housing held a declaration ceremony for the construction of a digital twin platform in Saudi Arabia. The technology simulates river topography and implements it digitally.

Though mostly dry desert, Saudi Arabia has recently struggled to prevent floods and control water levels due to extreme rain caused by climate change. The Saudi government decided to work with K-Water to achieve the major national task of securing high-end water management technology.

Over the next five years, K-Water and Naver will supervise development and management of digital twins in water management in the Arab nation. 

K-Water said, "This agreement was concluded as a follow-up measure to President Yoon Suk Yeol's sales diplomacy after his state visit to Saudi Arabia in October last year, and this will clearly set up the foundation for the Korean water technology sector to enter the Middle East."

Since October last year, Naver has prepared to launch the project by analyzing the situation, holding working-level negotiations with partners and devising plans by stage.

Under the agreement, the two Korean companies will build the platform through mapping and precise three-dimensional modeling of key cities in Saudi Arabia. To this end, K-Water and Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corp. will develop core services such as urban planning and flood simulation. 

Naver possesses source technologies such as the solution ALIKE, in which it can build a digital twin of a city within an error range of 10 cm using aerial photography and artificial intelligence. The company can also precisely implement and replicate indoor and outdoor spaces using indoor space mapping technology with high scalability, plus its cloud technology can process them stably.

Saudi Arabia, which pursues building smart cities and buildings at the national level, in October last year picked Naver as a partner that can make the fastest and most scalable results in digital twin after a technical evaluation by leading companies.

ess8@korea.kr